Theoretically, it’s still December so I can still bring you decadent cakes right? 😀 I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a relaxing holiday period and are looking forward to the new year. 2017 in 3 days, I can’t believe this year is already over! What do you guys have planned for New Year’s? Just a quiet one with family/friends or an all-out party? For me it’ll just be some drinks and good food with good friends sadly the boyfriend has to work for part of the night so we might be late starting! This cake would also be a magnificent centre piece for any New Year’s party, big or small, and you’d still have plenty of pink champagne (slash sparkling wine) to drink on the night!
The reason I made this cake in the first place was to enter a Nestlé Baker’s Corner competition called Hack My Cake. To enter, you had to choose one of five Nestlé recipes and put your own spin on it then publish it on their Facebook page/Instagram saying the changes you made and a picture. This cake was inspired by their Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Chunk Cake but I made a few changes to make it a Chocoholic Baker special. I used my chocolate cake recipe, which has oil and coffee rather than butter and sour cream like in the Nestlé recipe, mainly because I think the oil makes for a moister and sturdier cake. Then for the raspberry element, I incorporated raspberries, puréed, into the frosting along with some pink champagne which was really just sparkling wine. Of course, just to give it that drama, I just HAD to cut it into four layers! You could just do two layers and it would still be amazing though, but half this recipe if you’re going to do that. 🙂
And guess what guys? I WON! It was soooo exciting! I won a selection of Christmas baking products, plus a TON of Nestlé products, like sooooo much chocolate AND cocoa powder AND condensed milk AND caramel! Plus… a mini KitchenAid mixer! Guys, it’s so beautiful. It’s a cherry red beautiful stand mixer but it’s the new mini one, which is honestly much lighter but not much smaller so it’s actually pretty cool! It arrived just before Christmas and made for the perfect early Christmas present!
So what did you guys get for Christmas? And, most importantly, what did you eat for Christmas? I hope your days were also filled with lots of yummy food! I do love Christmas and I love this time of year with so much love and happiness and fun filled family time. Is it just me though, or is this time in between Christmas and New Year a bit weird? In New Zealand, most workplaces close down for the 3 days in between Christmas and New Year so it’s nice to chill out but at the same time I’m not very good at chilling out so I need the shops to open again! 😉 Anyone else with me??
Anyway, I’ll leave you with this and just say that this cake would be spectacular any time of year! Happy baking.
- [b]Chocolate Cake[/b]
- 90g (3oz) dark chocolate bits
- 1½ cups freshly brewed coffee
- 3 cups sugar
- 2½ cups flour
- 1½ cups dark cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
- 2 tspn baking soda
- ¾ tspn baking powder
- 1¼ tspn salt
- 3 eggs
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 1½ cups buttermilk, shaken
- ¾ tspn vanilla essence
- [b]Raspberry Pink Champagne Buttercream[/b]
- 1 cup pink sparkling wine
- 1 cup raspberries (thawed if using frozen)
- 300g (2 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
- 4 cups icing (powdered) sugar
- 1 tspn vanilla essence
- [b]Chocolate Ganache[/b]
- 150g chocolate bits
- 1/3 cup (heavy) cream
- Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F) and grease and line two 23cm (9 inch) cake tins with baking paper.
- Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and pour the hot coffee over the chocolate. Leave for 2 minutes before whisking the chocolate into the coffee.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl with a hand mixer) beat the eggs until thickened and lemon coloured (around 5 minutes).
- Slowly add the oil, buttermilk and vanilla, beating after each addition. Then add the sugar, before mixing in the melted chocolate. Then slowly add the porter to the mixture and beat together. Sift the cocoa powder over the bowl and mix until combined.
- Pour half of the flour mixture over the wet mixture and mix until the flour is just combined then add the other half and beat it all together until well-combined.
- Divide the batter between the tins and bake in the middle of the oven, rotating after 30 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs attached, around 1 hour – 1 hour 10 minutes.
- Leave to cool completely in the tins and then turn out onto a wire rack to set.
- Heat the pink sparkling wine in a small saucepan over a high heat until it’s at a rolling boil. Then turn the heat down to low and simmer the wine for around 20 minutes or until it’s reduced by around half and has thickened slightly. Cool in the fridge.
- Purée the raspberries either in a blender or a food processor with a little bit of water (to help the blender pulverise the raspberries properly) until completely smooth.
- Then transfer the purée to a small saucepan and add 3 Tbspn of the wine syrup.
- Cook on a medium low heat for around 20 minutes or until reduced and thickened. Cool in the fridge.
- Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and using a hand beater) and beat on a high speed for 3-5 minutes or until pale and creamy.
- Add 3 cups of the icing (powdered) sugar 1 cup at a time and beat after each addition until combined. Add vanilla and beat until combined.
- Once cooled, add 3 Tbspn of the wine syrup and 5 Tbspn of raspberry purée to the buttercream and beat to combine. It will be very sloppy at this point.
- Add the last cup of icing (powdered) sugar and beat for another 4 minutes or until creamy and fluffy. If it’s still too sloppy, add another half cup – one cup of icing (powdered) sugar.
- Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan and heat until just below boiling.
- Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes before stirring together to emulsify. Put in the fridge to cool and thicken, but leave it there no longer than half an hour.
- Cut each cake into halves so that you have four cake layers. You can watch me in [url href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp41fHz23tA” target=”_blank”]this tutorial here[/url] for more info on cutting and frosting a layer cake.
- Place your first cake layer on either a turntable or cake plate for frosting, cut side up. Using a pastry brush, brush a quarter of the remaining wine syrup over the cake layer.
- Leave to dry for a minute, then spread around a third of a cup of the frosting over the cake layer.
- Repeat with the remaining three cake layers, placing each on top of the next and making sure to make the top layer nice and pretty and even.
- Spread a very thin layer of frosting all around the sides of the cake to try and seal the crumbs in. Refrigerate for half an hour to chill the cake and the crumb coat.
- Spread the remaining frosting around the sides of the cake and on the top if you still have some left until you have an even layer all around the sides and top of the cake. Refrigerate for another half hour.
- To do the chocolate drizzle, make sure the chocolate is still lukewarm but not hot. Pour the chocolate ganache straight onto the centre of the cake and keep pouring until it reaches the sides.
- Then, using a palette knife, push the ganache over the sides until it drips all down the sides of the cake.
- You’ll need to work quickly, pushing the ganache over the side to make the drips and once you’re happy with it put it straight back into the fridge to stop the chocolate from dripping further.
- Refrigerate for at least half an hour and then finally, it’s ready to eat!
- The cake will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight.
