Chocolate Fudge Cake with Light Whipped Ganache

My facebook wall is now roaring with resentment for Tin Pei Ling's entry into the parliament. Ahh well. And I also want to say that I'm very proud of my parents, they did the right thing and voted wisely despite they were initially afraid. My sister and I have been actively participating in rally hopping and we have a lot of dialogues on how we feel about national issues. From this general elections, I felt my family getting even more closely knitted.

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I also discussed this election fever with ZY during our baking session hahah! After that day, I felt a little more confident to do layered cakes, seeing how he assembled everything together. Butbutbut I screwed up mine. It was basically falling apart with the ganache sweating in the hot weather. I managed to save it and it didn't look too bad afterall. Definitely need more practice.



The chocolate cake has an insanely fine texture yet has the right amount of chocolate, accompanied by whipped ganache that is so light that it literally disappears into your mouth like cloud.

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Ingredients:

• 85 unsweetened cocoa (Dutch-processed)
• 354g boiling water
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 300g sifted cake flour
• 434g light brown sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 227g unsalted butter

Method:

1. Grease two 9 x 1.5" cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment or wax paper, and then regrease and flour. (If you only have 2"-high pans, either do 2/3 the recipe for 1 layer or 1 1/3 the recipe for 2 layers.)
2. Preheat the oven to 175°C.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa and boiling water until smooth. Cool to room temperature.
4. In another bowl, lightly combine the eggs, 1/4 of the cocoa mixture, and vanilla.
5. In a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients and mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter and remaining cocoa mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed (high speed if using a hand mixer) and beat for 1 1/2 minutes to aerate and develop the cake's structure. Gradually add the egg mixture in three batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition to incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure. Scrape down the sides.
6. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and smooth the surface with a spatula. The pans will be about 1/2 full. Bake 20-30 minutes or until a tester inserted near the center comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center. The cakes should start to shrink from the sides of the pans only after removal from the oven.
7. Let the cakes cool in the pans on racks for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides with a small metal spatula and invert onto greased wire racks. To prevent splitting, reinvert so that tops are up and cool completely before wrapping airtight.
8. Light Whipped Ganache Filling and Frosting (adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible)

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Ingredients:

• 227g bittersweet chocolate (I use 138g 55% & 89g 70% Valrhona chocolate)
• 464g heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Method:

1. Break the chocolate into pieces and process in a food processor until very fine.Heat cream to the boiling point and with the motor running, pour it through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process a few seconds until smooth.
2. Transfer to a large bowl of electric mixer refrigerate until cold, stirring once or twice. Do not allow the mixture to get too cold or it will be too stiff to incorporate air.
3. Add the vanilla and beat the mixture just until very soft peaks form when the beater is raised. It will continue to thicken after a few minutes at room temperature. If the mixture gets overbeaten and grainy, it can be restored by remelting, chilling, and rebeating.

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