Monday, March 7, 2011

OTT (Over the top Chocolate Cake) with tons of chocolate filling & frosting and toasted almonds for a crunch!

Recently, for a a friend's hubby's Birthday I asked her what should I bake him and she replied " An OTT (over the top) Chocolate Cake".

I was pondering over it for about a week about how should I make a chocolate cake with different layers so that it didn't taste too sweet and you could differentiate the layers of chocolate and the difference in the chocolate so it didn't taste like a sludge of brown layers...

I chose to do a chocolate yogurt layer as the yogurt gives it an extra moistness and I didn't want the cake to be too dry (which sponge cakes usually are). I did a Chocolate Buttercream filling with Hershey's Chocolate for the filling and brushed the layers with a mixture of cocoa powder, sugar and water so that the cake layers became even more moist. The frosting was the toughest - I wanted it to enhance the taste of the chocolate cake and so I used mascarpone cheese and about half a box of store bought Pillsbury Dark Chocolate frosting (yeah, I was getting a bit tired with all the baking since I am still recovering) - whirred it all together and used it to the frost the cake. It was perfect and slightly tangy and not overpoweringly sweet. Now I wanted to add some nuttiness to the cake to enhance the flavors of the chocolate and suddenly hit upon the idea of toasted almonds. I just toasted them in the pan with a bit of olive oil and whirred some of them in the grinder to have coarse almonds to add on the frosting... their saltiness totally enhanced the cake and everyone said it took the cake to a totally different level.

I tried to make a small cake and a big cake but I am not sure if you can differentiate the layers in my pictures. I also made five cupcakes with some leftover batter I had and decorated it with the chocolate buttercream frosting for the kids... a total hit!

Recipe with exact measurements to follow soon. For now, please enjoy the pictures... which I could give you a picture of the slice... but the cake just melted into the mouth...


No comments: