Friday, March 4, 2011

Four tier chocolate layer cake

Recently, I was hooked on 'Junior Masterchef' program on tv. The contestants are kids aged between 8- 12 years old. Their culinary skills are superb! The show is very entertaining and less stressful compared to those adult cooking show. No screaming and drama scenes or sparring of angry words between the contestants. Of course not, they are just a group of innocent yet very talented kids.

In the recent episode, the kids were to bake Donna Hay's four tier chocolate layer cake. Seeing them bake made me want to bake DH's cake right away. Simple yet elegant in presentation. So, today I will bake four tier chocolate layer cake using Donna Hay's recipe. Yay!!!



Had a crisis baking the chocolate batter. I used two 10cm round baking tin instead of 12 cm ones. I filled the tin almost to the rim with the batter. I guess most of you would have guessed what happened next. Yes, my batter overflowed during the baking process. It was like a minor eruption... lava-like molten chocolate oozed out from the baking tin. I should have known but I told myself maybe it won't happen. And it did. I wanted to bake again but I had no butter left at home. I wanted to save the cake. I really do. I used a knife and removed the 'ballooned' top portion of the half-baked cake and continued baking. Voila! My cakes are saved. They don't look pretty, at the very least I managed to cut 4 layers. I did damage control by placing blueberries on the top of the cake. I tried the some of the ruined cake, they tasted awesome. Donna Hay is simply awesome and her recipe is definitely a keeper!!!


Enjoy!


Recipe adapted from Donna Hay:

Ingredients:-

1/2 cup (125ml) water
60g butter, chopped
2 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
1 cup (150g) plain flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, sifted
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup (60ml) buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

chocolate cream cheese frosting

50g butter, softened
250g cream cheese
1 cup (160g) icing sugar mixture, sifted
1/4 cup (25g) cocoa, sifted

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 150'C fan-forced.


2. Place the water, butter and cocoa in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the butter has melted. Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar in a bowl, add the cocoa mixture and whisk to combine. Add the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and whisk to combine. Divide mixture between 2 lightly greased 12cm round cake tins lined with non-stick baking paper. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool in the tins for 5 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
3. While the cake is baking, make the cream cheese frosting. Place the butter and cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 6–8 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add the icing sugar and cocoa and beat for a further 6–8 minutes or until light and fluffy.
4. To assemble, slice the cakes in half horizontally. Place one cake layer on a plate and spread with one quarter of the frosting. Repeat with remaining layers and frosting. Decorate as desired.

8 comments:

ROSITA VARGAS said...

Corine me has tentado con tus dos dulces,ambos me han gustado,son como alfajores chilenos y el adorno y relleno me gustó bastante,te felicito porque a mi me gusta más comerlos que hacerlosjeje,saludos abrazos y cariños

Gloria Baker said...

Corine I love this recipe your Chocolate layers cake look amazing!! gloria

Nadji said...

Une vraie gourmandise, doublement chocolat.
je t'en prends un morceau.
A très bientôt.

Corine said...

Rosita: This layer cake is really nice. Love the taste of it too. Thanks to Donna Hay. Hehe

Gloria: Thank you, Gloria. I think they looked kinda untidy. :P

Nadji: Très péché, mais très délicieux. Je vais certainement faire cuire à nouveau. I need to improve on cutting even cake layers.

Cooking Gallery said...

This looks very pretty and delicious too :).

Corine said...

Hi Cooking Gallery,

Oh, thank you. :P Thank you for dropping by my blog. ;)

Juliana said...

Wow, this cake looks fabulous, love the idea of 4 tier...so pretty :-) Hope you have a great week ahead Corine!

Corine said...

Thank you Juliana! Yeah, 4-tier layer cake is cute. Thank you for dropping by too. :)

You have a fantastic week ahead! :)