Dressed Up Chocolate Layer Cake

Inspired by Pinterest and this photo from Annie's Eats I decided to try my hand at extreme cake layering. I've been wanting to make it for a looong time but knew I needed a good reason to make a big cake like this! It is really tall and serves a good many people! I took it along to a ladies Christmas supper at church and a lot of us just cut down through as many layers as we wanted and left the rest of the layers of the same piece for the next person. This works well except it cheats someone of the rich but yummy chocolate glaze. :(

 

 The cake itself is yummy, the strawberries add pizazz, and the Ganache is fabulous!

 

For the cake:

5 large eggs, separated

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2½cups all purpose flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa

1¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk*

 

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form; set aside.

 

Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the yolks one at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

 

Combine the dry ingredients; add to the butter mixture alternately with buttermilk beginning and ending with dry ingredients.

 

*(I didn't have buttermilk on hand but it works fine to place a tablespoon of lemon juice in a 1 cup  measuring cup and filling it the rest of the way with regular milk. Allow it to sit until it thickens and is curdled.)

 

Fold in the beaten egg whites.

 

Spray 3 (8 inch) round cake pans with non stick spray. Fit the bottom of each pan with parchment or waxed paper. (Trim to an exact fit)

 

Divide batter evenly and bake at 325° for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

 

Cool in the pans for 10 minutes then invert onto paper lined cooling racks. Remove the paper from the bottom of the cake and allow cakes to cool completely.

 

To assemble cut each cake in half and layer with cream cheese icing.

 

For the icing:

3 (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened

3 sticks butter, softened

3 teaspoons clear vanilla extract

1-2 Tablespoons milk

Powdered sugar,

enough to reach desired consistency

 

After I was done with the layers I refrigerated the cake to firm up the icing before covering the outside. Refrigerate again before pouring Ganache over the top.

 

For the Ganache:

6 oz. Dark chocolate chips

6 oz. heavy cream

pinch of salt

dash of vanilla

1½ teaspoons light corn syrup

 

Combine the chocolate chips, salt, vanilla, and corn syrup in a heatproof bowl.

 

In a saucepan heat the heavy cream until tiny bubbles appear around the edges. This should be good and hot but not boiling. Pour over the chocolate chip mixture and let sit for about a minute. Stir with a wire whisk until smooth. Allow to cool to almost room temperature but still pourable.

 

Pour slowly onto the center of the top of the cooled cake until ganache begins to run down the sides a bit (or a lot). No spreading should be necessary.

 

Garnish as desired.

 

Enjoy your work of art! :)!

 

Next up is a white cake with lemon curd and raspberry fillings.

Wouldn't that be pretty?! Not to mention delicious!! :)

 

                                                                              

 

We are anticipating more snow today (fingers crossed). I hope it comes!

 

I have a cookie recipe that I'd like to convert into a biscotti recipe so Serena and I plan to do a bit of baking and experimenting today and perhaps some chocolate candy dipping. But if it snows I may not be able to resist going outside to walk in it. So we will see what happens I guess. :)

 

The guys are at the cabin for one last weekend doing some hunting for the two that are not tagged out, the other two will be winterizing the cabin and taking down tree stands, etc.

 

Happy Weekend to all of you!

♥♥♥