John and Charlotte's ultimate chocolate cake
With John's baking magic and Charlotte's decorating expertise, this really is the ultimate chocolate cake!
Ingredients:
180g butter, softened150gm caster sugar360ml buttermilk6 large eggs480g SR Flour120gm Cocoa powder1 tspn bicarb powder300ml boiling water450gm dark brown muscavado
For the dark chocolate ganache:
250ml whipping cream500g dark chocolate 70% cocoa solids1 tbsp unsalted butter
For the white chocolate ganache:
250ml whipping cream750g white chocolate (good quality, the cheap stuff is a nightmare to work with!)1 tbsp unsalted butter
For the chocolate rose decorations:
150g Cocoform modelling chocolate
Equipment that will help:
3 x 20cm loose-bottomed cake tins; greased and bases linedSmall saucepan or milk panLarge glass bowlSilicone spoon/scraperLarge cranked handle palette knifeTurntableSmall sharp knifePlastic document wallet
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4
In a mixer – or a mixing bowl with electric whisk – beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat together the eggs and buttermilk and slowly add to the butter mixture, whisking constantly.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and bicarb and gently mix into the wet mixture
Dissolve the muscovado sugar completely in the boiling water to a thick syrup then gently fold into the cake batter. Divide the batter between the three cake tins and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the tins.
Finely chop the chocolate and place in a large bowl whilst heating the cream to boiling point in a saucepan
Pour the hot cream on top of the chocolate. Wait for a minute to allow the heat to begin melting the chocolate before slowly stirring until all of the chocolate is incorporated into a glossy mixture. Throw in a tablespoon of unsalted butter to make the finished ganache really spreadable.
Allow to cool until the consistency of your ganache is similar to buttercream. This will take around 5 minutes for dark chocolate but up to 30 minutes for white chocolate which has less than half the cocoa solid content.
Spread dark chocolate ganache around the bottom sides of the cake until you are just above half way up. Spread white chocolate ganache from half way up the sides of the cake to the top.
Hold your palette knife horizontally with its tip just touching the ganache. Rotate your turntable and move the palette knife slowly upwards as the cake rotates to create an organic line pattern in the ganache. Tidy the top edges of the cake with the flat side of your palette knife.
To make the chocolate roses
Roll your modelling chocolate into a sausage shape of around 2cm thickness and cut 6 fat discs 5mm thick from this
Lay your chocolate discs inside a document wallet, close the wallet and press down gently on top of each disc with your thumb to flatten. You do not need them to be paper thin, just a little bit flatter.
Run a fingertip along the top edge of each disc to flatten it further. You do not need to go all around the disc as we want the top edge to be thinner than the bottom edge. As you form your rose, remember to keep these thin edges as the top edge of what should now look like petals.
Open up your plastic wallet and carefully peel off your smallest disc, rolling it around into a tight coil with the thin edge at the top. This one petal now forms the centre of your rose.
Lay another two petals evenly around the first to form a second layer of petals. I find it easiest to wrap the second petal around the first and to position the third petal opposite the second. The chocolate will adhere to itself.
Your remaining three petals will make up the third layer of your rose. Wrap these around so that they are evenly spaced. You can now trim the excess chocolate away from the bottom of your rose and gently pinch the edges of your outer petals to add movement.
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