Posted by Audrey on September 02, 1998 at 02:00:46:
In Reply to: Re: Need help with wedding favor ideas (chocolate) posted by Gerard on August 28, 1998 at 14:15:47:
I'm making the cake for my wedding. I've already done three practise runs of it, and it's coming out better and better.
Not being too fancy with it - the base cakes are both cakes I've been making forever - I made them at least once a month for 8 years. No terrors with the cakes themselves! Assembly is a bit of a pain, but my technique is improving.
Anyone want to comment on the recipe below? I did write this for the benefit of people who tasted a test version of the cake and wanted a recipe; problems listed below (except for smoothing the marzipan adequately) have all been resolved. It's been scaled up to make 2 9 inch cakes, which will serve 30 quite nicely.
Audrey's wedding cake.
1. Orange Pound Cake
1 Orange
2 eggs
125 g sugar
125 g self-raising flour
125 g butter
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in grated zest of orange, orange juice, and eggs. Fold in flour.
Bake in well greased and floured tin until cake leaves the side of the pan and skewer comes out clean. A kugelhopf tin works well (be generous with your greasing; I have had this stick horribly!) In sponge tin, line base with non-stick baking paper.
Note: this cake can also be made with lemons and other fruit. It's called a pound cake because the original cake uses one pound of each ingredient. (Look carefully and you'll notice that the recipe above uses a quarter of a pound of each ingredient. The cake is fragile and breaks easily when you slice it for filling.
2. Chocolate "Mont Blanc" cake
250 g dark chocolate
100 g sugar
100 g unsalted butter, cut in small pieces
75 g plain flour
4 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons of liquid to flavour - coffee, liqueur, brandy, or just water work well. You must use water if nothing else!
Melt chocolate with liquid in bowl over hot water. Add butter and stir until melted in. Beat in sugar and egg yolks, then add flour.
Fold in stiffly beaten eggwhites. Pour into greased and floured tin.
Bake for about 40 minutes in oven at 180 degrees, until skewer comes out clean. Watch for burning; chocolate burns horribly.
Note: this cake is called "Mont Blanc" because it's meant to be cooked in a kugelhopf mould, and then the centre hole filled with a mound of cream before serving, so that it resembles a snow covered mountain. It's very nice this way!
3. Chocolate cream filling. (Ganache)
150 ml pure cream (King Island or similar - not thickened!)
150 g dark chocolate, chopped.
Bring cream to boil. (Glass bowl in microwave works well) Add chocolate off the heat and stir until chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Leave to cool.
Note 1: Leave this stuff to cool, and you've got truffle mixture, which can be rolled or piped into truffles. You can substitute 10% of the cream with liqueur to flavour.
Note 2: This stuff can (according to recipe books) be poured over the top of the cake for icing. I've never really tried it.
4. Assembly
Sugar Syrup
1 volume of water
2 volumes of sugar
Mix together and bring to boil. Use when warm. (I cheated and used a microwave and a small ceramic dish - if in a saucepan you couldn't really get away with less than half a cup of sugar. This does get very hot so be careful - no glass dishes!)
Note: for the wedding cake I used the above cakes and baked them in 8 inch sponge tins. The chocolate cake is firmer and will work better for the top and bottom of the cake; definitely use the chocolate at the bottom so that you can cut it in neat slices.
Slice the orange cake in the middle.
Slice the chocolate cake twice, into three slices. It will probably have a rounded top, whereas the orange cake will be flat.
Put the bottom of the chocolate cake on a plate. Spread a thin layer of the chocolate cream over (about 40 ml; 2 tablespoons, should do the trick). Follow with a layer of orange, and continue. Top layer will be the rounded top of the chocolate cake.
Finish with icing. I was using a wedding type icing, which is a layer of marzipan and a layer of white icing; both of which I bought in the supermarket. Roll marzipan thinly, drape over cake and smooth on. Brush with sugar syrup as glue, then put on layer of white icing. Don't forget to apply glue to cake before applying the first marzipan coat. (I haven't a clue what to use for this bit! Superglue might be as good as anything. -- later -- I hear that the sugar syrup can be brushed on the cake to glue the marzipan to the cake. I'll be trying it next time I practise the cake.)
And there you have it. I started yesterday at about 2 pm; had the cakes baked by 4 pm, had an hour's nap while they cooled, then cooked dinner and finished the icing to have the cake finished at 6.
The final cake weighed 1.8 kilograms!
Footnote for non-Australian readers.
1. King Island cream is extra thick - minimum 55% butterfat. It's solid!
2. White icing is bought in packets like marzipan; I think it's equivalent to the US fondant icing. Or it might be some sort of Royal icing; I'm not sure.