Sunday, January 4, 2015

TBB: Chocolate Cuddle Cake



I made this cake in record speed...because I was running out of time, so I did a lot of short-cuts.  I didn't follow instructions exactly on the book, but I followed exactly the ingredients and weight measurements. 


First, I made the ganache.


I placed the cream, chocolate pieces into the glass bowl and microwave 20seconds x 2.


And got a smooth ganache. Then stirred in the Kuala and vanilla extract...and set aside to cool.

I forgot to take photos of cake making process because I was doing 2 things at the same time with both hands.  One hand was holding a hand-held mixer to beat the yolks/sugar/oil/chocolate/flour mixture and the other hand was pouring the sugar into my standing bowl mixture where the egg white was being whipped to become meringue. This way, I don't have to wait..I can have both ready at the same time to be folded in together. So, both hands tied... and my helper was busy with other things she had to do...  

Finally...after folding the egg white into the chocolate mixture, I poured the batter into the removable base pan.  From my experience baking chiffon in pan, there is no need to line the pan, neither is there a need to put a nail in the centre.  (I also did not put a cake strip around the pan either - actually I didn't realise I needed a cake strip around the pan..:p!).   So I took my chance and didn't do all that and baked in removable base pan.



While the cake is in the oven baking, I made caramel.  Not a lot of camarel..so I used my tiny non-stick saucepan.  



Somehow, I didn't have any extra caramel left over. 
You can see the total caramel I had was 153g!..and I wasn't going to keep that 3g of caramel! 



Poured the chocolate/cream mixture into the caramel.



This is my chiffon cake stand.  I think this is popular in Asia. 
I see this chiffon cake stand for removal base pan in Chinese baking books quite often.  
And this is very good stand to have imo. :)  



Cake out of the oven and I flipped over the pan to let it stand on the chiffon cake stand..but I didn't centre the stand properly.. as long as the pan didn't fall over.   The stand despite being very thin, it's quite steady. It supports the removable base from collapsing onto the chiffon cake while cooling.



After cooling, I removed the cake from the pan...had to cut very close to the edge of the pan..like how you remove chiffon from tube pan.




You can see there are 4 small holes. The top is a bit burnt because I thought I lowered the temperature of the oven to 175c, but I didnt and it was set at a slightly higher temperature.
The top was very smooth...no cracks. 




Marie mentioned that Woody said have to measure the height, so I had to find my ruler to measure my cake and take a picture as well. Quite high! :D  


I turned the cake upside down to frost the cake.


Frost with ganache...and pipe tiny shells on top.



Fill with Caramel Whipped Cream. I should have warmed up my caramel before I added to the whipped cream. Because I thought at our 27c room temperature, it should never fall below 21c. But when I put into the cold whipped cream, the caramel hardened! Yikes..very hard to make blend into the whipped cream.  I keep beating until the cream actually seized!..from over beating. I try to salvage it by adding more cream..and it worked..not 100% smooth...but at least 90% smooth and 10% grainy...



Below:  A slice of the chocolate cuddle cake - a brighter pic, verses a darker version.

I took all the photos with my phone, so the first photo didn't look as nice when I try to focus on the cake and the surrounding becomes over-exposed. 




How do we like it?  It's very good! Everyone in my family said it's good. The Caramel Whipped Cream is soo YUMMY! I like this new, refreshing flavor as a whipped cream. I love it so much, I think next time I will put caramel into my buttercream as well!  I would have preferred the cake to be sliced into 2 and layered with more caramel whipped cream.  The cake I find too tall with nothing in centre...quite a waste because the caramel whipped cream is soooo good..could have had more of it.

The cake is good too. Moist, spongy, soft. However, I felt it is not as soft as a regular chiffon because this chiffon cake uses unbleached flour as opposed to cake flour. I have tried other chiffon recipes in pan with cake flour and it worked as well and softer too.  I love this recipe, so I will definitely be making it again. But next time I will try with cake flour and double up the caramel whipped cream.





22 comments:

Lois B on January 4, 2015 at 10:27 PM said...

Faithy, you two fisted baker! You are the model of efficiency with two mixers running at once. I'm glad to hear your family liked the cuddle cake. I still have to make mine today.

Michele at The Artful Oven on January 4, 2015 at 10:52 PM said...

Hello, Faithy! Your cake looks beautiful! I'm going to look for one of those cooling racks, that looks really great. Love the way you decorated the cake! I also thought about splitting the cake into two layers, I may try that next time. Isn't that caramel delicious? I love it! Great job on this post. I hope you will visit me at www.artfuloven to see my results.

Rosa V. on January 4, 2015 at 11:55 PM said...
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Rosa V. on January 4, 2015 at 11:57 PM said...
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Rosa V. on January 5, 2015 at 12:00 AM said...

Faithy, your chocolate cuddle cake looks so wonderful and fluffy and also high, how did you get it that big and high ,it looks fantastic and your pictures are beautiful too.

Vicki on January 5, 2015 at 12:38 AM said...

That's brilliant using a hand held mixer and a stand mixer! I love your cooling stand; never seen anything like it here. Your cake looks scrumptious!

Mendy on January 5, 2015 at 3:08 AM said...

ב''ה

I also had seizing issues with the whipped cream. I think it may have been from the heat and not from over-whipping. Yours came out great!

Rosa V. on January 5, 2015 at 9:25 AM said...

Hi faithy , I think it has nothing to do with the strips of parchment paper because Marie uses that and hers is pretty high. I think it has to do with a pan, what kind of pan do you use, it 's it a spring Form that you lock on the side or what.

evil cake lady on January 5, 2015 at 2:01 PM said...

wow, good to know the nail isn't really necessary! i love your double mixing technique!

Faithy on January 5, 2015 at 3:30 PM said...
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Faithy on January 5, 2015 at 3:31 PM said...

@Evil Cake Lady - I was thinking maybe it is not necessary in my case because I had the chiffon cake cooling stand? Because when it is out I invert onto the stand and then the cake will cling onto it? *shrugs*.. Because when the cake cools down and I invert the pan, the cake holds the stand and it doesn't fall off..until i pull it out.

Raymond on January 6, 2015 at 12:20 AM said...

Totally beautiful. I always skip alot of the steps, especially the food processor for making ganache.

Katya on January 6, 2015 at 3:28 AM said...

I never make ganache in the food processor, I admit. I also don't have a microwave so a lot of the 'quick burst reheating' bit is lost on me.

Unknown on January 6, 2015 at 6:56 AM said...

Yum, yum, yum! Your pictures make me want to bake it again.

Hanaâ on January 6, 2015 at 10:29 AM said...

Your cake turned out beautiful. So tall with a nice smooth top (mine wasn't smooth on top but I turned it upside down like you did). You'll have to check my blog post later (I'm about to write it) on how I always make caramel whipped cream.

inthekitchen on January 6, 2015 at 10:38 AM said...

Your cake is beautiful! I love how dark it is and the contrast of the whipped cream and darker cake/ganache.

I love that chiffon cake stand cooling rack thingy. Very neat.

My cake was definitely missing the caramel whipped cream. Reading everyone's review of it, it seems like the best part of the cake! I will definitely make the complete recipe next time (and there will be a next time :)

http://bakedtoorder.blogspot.com/2015/01/roses-alpha-bakers-chocolate-cuddle-cake.html

Rose Levy Beranbaum on January 6, 2015 at 11:45 AM said...

Faithy--that is so fascinating! i've never seen a stand like that and it certainly addresses the loose bottom pan's tendency to separate from the sides when inverted. i wonder if they sell those in the US? We may have used the nail because it worked so well in the Fleming lemon chiffon and now i'm wondering if it wasn't necessary!

Unknown on January 6, 2015 at 11:49 AM said...

I'm so jealous of your HEIGHT! How?!?!?! mine was barely 2 1/2 " tall! And in all seriously I'm actually googling your cake stand, I want one!

Alpha Baker Joan on January 6, 2015 at 4:04 PM said...

Faithy - you have this wonderful spirit and presence that you are so inventive and it works! Marvelous quality for a baker I think - awesome. What a cake!

Unknown on January 7, 2015 at 12:12 AM said...

Looks fabulous, Faithy.

Patricia @ ButterYum on January 7, 2015 at 3:45 AM said...

It's PERFECT. I'm intrigued by your heavy cream - it looks so thick and rich. Your photos are perfect. You should own a bakery!! Have a great week.

Patricia @ ButterYum
http://www.butteryum.org/roses-alpha-bakers/2014/12/21/tbb-chocolate-cuddle-cake

SweetThingsTO on January 7, 2015 at 10:27 PM said...

Hi Faithy, Happy New Year!! Hope you had a great start of the year and thanks for visiting my blog!

 

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