Solo Mission -Birthday Cake: Chocolate with Raspberry Chocolate Ganache revisited: 4/3/10

For Alison's birthday she requested I make the Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Chocolate Ganache that we made last year. As we go, I've been making copies of the recipe we're using for my notebook, and jotting down notes on the page as we go, ideas for improvements, details of what oven and pans we used, etc. I pulled out the recipe / notes we had made, and discovered that for the ganache, I only had a list of the ingredients, sans instructions. I found copy of the Chocolate Ganache recipe and printed it up on its own page, ready to add to my ever-growing notebook.

Once again I doubled the recipes, as I wanted to create a two-layer cake, and not a single cake. I mixed the dry ingredients in a bowl, and the wet ingredients (sans vinegar) in another. Keeping in mind the trouble we had our first attempt with the multicolored spots, I made sure to thoroughly mix the ingredients when I added the liquids, and even more when I added the vinegar. The batter did turn out 2-tone and bubbly as the vinegar reacted with the baking soda. I mixed thoroughly, almost longer than I was comfortable with.

I split the batter between two cake pans, my "classic" 9" round x 1 1/2" and my brand new round (no handle) no-stick 9" round x 2". I put both in the middle rack. the 1 1/2" pan was done with 23 minutes, but an additional 8 minutes were needed for the larger pan.

I made the ganache as the cakes were in the oven, heating about 1/3-1/2 cup of raspberry preserves on the stove a little, and mixing it in the ganache. Once I had mixed everything, I took the pan off the heat, covered, and let it set at room temperature while the cakes finished and cooled. The gancache ended up being a little chunky, and I'll need to heat the preserves a little more, to make it mix better.

When the cakes were done, I placed them on a wire rack to cool and walked away for several hours. They turned out well, and both came easily out of the pans, once they were cool. The ganache also went on easily, driving home the lesson of patience, letting the cakes cool completely.


Since Alison wanted a first book/movie Harry Potter cake, a la Hagrid (aka, lopsided), I tried putting the two tops of the cake together (thinking the round sides together would create the desired effect) but the the difference was too big. I flipped the top cake over (made in the 2" pan) and set to slicing a wedge off the bottom. Flipping the cake did result in less ganache between the layers, though.

Once the piece was settled, I realized the top cake was had a slightly larger diameter than the bottom cake (a good indication I need two identical pans) and worked to trim the edge off the top cake. This left the side a bit crumbly, and harder to ice, but with my new offset spatula, the room-temperature ganache, a lot of persistence, and a little creativity (using the ganache in layers to fill in the lopsided bits) I think the finish product turned out okay. Happily, Alison agreed.

New tools/ Ingredients: 9" round x 2"; off-set spatula
Recipe from: Mountain-High Chocolate Cake: Student's Vegetarian Cookbook, Revised
    Rich Chocolate Ganache Topping: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
Co-bakers: None
Date: April 3, 2010