Baking | Sinful Chocolate Cake with Dulce de Leche … chocolate + toffee = heavenly!

“In today’s world, when many of yesterday’s fashionable habits are today’s misdemeanors, we should rejoice that a chocolate dessert can bring so much innocent pleasure.”
Marcel Desaulniers

hocolate Cake with Dulce de Leche 1Chocolate Cake with Dulce de Leche … a sweet beginning to 2014. Always fun to end a year decadently {Dark Chocolate Kumquat Amaranth Mousse Cakes}, and begin the next one on a clean slate. As in my case, maybe with a dose of some more decadence? Actually, it’s more of a ritual because the daughter was born on the 2nd of Jan. Every year begins with a baking frenzy, and of late, chocolate is being demanded more than ever before!

It was more frenzied when she was young as there had to be cookies, brownies, dips too. The works! As they grow up, the pressure here falls … increases everywhere else I have to add! This year was the big 18 and most of her day went with friends as expected. For me, it was a situation which reminded me of Driving Ms Daisy … I drove her up and down all day long! Since I love driving, I cannot complain!

The previous day was busier than I could manage. The cake became a rushed affair. I did have this fancy fondant cake in mind, the colours that she would have loved, with stuff on top which might have knocked her breath away etc… that remained in my dreams! Instead, between racing around like a headless chicken for two whole days, I threw in one genoise after another. Cakes baked, frosting was the next challenge. Thankfully I had a tin of dulce de leche made from an earlier batch when I did this Banoffee Pie.

Dulce de leche,” meaning candy of milk or milk jelly in Spanish, is a rich and decadent sauce or syrup, similar in flavor to caramel. Unlike caramel, however, which is made by heating sugar, dulce de leche is prepared by heating sweetened condensed milk. Dulce de leche is especially common in the desserts of various South American countries, including Argentina and Uruguay.

Might work I thought. Well it had to because I had cut it too fine. While she had a friend over to ring in her birthday at midnight, the poor mother stood in freezing January temperatures trying desperately to fill a chocolate genoise with a hair brained ‘toffee inspired‘ filling idea. Fast approaching the Cinderella hour, I ended up using an adjustable dessert ring  {one of my best buys in Sydney many years ago} and gelatin to stabilize the filling.
Thankfully it turned out fine and ‘set‘ overnight, else I might have wept copious tears. Chocolate and toffee are a wonderful combination. With less than an hour in hand, I did a quick dark chocolate ganache to frost the cake, and made some shards to garnish. There was just enough time to give it a dusting of powdered sugar, take a few snaps …

… and the rest is history! I didn’t get any shots of a slice as the cake went pretty quick after the 18 year old did the honours. I am however sure I will make this again soon. Maybe as soon as I get those cans of condensed milk into the pressure cooker again!

[print_this]Recipe: Chocolate Cake with Dulce de Leche 

Summary: Chocolate and toffee are a pairing made in Dulce de leche heaven. This Chocolate Cake with Dulce de Leche makes a fab special occasion cake. It needs a little advance planning though, like all good things in life do!

Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 2.5 hours plus setting time Ingredients:

  • Chocolate Genoise Cake {x 2; I made 2 cakes and cut them horizontally each to get 4 layers}
  • 4 eggs
  • 90g granulated vanilla sugar
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 50g all-purpose flour
  • 45g dark cocoa powder
  •  20g butter, melted
  • Filling 
  • 3/4 thick portion dulce de leche from 1 tin condensed milk
  • 500ml low fat cream, chilled
  • 2 tsp gelatin powder
  • Frosting
  • 200g dark couverture chocolate
  • 200g low fat cream
  • 25g honey
  • Dulce de leche sauce
  • Remaining dulce de leche 1/4 portion from above
  • 15g salted butter
  • 100g low fat cream {or as required for pouring consistency}

Method:

  1. Chocolate Genoise Cake {I made 2}
  2. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line, grease & flour 2 X 8-inch round cake pan.
  3. Sift the flour and cocoa together three times; reserve.
  4. Bring some water to a boil in a large pan & reduce to simmer. Place eggs, vanilla & sugar in a large bowl. Place over pan of simmering water, and beat constantly until tripled in volume.
  5. Take off heat and continue to beat for another 3-4 minutes until the mixture cools a bit.
  6. Sift about one-third of the flour and cocoa over the whipped eggs. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the mixture-quickly but gently-until combined. Fold in half the remaining flour and cocoa, then fold in the rest.
  7. Scoop about 1 cup of the batter into the bowl with the melted butter and fold together until completely combined. Use the large rubber spatula to fold the butter mixture completely into the remaining batter. Turn the batter into the prepared pan and level with a spatula.
  8. Bake until the cake beginning to shrink slightly around the edges and the top springs back when pressed with your finger, about 40 minutes. Cool the cake completely in the pan on a rack. Cut horizontally into 2.
  9. Repeat for second cake. Total 2 cakes and 4 layers.
  10. Filling
  11. Mix 50ml cream and gelatin in a bowl. Keep over simmering water to dissolve. Mix well.
  12. Whisk in 100 ml low fat cream into the 3/4 portion of the dulce de leche to loosen it
  13. Beat the remaining cream to medium stiff peaks. Fold in the dulce de leche mixture gently, followed by the gelatin.
  14. Assemble
  15. Place 1 layer of genoise on serving platter and place adjustable dessert ring around it. Top with 1/3 of the filling. {If the cake is dry, brush it with a simple sugar syrup first {1/3 cup sugar + 1/4 cup water + 1 tbsp liqueur if you like}
  16. Repeat with the next few layers and cover and allow to set overnight.
  17. Frosting
  18. Dark chocolate ganache
  19. Place chocolate and cream in a heat proof bowl. Microwave for 1 minute at a time. Stir and repeat as necessary. Once the chocolate has melted, add the honey and whisk well to combine until glossy and smooth. Cool before using.
  20. Unmold the cake and give it a slight crumb coat with a little ganache. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes, then use the remaining ganache to frost the cake.
  21. Dulce de leche sauce
  22. While the ganache is setting, gently simmer the ingredients in a heavy bottom small saucepan. {Begin with half the cream and add as required. The amount will depend on how thick the dulce de leche is. Mine was considerably thick}
  23. Reserve in serving jug and cool until the ganache sets.
  24. Pour along the sides of the cake, allowing drips over the sides.
  25. Finish
  26. Finish the border with dark chocolate shards and a dusting of powdered sugar.

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Swiss Black Forest Cake … whipping up low fat cream into submission!

“Bakers are born, not made. We are exacting people who delight in submitting ourselves to rules and formulas if it means achieving repeatable perfection”
Rose Levy Beranbaum
Was missing from bloggerville for a while as we took the kids for a vacation to a charming town called Gangtok tucked away in the Himalayas in the North East of India. It was a 2 hour flight from New Delhi, and then a 5 hour bumpy car ride to the resort. From there, I thought I would tweet and blog a bit, but surprise surprise … we had no connectivity there! It was a surreal feeling in some ways not to be able to keep in touch with the external world. In my free time I experienced twitter cravings, FBC withdrawal symptoms etc and at times felt I had disappeared into oblivion. Thankfully there was loads to do there, so these feelings were pretty short-lived!

Time to return after a good 6 day break in the beautiful Himalayan hills, and we landed on the eve of the lad’s birthday! Didn’t know what hit me as I faced his extreme birthday excitement, piles of laundry, the feeling of extreme food disconnect, and the panic that in 6 days I might have forgotten how to cook & bake! I was mighty relieved that I had baked the basic sponge for his birthday cake and frozen it before we left. Phew!!

Crept out early the next morning, while the rest of the family luxuriously snoozed in dreamland, cursing my luck, but the cake had to be assembled, and that too in soaring temperatures! Yes indeed, we were back into summer. From a cool 15C in the hills, we landed the night before at 39C The day highs here are back to 42-44C. The impending task of frosting a cake in such smoldering conditions was not exactly appealing, but I was  determined to stick to my choice of Swiss Black Forest Cake. The upside was that almost all parts of the cake can be made in advance, so assembling it is a breeze! In retrospect, it was the best Black Forest Cake we’ve ever had! Am still ruing the fact that it disappeared rather too quickly!


Rose Beranbaums version of the Black Forest Cake, a German Classic, was inspired by Confiserie Tschirren in Berne, Switzerland. They brought the recipe from Germany after World War II, and it has since become the national cake of Switzerland. In her words, the Swiss version is far lighter and more delicate than the original German one, which also includes buttercream.

My version of the cake is one which is quite popular in bakeries and patisseries all across India. I think it’s referred often as the Black Forest Gateau here, and is made with whipped cream and canned cherries. I took advantage of fresh cherry season, and loved the way the cake came together. The crumb was light and very moist, the filling luxurious and the flavours outstanding. Mr PABs verdict … the best BFC he’s ever had!

A very sweet reader of my blog, Zareena from the UAE sent me this beautiful book a short while ago. I used The Cake Bible last month to make these Cherry and Matcha Cheesecake Pots. I waited impatiently for the son’s birthday to arrive so I could bake a cake from it. On the cover it says, “If you ever bake a cake, this book will become your partner in the kitchen”! Words that ring true for me! I am also happy to blog about this because I get a large number of requests from home bakers especially in India for a BFC recipe, and even more queries for whipping up low fat cream. Our basic problem in India is that we get just one sort of cream here, a 25% low fat cream {Amul}, and in warm weather, it almost never gets whipped up. I was thrilled to read how Rose Beranbaum found a way to get the butterfat back into the cream. To quote her, “I am both abashed and delighted to announce that it is the very soul of simplicity“… music to my ears!!

Swiss Black Forest Cake
Minimally adapted from The Cake Bible, Rose Beranbaum
Serves 12-15
2 moist chocolate genoise cakes {recipe follows}
500gms cherries {fresh, frozen or canned}
1 cup syrup {recipe follows}
1 portion Real Old Fashioned Whipped Vanilla Cream {recipe follows}
Fresh cherries, grated dark chocolate and chocolate flakes for garnishing

Moist Chocolate Genoise
Adapted minimally from The Cake Bible, Rose Beranbaum
230gms dark chocolate
3/4 cup water
8 eggs
1 cup vanilla sugar
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornflour

Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare 2 9 x 2″ spring form cake tins – greased, bottoms lined with baking parchment, greased and floured again.
Sift the flours. Reserve.
In a large pan, bring the chocolate and the water to boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the chocolate thickens to a pudding like consistency. {The original recipe has 1 cup of water, but I found it way too much and the chocolate took forever to thicken}. Cool completely.
Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl on high speed till tripled in volume, about 7-10 minutes. {I use an electric hand beater}
Sift 1/2 the flour mix over the beaten egg mixture, and fold in gently but rapidly until some of the flour has disappeared. Repeat with the remaining flour until all the flour has disappeared. Fold in the chocolate mixture until incorporated.
Pour immediately into prepared pans {about 2/3 full}, and bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Loosen the sides with a metal spatula/butter knife, and invert onto lightly greased cooling racks. Re-invert to cool. {At this point, the cake stays at room temperature for 2 days, in the fridge for 5 days, and in the freezer for 2 months. I froze it for 10 days, and brought it down into the fridge the night before I was due to use it}
Syrup:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp cherry brandy / liqueur / kirsch {optional}
Bring the sugar and water to a rolling boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Take off heat, stir in the liqueur if using, cover and allow to cool. {Can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a month}
Cherries:
500gms fresh cherries, pitted {reserve 8-10 for topping}
1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar {depending on how sweet they are}
I tossed the cherries in the sugar and froze them as suggested by Rose Beranbaum in The Cake Bible. The sugar helps them hold shape. I brought them down into the fridge the night before, drained any liquid, and roughly chopped them up for use. I think you can use freshly pitted, chopped ones too. I have used canned cherries in the past. Halve the cherries if they are too big.
Real Old Fashioned Whipped Vanilla Cream:
Adapted from Rose Beranbaums recipe
800gms low fat cream {I used 25% Amul Cream}, chilled
2/3 cup unsalted butter
1 vanilla bean scraped
3-4 tbsp powdered sugar {increase if desired; as per taste}
Refrigerate the bowl and beater for 15 minutes.
In a small pan, melt the butter and 1/2 cup cream, stirring constantly till the butter has completely melted. Add the scraped vanilla seeds, and bean, mix well. Transfer to a heatproof measuring cup to cool to room temperature. {Remove the bean before use}.
Beat the remaining cream with sugar until soft peaks are reached. Now begin adding the butter in a gradual stream, beating constantly on low speed, until stiff peaks are formed. {Because the temperature that day was about 43C, I didn’t get very firm whipped cream, but it was good enough to fill and frost the cake.}
Assembling the cake:
Split the chocolate genoise horizontally to get  4 layers. Sprinkle both sides of each layer with the syrup, and reserve on platters. Place the bottom layer on the serving platter.
Reserve about 1/2 the cream for the topping and frosting. Take a third of the remaining cream and spread over the bottom later. Distribute 1/3 of the cherries over the cream, poking into the cream. Repeat with the remaining 3 layers.
Put about 1/2 a cup of cream in a piping bag to make rosettes on top if desired. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cream. Cover the sides with grated dark chocolate. Pipe rosettes on top, sprinkle chocolate flakes in the centre, and place cherries on the rosettes. Chill until ready to serve. {I found the cake easier to cut with a serrated knife because of the cherries in the filling}
Note: The cake will taste better if allowed to chill for at least 4 hours to help the flavours to mature.
♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

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