Seems so many of the other Heavenly Cake Bakers are disappointed when we bake something chocolatey. This is something I really cannot comprehend. I LOVE chocolate! In fact, one of the reasons I decided to join the Heavenly Cake Bakers was to widen my horizons and force myself to bake more things that aren’t chocolate. But I am always very happy when the assignment involves chocolate.
This week’s assignment was the Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache. I made sure to read through the instructions a few times before starting so I wouldn’t have any surprises. Since the ganache needed to sit for several hours I decided to start with that.
The first step to the ganache is making the caramel. I have three little words that I suggest everyone write in the margin of their book: Mis en place! I started heating the water and sugar and thought I would get everything else together while it came up to temp. Only problem was that there wasn’t a whole lot of time and the caramel was starting to darken by the time I finished getting the food processor out, chopping the chocolate and measuring the cream. Next time I will have everything ready before I start the caramel.
Rose instructs you to check the temperature of the caramel which turned into a bit of a challenge. I considered skipping that step but was afraid there might be something magic about 370 degrees so I figured I had better do it to avoid any problems. I had to tip the hot pan to get enough liquid for the thermometer and every time I checked it was only a little over 300 degrees. As the caramel kept getting darker and darker I suddenly realized that maybe my thermometer didn’t go any higher and sure enough, that was the problem. So I let the caramel get a bit darker and then pulled it off the heat and added the cream. I ended up with some chunks of caramel but was able to melt them back down over the burner. Then I added the caramel to the chocolate in the food processor. The end result was a very lovely and tasty ganache.
The cake is baked in one 9″ cake pan and then the cake is sliced into two layers. The ganache is used as a filling between the layers and as icing on top.
The cake was very good and the ganche, which thickened up into a fudge-like consistency, was fabulous. I would have preferred a stronger caramel flavor as it seemed rather subtle to me, but perhaps the caramel needed to be darker. I will make this cake again and I will probably use this ganache with some of my other recipes as well.
5 Comments
I love your decorating skills, very pretty and professional looking. Your caramel ganache is nice and thick and mine had to go into the refrigerator after 3 hours to thicken up. I am with you, delicious. Loved the chocolate cake too. Moist and the flavor, wow!
i’m too a chocolate lover, so seeing your nod in this cake, i’ll bookmark to try it when i’m free! “D Looks great with the piping on top of the ganache!
love the way you decorated your cake! very beautiful.
I too have learned the lesson of having all my ingredients weighted and ready to go before I start anything. And I’m with Jennifer, I love how you decorated the cake as well.
Congratulations on being Featured Baker of the week. Your cake looks very pretty. Glad you enjoyed the taste too. Believe or not, this cake was “too” chocolatey for my husband :o)