I'll also say, that the photographies won't be very good, because I'm not really good at photographing. Nor is my mother, wich took a couple of the photos. And I can't be really bothered to edit them properly right now, because I'm tired. Oh and I'm not very good at editing either.
Anyway, now for a little story to the cake.
We were having this little family meeting, because my mum, got us from our local farmer two free range goose (we also get eggs from him, and now in the winter it's horrible, because the hens don't lay them much anymore, and man, baking is so much better with them! Especially when you're baking some pound cake or something, it really adds colour). My aunt was baking them and we were supposed to celebrate my cousins birthday. But that was the plan from about thursday, before we just wanted to eat the goose. Yea, we had two of them. My cousins don't eat much(okay, the small one doesn't, the older one... well let's say you can see he belongs into our family, oh yes, we love our food), but that doesn't stop us from eating them only us well, five and a half (me, my mum, aunt, uncle and granny, the cousin that eats is the half, I didn't write my dad, because he doesn't like goose) and a whole cake. So I was planning on making a czech (okay, it's not really czech but whatever) cake, which is maybe one of the hardest czech cakes. It's a honey cake, called Medovník. But I lost the recipe, and I found out on thursday that we are going to celabrate my younger cousins birthday and he wants chocolate cake. So I started looking up chocolate cake recipes up, but I just couldn't find any I liked. On friday, we got home really late and then we were going to our house (on the weekdays we live in a flat, on weekends in a house. yeah, it's annoying going here and there, my parents would be happiest living in the house, but I guess they just don't get that I will not get up at 4am to get to school in time. So we got here at about 11pm and I still didn't know what I will bake. I decided I'm going to bake a classic Chocolate Butter cake, I found a recipe at Joyofbaking.com, which to be honest is one of my favourite sites. So I'll be baking a lot of stuff from that site. Now, it was 11:30 already on a friday. So I was tired, but anyway, I started with optimism. One of the first problems was, I don't have two same cake pans. I usually just bake the cake together and then just cut it, but this was a birthday cake, a present and I didn't want it uncooked in the middle or something, so I decided to bake it separetly, that meant I would have to wait for the other half to bake, which I wasn't really happy with, but what else could I do. The other problem was, I thought I'd do it into three parts, so I poured a little the first time. In the end I was just too tired, and poured in all, so I cut it anyway, so it would of been much faster if I baked it all together, but never mind, it could of gone all wrong. And even though I had horrible back ache a managed to be optimist till the end. After everyone had gone to bed. So now for the recipe.
Chocolate Butter cake
original recipe here
Cake:
120grams unsweetend chocolate (chopped)
1/3 cup cooking (unsweetened)cocoa powder
240ml boiling water
295grams all-purpose flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
226 unsalted butter
400grams granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
vanilla (either two teaspoons, or on a tip of a knife, which I find much better)
Chocolate frosting:
180 unsweetend chocolate
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
about 120ml milk
110grams butter
450grams icing sugar
Vanilla (2 teaspoons or on a tip of a knife)
Pinch of salt
Filling:
250grams mascarpone
215grams whipping cream
1 and 1/2 tablespoons icing sugar
Vanilla (by taste, again I would suggest the real vanilla then the exract, but whatever you prefer)
Strawberries (optional, you can use whatever fruit you thing will suit the chocolate cake, or just not use cake, but I find adding strawberries lightens and freshens the cake)
For decoration
I used halfed Maltesers and strawberries dipped in chocolate
Okay, I have no photos of the next few steps. I just found them too boring to photograph. No, boring is a wrong word. Just too un-interesting. Oh and I just couldn't be bothered. Maybe next time.
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Cake
1.Preheat oven to 177degrees C, make sure the rack is in the center of oven, line and grease your baking pan(s).
2. Chop up the chocolate, put it in a stainless heatproof bowl, and the cocoa and pour the boiling water over it. Stir until it has melted, and put aside and let to cool (I found myself mixing it a couple of times while making the batter, just to prevent it getting too tough (is that the right word?)
3. In a different bowl whisk the dry ingridients together (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt)
4. Beat the butter until smooth and creamy,gradually add the sugar and beat until it gets fluffy, add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
5. Add the vanilla and melted chocolate and beat to combine /oh and be careful, this is quite messy, so I went to get my new cupcake apron, which by the end of making the cake batter was from chocolate/
6. Add the flour and milk, in three additions begging and ending with the flour, beat just until incorporated
7.Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake for about 35-40 mins, or until the toothpick comes out clean
8. Leave to cool, if you used just one pan cut the cake into two halfes, or howmany pieces you want
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Frosting
1. melt the chocolate in a saucepan over some simmering water, then let to cool
2. make sure the butter is soft and cut it up
3. put the chocolate, milk, salt, cocoa powder sugar and the cut up butter into a bowl and beat on low speed for about 2 mins, then increase the speed to middle speed and beat until smooth, increase speed and beat until it has a spreading consistency, if you need you can add more milk or sugar (the frosting is awfully sweet, so I wouldn't add anymore sugar, I had to add chocolate, cocoa powder and milk because it was too sweet...)
Filling
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I have added the filling because the cake was just way too sweet, okay it is chocolate cake, but I think we would all have a sugar rush. And I love sugar, but even for me it was just too much. So it is optional, but I think it is a nice touch to the cake.
Oh and I have pictures to these steps, yay?
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1. Whip the cream until it is stiff and set aside
2. Beat the mascarpone, beat the icing sugar and vanilla into the mascarpone and with a spatula fold in the whipped cream.
3. Wash and cut up the strawberries
4. Place one piece of the cake on a large plate, spread some mascarpone and cream onto it and put the strawberries on top of cream
Like this
Put on another slice/piece of the cake and do the same, put the last piece/slice on and get ready for the icing..
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Icing
Oh yeah, icing is fun. Now I'm not very good at this stuff, but I try. So let's see how what I can say to this..
I'm not going to write this in steps, just simply sentances..
Get some frosting on the top of your cake, spread it down the sides and make sure there is no big hole, slowly start smoothing the chocolate, a spatula will do for this few steps. Clean the plate with a tissue or VERY carefully move to another large plate, pour some boiling water into a glass and get a big knife. Dip your knife into the water, and smooth the frosting. It takes time and patience, but you'll get there.
For the decorations I used, just heat up some chocolate with milk, stir and dip the strawberries in. Half the Maltesers, and stick them on the sides of the cake or wherever you want them. Put the strawberries on the top of the cake.
So this is the result:
The birthday boy with his cake
Of course, he only had one bite, but still. We liked it. It reminded me of a cake my mum used to do for me when I was little, so very moisture (um, would you say it like that? O.O) and fresh, with the nice chocolaty taste. Yum.
I have a feeling this is getting too long, so here is the end of the post. See you soon, probably next weekend. :) Bye for now!
hihihi thanks for delurking! mmm that chocolate cake looks delish and even more so with the maltesers!
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