Quadruple Chocolate Madness

Close your eyes and imagine this: three layers of chocolate cake, filled with chocolate mousse in between, topped with a rich dark chocolate ganache with some milk chocolate shavings. Oh, and some dark, milk, and white chocolate truffles. Something akin to heaven, is it not?

Yesterday at a cake decorating class that some of us food bloggers are taking, our lovely instructor/chef gave us the idea of using chocolate mousse between cake layers instead of buttercream. And so I closed my eyes and imagined this. I also imagined something else, but that's going to be in another post.

I had some leftover cake I wanted to use up so what I did was whizz it in a food processor until I got cake crumbs. With those crumbs, I made truffles. And then the rest of the cake came together. I made the chocolate cake and the truffles last night and made the mousse and ganache and shavings this morning.

My favourite caster sugar to use is Tate and Lyle. But for some reason, the packet I used yesterday was rock solid. The sugar was one huge block and not grains of caster sugar. I placed it in a sandwich bag and beat it with the bake of a measuring cup. Very effective at stress-release by the way. That technique was somewhat effective but there were still some major cubes of sugar. And oh, I'm still mixer-less. I tried my best to break up the sugar cubes with my whisk while I will creaming it with the butter and that broke it down further although not completely. Anyways, this sugar cubiness somehow resulted in the cake not being cut evenly. So instead of having three neat layers filled with lots of mousse in between, I ended up with something very droopy. But it tasted wonderful. And it looked home-made.

Here's the recipe:
For the chocolate cake:
125g unsalted butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup cream (preferably Nestle)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin. 
Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg and extract, beat until combined. 
Add sifted dry ingredients and cream and beat on slow speed until combined. Increase speed to high until mixture is smooth. 
Spoon mixture into tin and bake for around 45 minutes. 


For the chocolate mousse:
300g plain chocolate, in pieces
 284ml double cream
250g mascarpone
3tbsp cranberry juice
1tbsp vanilla extract

Put the chocolate in a double boiler until it's melted and smooth. Remove from heat. 
Add cream, mascarpone, juie, and extract to the chocolate and mix well until smooth. 
Refrigerate for five to ten minutes. 


For the ganache:
200g dark chocolate (preferably 70%)

Melt the dark chocolate on a double boiler until smooth.


For the truffles:
300g vanilla cake crumbs
2 tablespoons strawberry jams
3 tablespoons cream (again, preferably Nestle)
60g melted unsalted butter
300g dark chocolate
2 tablespoons cranberry juice
100g milk chocolate
100g dark chocolate
100g white chocolate

Mix together cake crumbs, jam, cream, butter, chocolate and juice; stirring until moistened. 
Refrigerate for half an hour. 
Roll teaspoons of mixture onto a baking sheet lined with foil. Refrigerate for a further 10 to 15 minutes. 
Melt the white, milk, and dark chocolates separately. 
Dip a third of the truffles into the melted white chocolate, a third into the melted milk chocolate, and a third into the melted dark chocolate. 
Leave to cool for 10 to 15 minutes. 
Refrigerate until firm and needed. 


For the chocolate shavings: 
50g milk chocolate

Melt the chocolate until smooth. Spread evenly over a piece of baking paper. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and then refrigerate until firm. With a flat bladed spatula, gently scrape at the stiffened chocolate to create chocolate shavings. 


To assemble:
1. Cut the chocolate cake into three equal layers. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
2. Place half of the chocolate mousse mixture on top of the base cake, top with another cake layer, the remaining chocolate mousse mixture and the final cake layer.
3. Prepare the chocolate shavings mixture except for the part of scraping off the shavings themselves.
4. Melt the dark chocolate, leave to cool for about 3-4 minutes and then pour all over the chocolate cake, allowing to drip down the sides.
5. Then, create the shavings and quickly place over the cake. They melt in your hands.
6. Place three truffles of different colours over the cake and serve!

The cake is best served immediately while the chocolate mousse mixture is still cold and while the dark chocolate ganache hasn't hardened.

  

Chocolate Fest! (And my 100th blogpost!)

This is my 100th blog post -and what a better way to celebrate it than by posting about the chocolate fest that we (our food bloggers group had today!)

Sarah, Ruth, Sukaina, Yasmin, and Sally came over and we made (and ate!) chocolate shortbread drops, chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream, rich chocolate pots, and black forest cupcakes.

Ruth brought some lovely flour-less chocolate cake over which was wonderful- it tasted like a super-moist brownie. I think I ate like half of it. My neighbor Emma brought over chocolate tiramisu which was amazingly light and would be just the perfect dessert for any occasion!

Here are some of the recipes!

Basic Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, 1 cup caster sugar, 1 egg, 2 teaspoons vanilla essence, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 ½ cups self raising flour, ¾ cup cream

Procedure

Preheat oven to 180C. Brush deep 20cm round cake tin with melted butter, line base with paper, grease paper.

Using electric beaters, beat butter and sugar in small mixing bowl until light and creamy. Add egg and vanilla essence, beat for 1 minute on medium speed or until well combined. Add sifted dry ingredients and cream to bowl. Beat on low speed for 1 minute or until just combined. Beat 2 minutes on high speed until smooth. Spoon mixture into prepared tin, smooth surface. Bake for 55 minutes or until skewer comes out clean when inserted in centre of cake. Turn onto wire rack to cool.

Rich Chocolate Pots

Ingredients

300g plain chocolate, in pieces. 284ml carton double cream. 250g tub mascarpone. 3tbsp cranberry juice. 1 tbsp vanilla extract. 6 tbsp crème fraiche

Procedure

Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Leave until melted, then stir until smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat. Add the cream, mascarpone, cranberry juice, vanilla extract, and mix well together- the hot chocolate will melt the mascarpone. Divide the mixture between six 150ml glasses and chill for 20 minutes. Spoon a dollop of crème fraiche on top of each dessert and decorate with chocolate curls.

Black Forest Cupcakes

Ingredients

90g dark chocolate, chopped. 115g unsalted butter at room temperature, 115g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons ground almonds, 150g self raising flour, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons cranberry juice, 50g glace cherries, halved. To decorate: 100g dark chocolate, finely chopped, 100ml double cream, 1 tablespoon cranberry juice, 12 glace cherries

Procedure

Preheat oven to 180C. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Do not let the bowl touch the water. Leave until almost melted, then set aside to cool slightly. Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the melted chocolate, then stir in the almonds. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture and fold in, followed by juice and glace cherries. Spoon the mixture into paper cases and bake in a preheated oven for about 20 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. To decorate, put chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan until almost boiling, then pour over the chocolate and leave to melt for about 5 minutes. Stir until smooth and creamy, then stir in the cranberry juice and leave to cool for about 1 hour until thick and glossy. Spread the frosting over the cakes and top with a glace cherry. Using a vegetable peeler, make some chocolate shavings and pop them on top of the cakes.

Macaroons!

So here are the results of my first attempt at making macaroons! Raspberry and rosewater flavoured. As you might remember, (if you are an avid and obsessive reader of my blog- which I'm sure of), I took a macaroons cooking class sometime in May at Atelier des Chefs Dubai. This is the first time I make them on my own!- and my second time to make them in total. I tried making them once when I was a total newbie at baking and they ended up looking like soup so that attempt OF COURSE does not count! ;)

Enjoy the pictures!

xx

Ramadan Gathering

Three of my closest friends came over tonight for a Ramadan gathering. I decided to set the table in shades of white, gold, and cream.. but not overly so.. I made coconut ice cakes, fruity custard tarts (both first attempts!), tiramisu, and lemon jello! For savouries there were quesadillas, puff pastry, sambousa, & pasta. My friends brought some lovely hot chocolate, coffee, sandwiches, chocolate dipped strawberries, chocolate cupcakes with a lovely icing, lgaimat and knafa <3

The custard tarts were the most challenging of all to make. I think I may have processed the sugar, butter, flour, egg, and water a little too much so that instead of it just being crumbly and coming together, it was a full on dough. Anyways, the refrigeration really helped harden it up, as it usually does. But when I cut the rounds out to place them in the mini muffin tin they ended up squishing against one another and then I had to use my fingers to fix the shape.. that's why they look kind of funny.. and the custard was supposed to be refrigerated for an hour... I left it in for 45 minutes and when I removed it, it had.. solidified.. anyways I whisked it a lot for it to soften and then added some cream.

Pictures!

Iftar Cooking with my Girls

Two of my really good friends came over this afternoon to cook for Iftar.

They let me choose the menu and so it looked like this:

Starter- Tomato and Basil Soup

Main Course- Chicken Chilli Stirfry and Lemon, Mushroom, and Spinach Risotto, Vegetable Couscous

Dessert- Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream

Drinks: Lemon and Mint Spritzer

These were all some of my tried and tested recipes as we wanted a nice, fun, relaxing time to cook and not a crisis situation in which the stock overflows from the pot... (which it did!)

Here are some pictures of the food-in-the-making:

The vegetables for the couscous

Stirfrying the vegetables for the stirfry! Yes, that blurry thing is a hand!
Our little joke.
The vegetables all cut up and ready to be used!
My attempt of an artistic shot of the vegetables.

What the table looked like! Red, orange, and white!

The risotto!
Stirfry

Chocolate Selfsaucing Pudding! Looks messy, doesn't it?

Vegetable couscous

Chocolate self saucing pudding.

These last three pictures courtesy to F & A. :D

Lots of love,

Spontaneous Euphoria

xx

Food

baby potatoes that I boiled. Cut them open and stuffed them with sour cream and mayo. I just realized they look like Pac Mans.

Tomato bruschetta! Enough said!

Up next, English trifle... custard with berries really. Then, a dish that I cannot remember the name of! I can't even decipher what's in it by looking at this photo.. Aaaand a calzone... the first thing I cooked in 2009. Stuffed pizza.. heaven..