She is so mature, yet a bit of a people-pleaser. She’s more than capable to make any cholate lover’s heart skip a beat.
INGREDIENTS
CAKE (Tip 1)
375ml/250g cake flour
250ml/120g cacao powder
40ml cornflour
5ml baking powder
5ml bicarbonate of soda
5ml salt
10ml vanilla essence
250g butter, room temperature (Tip 2)
500g castor sugar
5 large eggs
300ml buttermilk
MOUSSE
40ml water
15ml gelatine powder
2,5ml salt
5ml coffee powder
5ml vanilla essence
15ml hot water
450ml milk
450g dark chocolate, chopped
750ml cream
GANACHE
300ml cream
300g dark chocolate, finely chopped/grated
METHOD
CAKE
1. Preheat the oven to 170°C and position the oven racks in the middle of the oven.
2. Prepare two round cake tins (21-23cm) with baking paper and non-stick spray (Tip 3).
3. In a medium bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients.
4. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream together the vanilla and butter until softened (±5 minutes).
5. Gradually add the castor sugar to the butter mixture and cream until light and fluffy (5-10 minutes).
6. Add the eggs one by one and scrape the mixture off the sides of the mixing bowl if necessary (Tip 4).
7. Add a third of the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix on a low speed. Add half of the buttermilk and mix until combined. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the buttermilk and end off with the last third of the dry ingredients.
8. Make sure that the mixture is well combined, especially the batter at the bottom of the mixing bowl. Be careful to not overmix your cake batter.
9. Divide the batter between your cake tins and bake for 40-50 minutes in the middle of the oven.
10. The cake are done when a cake tester/wooden pick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake. If the cake is still a bit raw, bake for another 5 minutes and test again.
11. Allow the cakes to rest for 5 minutes before loosening the sides and demoulding them onto cooling racks. Allow cake to cool face down.
12. Once the cakes are completely cold, using a sharp bread/serrated knife, cut each cake in two or three layers before assembling (Tip 5).
MOUSSE
1. In a small glass bowl, add the water and sprinkle the gelatine over the water. Allow to soak for 2 minutes.
2. In a coffee mug, dissolve the salt and coffee in the 15ml hot water. Add the vanilla and set aside.
3. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk on the stovetop until boiling point.
4. Remove the milk from the heat and add the gelatine. Stir until the gelatine is dissolved.
5. Place the chopped chocolate in a large glass bowl and pour the hot milk over the chocolate. Gently stir until the chocolate is melted.
6. Add the coffee mixture to the chocolate mixture and allow to cool down until the mixture starts to set on the sides of the bowl.
7. In a large glass bowl, with an electric mixer, whisk the cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold the cooled chocolate mixture into the cream until well combined.
ASSEMBLY
1. In a clean springform cake tin, place the first layer of cake inside (Tip 6).
2. Carefully place the first cake layer into the prepared cake tin and top with mousse (Tip 7). Repeat this layering process and end off with a layer of cake; NOT mousse.
3. Carefully cover the cake with plastic wrap and place in the freezer (yes, not the fridge) until needed.
GANACHE
1. In a medium glass bowl, add the chopped/grated chocolate.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat the cream on the stovetop until boiling point. Immediately remove from the heat and pour the cream over the chocolate.
3. Allow the mixture to rest for a minute before stirring. Use a wooden spoon and make small circles in the middle of the glass bowl until the mixture is fully combined, melted and shiny.
4. Remove the frozen cake from the freezer and place it onto a cooling rack that is placed onto a baking tray.
5. Pour the chocolate ganache over the cake, allowing the ganache to cover the sides of the cake as well (Tip 8).
6. Place the cake into the fridge to defrost for about 2-3 hours before serving.
7. After serving the cake, it can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge, not at room temperature.
TIPS
1. The cake and mousse should be prepared a day before serving. The ganache is prepared on the day of serving the cake. You can even prepare the cake up to 1-2 weeks before serving.
2. It is very important to cream the butter at room temperature; cold or melted butter will not provide the desired consistency. Cold butter can be softened in the microwave in 10 second bursts.
3. If you have 3 cake tins of the same size, I would recommend dividing the cake batter between those 3 tins instead of 2 to minimize the effort to cut the cakes afterwards.
4. When using an electric stand mixer, I switch from the balloon whisk to the paddle attachment when adding the eggs. This will prevent the mixture from splitting.
5. Thin cake layers are preferable when layering the cakes with the mousse. This way the cakes won’t press the mousse out because of its weight. The ratio of your cake and mousse layers will also be more even. If you baked three cakes, you only need to halve the cakes. If you baked two cake, challenge yourself to cut each layer into three to four separate layers.
6. While assembling the cake, cover the outside of the cake tin with tinfoil to support the cake layers that are higher than the sides of the cake tin.
It will be difficult to get the completed cake out of a regular cake tin, therefore a springform cake tin is recommended for assembling the cake. If you don’t have the correct size springform cake tin, assemble the cake on your preferred platform (plate/cake stand/wooden platter) and create a “mould” out of tinfoil to support the structure of the cake, until the mousse is set.
7. I would recommend weighing out the mousse in the number of layers that you’ll need to ensure even layering of the cake.
8. If the ganache is too runny, wait 10-15 minutes for the ganache to firm up a bit and try again.
