Welcome to howtocookthat.net, I'm Ann Reardon.
This week we are going to make a chocolate cake but it is a little bit different because
we are participating in a chocolate cake challenge with Byron Talbott who is a young chef from
America who also has a YouTube channel.
So I'll link to his version, he'll also make a chocolate cake and put his individual spin
on it and you can bake both of them and taste them and see which one you like the best and
let me know in the comments below.
To start with we are going to make our chocolate ganache, which is going to go on the top of
the cake.
We are making it first so that it has a chance to firm up.
So to make it all you do is place the chocolate in a bowl and then boil up some cream and
pour the boiling cream over the chocolate.
You will leave it to sit for a couple of minutes and then stir it and you've got ganache.
Just leave it to one side on the bench top to firm up.
Next we are going to make our cake.
For the cake I use dark chocolate with 70% cocoa solids.
The reason I like to use the dark chocolate is because then once it's diluted through
the rest of the ingredients you still get that rich, chocolaty, beautiful flavor.
Break up the chocolate, put it into a bowl and then add your butter and microwave it
using 30 second bursts until it's melted.
For all the quantities you'll need for this recipe just click on the link in the description
below this video to go to the website.
Add in the sugar and stir that through and then pour in the eggs and whisk until it's
smooth.
Next add your flour, and your cocoa powder and your baking powder and whisk them through.
And it's going to be a really runny mixture, that's how it's supposed to be, so don't worry
about that.
Cut out two circles of baking paper and then grease and line two 20 cm or 8-inch baking
tins.
Pour half of your chocolate cake mixture into each tin and then bake them in the oven at
about 160 degrees centigrade until they're done which will take about 20 minutes.
Once they're done take them out of the oven and immediately run a knife around the outside
of the cake and then hold onto the tin using two hands give and it a quick shake up and
down to loosen it from the base of the tin.
And then turn it and do that again and repeat that the whole way around to make sure it's
loosened from the tin and then just leave it to cool in the tin.
While you are waiting for that to cool, pour some flaked almonds onto a baking tray and
roughly chop some pistachio nuts just to reveal that beautiful green color of the pistachios.
And we are going to put these on the side of the cake.
Now if you've got nut allergies or you're serving it to someone who has an allergy then
you can use chocolate flakes instead on the side of your cake.
Cook them in the oven at 180 degrees centigrade for about five minutes.
Once your cakes are cooled flip them over into your hand and take them out of the tin
and then peel the baking paper off the bottom.
Then using a serrated knife we are going trim off the top of each of the cakes to make them
completely level and flat.
Then using a knife cut each of your cakes into two even layers so you'll end up with
four layers all together on our finished cake.
Then we are going to take 600 ml of heavy cream and add some vanilla essence and a couple
of spoons of icing sugar and whisk that with electric mixers until it's thick.
Place your bottom layer of cake onto your cake stand or your plate.
And I like to put a small dollop of cream under the first level just to stop it slipping.
Divide your cream into half and then split one-half of it into three portions, just so
you know roughly how much cream to use for each section.
Take one of the smaller portions and put it onto your cake and spread it out using a spoon
almost to the edges so that when you put the next layer on top the cream doesn't bulge
out too much.
Repeat that with the remaining layers, finishing on the top layer with one of the bottom pieces
of cake but facing the base side up so that you've got a completely flat surface.
At this point, you can stop here, just melt your ganache and pour it over the top of your
cake but if you want something that looks a bit more formal, go ahead and take a spoon
full of your ganache and add it to your remaining cream and mix it until it's combined.
It doesn't matter if there is still a few flecks of ganache still in there and then
roughly cover all the sides of your cake in the cream-ganache mixture.
And you can either use the edge of your palate knife or you can use a straight knife to smooth
it out and then level off any excess that is up at the top of the cake.
Dampen some paper towel and use that to clean off the edges of your plate or your cake platter
completely.
And then take a hand full of the almonds, there is no neat way of doing this, just take
a handful of your almonds and pistachios and press them onto the side of the cake, starting
with the top and then pushing them on as they fall down.
And then you're going to end up with excess nuts down the bottom of the cake platter,
just brush those off back into your bowl and keep reapplying until you've got a cover of
nuts on the side of the cake.
Next to decorate the top what we are going to do is put all of your ganache into a Ziploc
bag and then push it into one corner and twist it at the tip so when you are squeezing on
it it doesn't come back out the top of the bag, and use your scissors to cut off the
corner of the bag.
Starting at one side, pipe a dollop of ganache, doesn't matter if it's not perfect, all the
way around the edge of your cake.
Then take a teaspoon and kind of squash it and pull it into the center of the cake for
each of those dollops all the way around.
Next grab your piping bag and make another circle of ganache about an inch in from the
edge and then repeat what you did before with the teaspoon dragging it into the middle.
Then you are going to make one final smaller circle and put one dollop right in the middle.
And that looks beautiful just like that but if you want to dress it up a bit more than
why not put a white chocolate rose on top.
I'll link at the end of this video to the video that shows you how to make the chocolate
flowers.
Thank you for watching.
Don't forget to check out Byron's chocolate cake as well and let me know in the comments
which one you like the taste of best when you've baked them.
And thank you to everyone who's subscribed, I really appreciate it.
Enjoy!