Thursday, January 14, 2010

Chocolate Truffle Gateau

Photobucket
You know you are getting old when.....

  • You wake up the morning of your birthday and decide to bake your own cake

  • You pick up a foreign magazine, written in a foreign language (മലയാളം), and decide on the spot. Yes! That one right there. That's the cake you'll make.

  • Never mind the fact that the recipe is also written in said foreign language.

  • But you're too old to let trivial matters like that stop you.

  • It's other facts like not even putting a representative number of candles on your cake that are more worrisome.

  • Four? Four times Four + Four = nah, that didn't work....

  • But at least the candles were hot pink.
This recipe for Chocolate Truffle Cake came from the Chef De Partie at the CG Hearth Experience Hotel Group, Kochi, Kerala. But it wasn't that guests in the Brunton Boatyard Hotel below were strolling around and eating this cake that got me.


Nope, it was pretty much the word Chocolate. (And even after making the cake, I'm still not sure where the Truffle part comes in).....

This cake is a light sponge, doused in a rum-infused sugar syrup and then coated in a silky chocolate cream. Happy Birthday To Me wrapped up all in there. I made this cake in Decemebr for my birthday....

After several text messages to people asking if "jhg%^$^$&" means 6 eggs or 7 eggs, I deciphered the recipe and it turned out pretty good. The kids devoured the icing, but didn't think the sponge underneath was that hot. The husband solidly ate through two-thirds of the cake. Moi, I'm still working off the combined effects of 6 eggs in a cake. Or was it 7? =)
Alas, this recipe was in good ol' Continental measure, so break out yer grams and yer millilitres, because that handy-dandy web conversion tool I had on the side of this blog seems to have gone missing. (R.I.P. Culiverter, though I'm sure there are just a few bazillion other web converting tools out there for your perusal).
Chocolate Truffle Cake (As seen (and meticulously translated via text messaging) in Vanitha magazine. My definition of "meticulous")

Sponge Cake

Flour - 135 grams
Cocoa Powder - 1 heaped Tbsp
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Eggs - 6
Sugar - 200 grams
Hot milk - 5 Tbsp

"Truffle" Cream
Grated Dark Chocolate - 150 grams (I used Baker's SemiSweet Chocolate)
Heavy Cream - 150 grams

Sugar Syrup
Sugar - 100 grams
Water - 250 ml
Lemon juice - a few drops
Rum - 2 Tbsp

Method
1. Preheat oven to 235 degrees Celsius/ 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Prepare Sponge -
3. Mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder in a bowl.
4. Beat eggs and sugar together in another bowl till creamy.
5. Add hot milk to the egg and sugar mixture whilst beating continuously.
6. Fold in the flour mixture from (3) into the egg-sugar-milk mixture in small increments until just combined
7. Pour batter into a greased cake tin and bake in pre-heated oven for 8 minutes. Yes, people - 8 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick if you don't believe.
8. Prepare Truffle Cream -
9. Put cream and chocolate in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water and stir till chocolate melts.
10. Allow to cool, and refridgerate truffle cream for a minimum of 2 hours.
11. Prepare Sugar Syrup -
12. Heat water and sugar in a pot over medium heat. After the sugar dissolves, remove from heat and add lemon juice. If any sediments rise to the top, spoon these off and discard, and add rum.
12. Assemble Cake -
13. My cake did not rise that much, so I got two layers, but depending on your preference, slice the cake into as many layers as you want.
14. Brush the layers (sides and underneath as well) with the sugar syrup.
15. Spread truffle cream between the layers, and place layers back on top of each other.
16. Use the remaining truffle cream (heat if necessary to get a little better spreading consistency) to spread over the top of the cake and sides.

This cake is going over to Dil Se for the event "Show Me Your Cake".

8 comments:

FH said...

Happy Birthday to you Ann. Cake looks wonderful. Hot pink is all we need as we get..Ahem...! You know what I mean? No need for those exact no of candles! :D

Enjoy the day and wish the best always.

Desisoccermom said...

Happy Birthday to you Ann, and I am trying to guesstimate your age while typing this comment. The cake looks amazing and I would have googled the conversion chart and made it right away if I wasn't still eating through my Mexican Wedding Cookies, not to mention trying to lose 8 lbs, hopefully by the end of this year. :)

tasteofbeirut said...

Ann
Happy Birthday! I admire your perseverance in deciphering the recipe!
It does look great!
Cheers
Joumana

Bombay Foodie said...

Belated Happy Birthday! Ganache (aka truffle cream) is the only icing I can ever eat on a cake so this might get on the baking list for my birthday too :)

s said...

Nice..esp with the pink candles...and u made that from a mallu mag!! way to go girl..

Cynthia said...

Happy Birthday!

Divya Kudua said...

Belated birthday wishes Ann..:)

I remember seeing the recipe in Vanitha,lucky me,I could read the recipe but I still haven't tried it.You have done a great job with a "foreign" language recipe..LOL.

Rookie Qookie said...

Parcel please :) really gud work ...From your profile statements I differ coz I find your cakes absolutely gorgeous...

Cheers
RookieQookie