Chocolate genoise cake recipe

It was that day when a friend posted  the above pic on Facebook and the chocolate cake took all my attention... lol  I shared it on my Facebook wall as well. Few of my friends hinted about baking a cake. And it was a time when I have not baked a indulging cake for a long time. And decided to go ahead with my gut, don’t waste time when you want to bake a chocolate cake :)

I wanted a rich, soft and moist cake and I checked into my reference book which is nothing but ‘Joy of cooking’ oh I treasure this book like anything. I thought of baking a black forest cake but I dint have cherries in stock. So instead I thought of making the genoise and layer it with chocolate whipped cream. The whole effort was so worth as the cake turned out delicious and my son kept asking for his second helping, he dint even stop at his fifth helping …yes trust me on this. I happened to share it with my neighbours too and they loved it.

Ok without delaying much let me get into the recipe

Ingredients for the cake

All-purpose flour -¾ cup+1 tbsp.

Cocoa powder - ½ cup + 1 tbsp.

Sugar- 1 cup

Eggs- 6 eggs

Butter – 1/3 cup

Vanilla extract – 1 tspn

Method

• Sift the flour and cocoa powder together and keep aside.
• Melt the butter and keep aside.
• Set the bowl of eggs and sugar in a skillet of barely simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture is warm to the touch (about 110 degrees F). Remove the bowl from the heat and beat on high speed until the mixture is lemony coloured, has tripled in volume and has  reached the stage where when the batter dropped from a spoon  should flow like a continuous flat ribbon, approximately 10-15 mins if using a hand held mixer. In 3 additions, sift the flour mixture over the top and fold in very gently with a rubber spatula.
• Add in the melted butter mixture and also a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the batter and fold gently.
• Scrape the batter and pour in a 9 inch pan and bake for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and remove it from the tin to a wire rack. Let it cool.

Ingredients for moistening syrup

½ cup sugar

1/3 cup water

• Mix, cook stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

Ingredients for the chocolate whipped cream

100 gms of cooking chocolate

3 tbsps. Of boiling water

One cup of fresh cream

2-3 tbspns – icing sugar

• Whip fresh creaming keeping the bowl of fresh cream over a bowl of ice or cold water and whisk until puffed up and form soft peaks. Don’t over whip as it might split.
• Pour the hot water over the chocolate and wait for it to melt and whisk well until the chocolate is smooth.
• Fold in the chocolate mixture slowly into the whipped cream and mix gently.

Assembling the cake

• Slice the cake into two discs.
• Take one disc and place on a board or a plate and sprinkle the moistening syrup.
• Spread the chocolate cream over the moistened cake.
• Moisten the top of another layer with the syrup and place the moist side down to the chocolate cream. Press to level.
• Moisten the top of the layer. Spread the remaining chocolate cream over and sides of the cake.
• You could decorate or pipe rosettes.

Tip. You can use the same recipe for black forest cake by filling the layers with cherries and decorate the cake with cherries and chocolate shaving.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 12 hours before serving.

Happy Baking :)

Thanks

Chaithanya