As we all well know, I am not most food bloggers. Most food bloggers have decent cameras and also something called "natural lighting" in their fabulous kitchens and endless different kinds of cupcake wrappers. Also, they're not as awkward as I am.
So, in honor of dancing to the beat of my own drum (or accordion, you know, for Irish dancing), I bring you cake.
I don't have a favorite cake, when it comes to eating them. How do you pick a favorite child?
This cake, however, may, hands down, be my favorite cake to MAKE, ever.
This is for a couple of reasons.
Number 1:
It's GORGEOUS.
Number 2:
Making it, and thereby making it GORGEOUS, is an easy thing to do.
I'm not even kidding. If you would like to make a fabulous dessert that looks fabulous and tastes fabulous and is fabulously easy, this is it. Chances are, you have most of the ingredients already, with the exception of one or two. Also, it could feed an army.
Three layers, THREE LAYERS OF CHOCOLATELY GOODNESS! And a really easy whipped cream frosting. Top all of that off with ganache. Doesn't ganache just make everything even better than it already is?
(p.s. you are going to want to use the biggest bowl you own to mix up the cake. Seriously. Huge. And you might cry when you see the length of the directions, but trust me, you can do it.)
Tuxedo Cake
For the cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups water
1 cup canola oil
4 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cups flour
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 TB baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 TB vanilla extract
For the frosting:
4 cups chilled heavy whipping cream
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
For the chocolate glaze:
4 oz high-quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup Lyle's Golden Syrup
2 tsp vanilla
To make the cake:
For a 3-layer cake, place one baking rack one-third from the bottom of the oven and the second two-thirds from the bottom. Preheat oven to 350. Line the bottom of three 9 inch, or two 10 inch (if doing a 2-layer cake) cake pans with parchment paper rounds, grease with butter and dust with flour.
Combine the butter, water, and canola oil in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, cocoa, and flour. Pour the butter mixture into the sugar mixture and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, then whisk in the buttermilk. Whisk in the baking soda, salt, and vanilla all at once. Transfer the batter to the prepared pans. For the 3-layer cake, stagger the cake layers on the oven racks so that no layer is directly over another. Set two layers on one rack and the third on the other. For a 2-layer cake, stagger the layers on the middle rack with one placed more toward the front of the oven and one toward the back. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of each layer comes out clean. Monitor the layers carefully for doneness; each one may be done at a different time.
Remove the cakes from the oven and cool on racks for about 15 minutes before inverting onto baking racks. Cool the cakes completely, at least 2 hours, before frosting.
To make the frosting: Using a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the cream in a large bowl on high speed until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and whip until thoroughly combined.
Place 1 cake layer on a platter and spread some of the frosting over the top. Top with the remaining layer or layers, thickly coating the top and sides of each with frosting.
Refrigerated the cake until the whipped cream frosting has stabilized, at least 1 hour (Mine took longer, I would plan on letting it refrigerate for 4 hours minimum, just to be safe.)
To make the glaze: Place the chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it is very hot and just beginning to steam. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until it has melted completely. Stir in the syrup and vanilla. Pour the glaze into a medium pitcher or measuring cup and let cool for 10 minutes. Do not let the glaze sit longer because it will stiffen and become difficult to pour over the cake. Slowly pour the glaze over the cake, ensuring that it covers the top and drizzles down the sides. Cover the of the cake entirely, but make sure some of the cream frosting shows through the drizzles on the sides. (If the glaze doesn't flow easily over the edge of the cake, don't be afraid to add an extra tablespoon or two of the golden syrup.)
Refrigerate the cake until the glaze is set and the whipped cream frosting is firm, at least 1 hour. Slice the cake with a long serrated knife, dipping it in a tall glass of hot water between each slice.
The refrigerated cake will keep for about 2 days.
See? Big bowl. This is the biggest bowl I have and it was still pushing it. I just made sure to mix the ingredients in slowly at first, and then whisked after they were slightly incorporated.
Sorry for the blurriness. The placement of the cakes was kind of weird. And follow the recipe's advice, check them all periodically because they probably won't all be done at the same time.
But it's worth the weirdness of baking 3 layers at once, right? :)
Mmmmm. Frosting.
At this point, I probably could've eaten it like this and been happy.
No, the cake didn't turn yellow, that's just my fantastic lighting. Here it is all frosted and ready to sit in the fridge. Again, mine took about 4 hours until the frosting was set how I wanted it to be.
And Pete was cute taking a nap in the middle of all of this.
This is Lyle's Golden Syrup! I found mine at HEB with the breakfast and Caro syrups.
Here is something that I learned about ganache from a truffle class I took a couple of years ago. When you add warm cream to chopped up chocolate, let it sit for a couple of minutes to soften up the chocolate before stirring. This will be very hard, because you will want to start stirring immediately. Fight the urge! It will blend more easily if you let it sit first :)
You don't need a huge container for the ganache part. Mine fit just fine into my 1 cup glass.
At this point I should tell you that this cake was going to be traveling. I do not recommend this cake for traveling.
Right before I mixed up the ganache to pour on top, I started having visions of driving this cake from our place to Mike's parents' place and having 3 layers of cake going 3 different directions with every turn. So I called up my friend and asked if she had skewers (it was Sunday or else I would've gone out and bought some) and luckily she did! (this paid off for her, as I took a fourth of the cake to her later that night. See how I trade food for goods?)
So, if you feel the need to take this cake somewhere other than your own table (possible, but again, I don't recommend it) then I would add skewers for stability while traveling.
It was at this point when I almost started singing. I couldn't believe how PERFECTLY the glaze was going down the sides! I mean isn't that beautiful?
Be careful not to pull away from the cake too much though, as you pour, or you'll end up with random spots like this.
Look at that. I know. I KNOW. This is wonderfully moist and rich so it won't take much for one person.
Also, Mike's aunt Susan was visiting for the weekend, and her birthday is coming up, so it became a birthday cake! Yay!
Happy birthday Susan!!!
Recipe Source: The Pastry Queen, Rebecca Rather (this is a GREAT book, I can't wait to get it for myself someday, rather than just checking it out of the library all of the time :-))