A couple days ago, it was a friend of mine's birthday, so I offered to make him a cake. He asked me for a very chocolatey cupcake, but I don't like to make cupcakes, so I promised him a chocolate cake. I found this recipe, for which I already had all the ingredients, and that didn't seem too complicated to make. Well, let's just say that it is like the directions on items you buy for the house, you know, the ones you supposedly can assemble in 15 minutes but take you three days?
You know by now that impatience is my weakness. So you'll be proud of me when I say I really took my time with the prep work, making sure I had everything ready. I even managed to stay neat. I made sure I followed all directions to the letter. I was also very excited to use my stand mixer. It worked like a charm, that's for sure.
The cake is a genoise, a very light cake. It had a little bit of cocoa powder to make it chocolate. Ooops, I misread the ingredients. It called for unsweetened powder and I had only sweetened cocoa powder. Never mind, it worked. Next problem, the recipe does not specify what size pan to use, so I used an 8" springform pan. The baking took an extra 10 minutes from what the recipe says, but it came out beautifully. The filling is a ganache and the icing is also chocolate.
The problems started when I tried to put it all together. All parts tasted delicious on their own (although I would not recommend eating too much of the ganache or icing, it's a bit much), which was already a big plus.
First issue though: cutting the cake. I had bought one of those cake-cutters with a wire, that help you cut layers in a cake. Well, let's just say that it is hard to use and actually did not work at all for me. So I had to resort to a knife. The result was a bit messy. My layers were ok in terms of thickness but the middle was not flat and there were a lot of crumbs. :-(
Second problem: the ganache. Delicious! But I used almost all of it just for the first layer! So I scrambled to make more, doubling the original recipe since I needed to make two more layers of ganache. I ended up with a lot of ganache left over. Oh well... I would also maybe reduce the cream a little, just to have a slightly thicker ganache.
Third problem, the icing. Same as with the ganache. I did not have enough and scrambled to make a second batch. Now this icing needs to be poured over the cake and supposedly will form a shiny smooth cover. I probably used the wrong chocolate, I also probably did not use enough of the oil, I used half the amount of the recipe. I still did not have enough to cover the whole cake. But the biggest problem was that this icing shows all the imperfections in the cake.
First issue though: cutting the cake. I had bought one of those cake-cutters with a wire, that help you cut layers in a cake. Well, let's just say that it is hard to use and actually did not work at all for me. So I had to resort to a knife. The result was a bit messy. My layers were ok in terms of thickness but the middle was not flat and there were a lot of crumbs. :-(
Second problem: the ganache. Delicious! But I used almost all of it just for the first layer! So I scrambled to make more, doubling the original recipe since I needed to make two more layers of ganache. I ended up with a lot of ganache left over. Oh well... I would also maybe reduce the cream a little, just to have a slightly thicker ganache.
Third problem, the icing. Same as with the ganache. I did not have enough and scrambled to make a second batch. Now this icing needs to be poured over the cake and supposedly will form a shiny smooth cover. I probably used the wrong chocolate, I also probably did not use enough of the oil, I used half the amount of the recipe. I still did not have enough to cover the whole cake. But the biggest problem was that this icing shows all the imperfections in the cake.
All this being said, I am pretty proud of the end result for a first try at layered cakes. This is definitely one I will try again in the not too distant future. My friend took a picture of the cake, so here it is. I hope he will let you know how it tasted in the comments ;-)
Any suggestions on how to cut a cake in layers?
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