Chocolate Cake

I usually make it my business to never let it go any longer than one week before I post but unfortunately last weekend between one thing and another I just ran out of time.So this post is a little later than usual but trust me this cake is worth the wait ;)With the evenings getting shorter by the minute and the weather getting noticeably colder,this cake is comfort food personified.Three layers of moist,chocolaty sponge covered in a silky smooth chocolate ganache.

I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't easy to please when it comes to desserts,or anything sweet now that I come to think of it.But I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that this really is one of the nicest chocolate cakes I have tried so far.And believe me I've tried many.This sponge is so moist,with a slight fudgy texture and it offers a full on chocolate flavour.The ganache is thick and smooth and pairs wonderfully with the cake.One slice of this cake and I knew it was my new go to recipe for when I'm craving something chocolate.

This was the third recipe I've tried from Edd Kimber's new book The Boy Who Bakes and once again the book has delivered.I seriously recommend this book to anyone with an interest in baking-his recipes all look to die for and I'm sure I'll be trying out many more in the coming weeks.Although this cake may look like it took a long time,it was actually surprisingly easy.The ganache is also so simple to apply,I wouldn't say it took me more than 15 minutes to assemble the cooled cakes.

Sponge

110 g unsalted butter,room temp.

110g plain chocolate(60-70%)

280ml boiling water

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

140 ml buttermilk

280g plain flour

2 Tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

340g soft brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs,lightly beaten

Ganache

225g butter

285g plain chocolate(60-70%)

2 Tbsp golden syrup

240ml double cream

1.Preheat the oven to 180C(160C fan)gas mark 4.Grease and line three 20cm round cake tins with baking parchment,then grease the parchment too.Melt the chocolate in a microwave or in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water,making sure the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water.Set aside to cool slightly.Whisk the cocoa powder with the boiling water in a separate bowl.Whisk in the buttermilk and set aside.

2.Sift the flour,bicarbonate of soda and salt together into a bowl.In a separate bowl use an electric hand mixer to beat the butter,sugar,eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy,about 5 minutes.Beat in the eggs,a little at a time,beating until fully combined.With the mixer on low,pour the cooled chocolate down the side of the bowl and once fully combined,add a third of the flour mixture followed by half the buttermilk mixture.Repeat and then add the final third of the flour mixture.Divide equally among the tins and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.Cool in the tins for 10 minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely.

3.To make the ganache,melt the butter,chocolate and golden syrup in the microwave or heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water.Once melted and smooth,add the cream and mix to combine.Remove from the heat and allow to set until spreadable,about 15-20 minutes.If the ganache is not setting at room temperature you can refrigerate it,but watch carefully that it stays spreadable.

4.To assemble the cake,put the first layer of cake on a serving plate and spread the top with a layer of ganache.Then place the second layer of cake on top and spread this with a layer of ganache.Finally place the third cake layer on top and cover the whole top and sides of the cake with the remaining ganache.

Brown sugar,ginger and pecan cake with peaches.

I don't know about you but I don't really like fruit.On the other hand I love vegetables but I just never really liked eating fruit say,for a snack.I don't know if it's because maybe here in Ireland supermarkets don't stock really ripe,good quality fruit.The only way I usually eat fruit would be in desserts.Give me a fruit crumble,pie or tart anyday and I will most definitely go back for seconds.That's why it's unusual for me to choose a recipe like this where the fruit isn't actully used or cooked in the dessert but merely to adourn the cake itself.

I think what really persuaded me to make this cake was the images which accompanied the recipe.They were so striking and the colours of the cake were so pretty to look at.The peaches on the top of the cake were also arranged so beautifully that I felt I just had to recreate this cake for myself.My pictures and indeed my cake probably resemble nothing of the original but I was still very pleased with the results.This cake required no fancy piped icing,just simple sliced peaches.

Even though this cake turned out very well,while it was baking I was almost considering not posting about it.See I realised just as the cake went into the oven that I had made a rather huge mistake during the preparation of the cake.Not jus a minor omission of a teaspoon of vanilla extract.No,I had unbelievably doubled the amount of butter required for the cake.You may think that sounds like a very silly mistake to make but the ingredients list gave the butter measurement in cups and when I converted the cup measure to grams I forgot that the cake only required 1/2 a cup of butter!I was so dissapointed and had resigned myself that the cake was never going to work.However,I left it in the oven just to see what would happen and amazingly enough,the cake turned out fine even if it was a tiny bit sunken in the middle!The frosting covered up the slight dip in the cake nicely and no one was any the wiser.This cake required that you use fresh peaches.When I read this I almost decided to use tinned peaches instead as I was worried that I would have a hard time finding really tasty,ripe,juicy fresh peaches.In the end I decided to stick to the recipe and go with the fresh peaches.To be honest I can't really fault this cake.The cake itself was delicious,the extra butter actually added to its flavour and kept it unbelievably moist.The dark brown sugar really came through to give the cake a lovely deep sweetness.The bits of pecan added nicely to the texture.The unusal frosting was delicious and was perfect for the cake.The only slight downfall came where I expected.The peaches I got although not terribly hard,lacked that sweet peach flavour.If I was to make this cake again I would almost certainly use tinned peaches to ensure the peaches were really sweet.As a little extra thought,I also think this cake would work with a lot of other fruits for example,plums.

You can find the recipe here on a great blog called Dessert for Breakfast.The photos are particularly good!

Chocolate cake for a birthday

It was my dad's birthday a few days ago and I was in charge of making the cake as usual(not that I mind).I wanted to make a larger cake to give the day a bigger sense of occasion,so I settled for a three layer chocolate and caramel cake.I have had my eye on this recipe for a while now and have been only waiting for a reason to make it,so this seemed like the perfect oppurtunity!The recipe comes once again from The Hummingbird Bakeries new cook book,Cake Days.I only recently bought this book and so at the moment most of my posts are based on recipes out of the book.The recipe in the book is actually for a salted caramel chocolate cake.Now I've heard a lot about salted caramel and what an amazing combination it is and I have been dying to try it.However,my family thought it sounded like an odd combination and seen as I didn't want to have a whole three layer cake to eat for myself,I decided to leave out the salt this time and make a caramel and chocolate cake instead.The description in the book says that "the cake is worth the time spent in the kitchen".I have to say I couldn't agree more.Don't get me wrong;this cake takes quite a while to get finished,but it is a lovely,rich,moreish cake that also looks fantastic once iced.The first stage of the recipe involves making up the caramel filling.This is pretty easy,the only thing you have to watch is to make sure you don't boil the sugar syrup for too long as the caramel can quickly begin to burn(which by the way,burning sugar is the most awful smell!).This is set aside while you make the chocolate frosting.The frosting is probably the most lengthy process in the whole recipe.Firstly,a sugar syrup is made and mixed with bolied cream to make a caramel.Then a massive 450g of chocolate is chopped(my arm was practically falling off me after this)and added to the still warm caramel.This is stirred until it is completely melted.The mixture is then whisked for about ten minutes until the bowl feels cool,after which butter is added.The mixture is whisked again and then put into the fridge to set.Then the chocolate sponges are made.This part of the recipe came together very quickly.The book states that the cakes should be cooked in about 25 minutes.Now usually my fan oven cooks everything about 5 minutes quicker then what the stated time is.However,when I went to check the cakes after 25 minutes I found the the top of the cake were barely set and still completely raw underneath.As a result of opening the oven when the cakes were so raw,I think my cakes fell a bit but that's fine as you wouldn't notice once they are iced.I'd say I gave my cakes an extra 7 or 8 minutes to cook completely.The sponges are then left to cool completely.Once cool 2 tablespoons of caramel are spread over one of the cakes followed by a couple of tablespoons of the chocolate frosting.The remaining layers are placed on top and covered with the caramel and chocolate frosting in the same way.Once this is done a crumb coating is given to the cake,followed by another layer of the frosting.I then swirled the top of my cake with my palette knife and sprinkled chocolate curls on top et voila!Chocolate cake with a caramel filling and chocolate frosting.If anyone would like the recipe please feel free to leave a comment and ask! :)

Carrot & Ginger Cake From Cake Days

I love,love,lovee carrot cake.It is easily one of my favourite cakes to eat!When I saw that there was a recipe for a carrot cake in Cake Days I knew I would have to bake it soon.I then got a request from someone to make a cake and I decided I would make this Carrot & Ginger Cake and see how it turned out.This recipe makes a massive four layer cake and therefore is only really suitable when catering for a large group of people.Alternatively you could half the quantities and make a smaller two layer cake which is what I think I will do when making this for my family.I found this recipe very easy and had no trouble with it at all.When the cakes came out of the oven they smelt divine and I wanted to have a slice right there and then but unfortunately this cake wasn't for me so I couldn't.While the cakes cooled I made up the cream cheese frosting and set it aside while the cakes cooled completely.When the cakes were cool I placed the first one on a plate and spread a small layer of frosting on top.I then placed the next cake on top and spread a small layer of frosting on it.I continued doing this until all four cakes were stacked one on top of the other.I then coated the whole four layer cake with a light covering of the cream cheese frosting.known as a crumb layer.This was suggested in the back of the book as it makes it much easier to frost the cake evenly.When I finished the crumb layer I then spread the rest of the frosting all over the cake and smoothed it out with a palette knife.I added a decorative swirl on the top of the cake using a palette knife as suggest in the book.I finished the cake off by topping with pecans.The cake was whisked away the next morning and as I didn't get to taste the cake myself I can't really comment on its taste.However,I did recieve rave reviews for this cake and was told not a crumb of it remained by the end of the day :P I think I will definitely be making this one again soon so I can taste it.

Carrot Cake

Sponge

450g(1lb) peeled,finely grated carrots

2 tbsp peeled,grated root ginger

80ml(3fl oz) buttermilk

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

350ml(12fl oz) vegetable oil

420g(15oz) caster sugar

500g(1lb 2oz) plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

1tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

80g(3oz) pecans,roasted & chopped

Frosting

100g(3 1/2 oz) softened unsalted butter

600g(1lb 5oz)icing sugar

1 tbsp grated orange zest

250g(9 oz) full fat cream cheese

Pecan halves to decorate

1.Roast the pecans by heating over a medium heat in a saucepan for two to three minutes until they start to turn brown.Remove from the pan,chop and set aside.

2.Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (325F),Gas mark 3,and line 4 20cm(8in) diameter cake tins with baking parchment.

3.Using a hand held electric whisk or freestanding mixer fitted with the paddle attatchment,mix together the carrots,root ginger,buttermilk,eggs,vanilla essence,vegetable oil and sugar until the ingredients are well combined.

4.Sift together the flour,baking powder,bicarbonate of soda,salt and ground spices,then slowly beat these into the egg and carrot mixture,adding the dry ingredients in three batches.Mix well after each addition,scraping down the sides of the bowl.Stir in the chopped pecans into the batter and mix until the cake batter is smooth and even.

5.Divide the batter between the four prepared sandwich tins and bake for about 30 minutes or until the top of each sponge bounces back when lightly pressed.Allow the cakes to cool completely,on a wire rack,while you make the frosting.

6.To make the frosting,using an electric whisk or freestanding mixer fitted with the paddle attatchment,mix together the butter and icing sugar on a low speed until combined but still powdery in consistency.Add the orange zest and cream cheese,increase the speed to medium to high and mix well until the frosting is smooth,light and fluffy.

7.When the sponges feel cold to the touch,spread some of the frosting between each layer and sandwich all four together.Use the remaining frosting to cover the top and outside of the assembled cake,then decorate with the pecan halves.