For this recipe, you will need:

Ingredients

1 egg white
1 packet Vanilla instant pudding – I used Moirs Instant pudding
1/3 of the milk as per Instant pudding packet instructions
2 cups icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
Gel food colouring – optional (2ml for pastel colours, increase if you want a darker shade)

Method

Mix instant pudding with milk & chill at least 30 minutes, or until set
Beat egg white until stiff
Using a metal spoon or spatula, fold egg white into instant pudding once pudding has set. If using food colouring, add together with the egg white.
Now sieve the icing sugar over the pudding-egg mixture, and then beat until there are no lumps of icing sugar remaining

This should suffice for 36 cupcakes – depending on how much is used per cupcake. Note that the egg white will cause the icing to harden on the outside if left standing for a few minutes, while still moist on the inside. Icing sugar looks almost like a layer of clay on top of the cupcakes. Works really well if you want to decorate with cupcake art.

Ingredients for cake layers

3/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 teaspoon instant-espresso powder
1/2 cup full cream milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup softened butter
2 cups sticky brown sugar
4 large eggs

Ingredients for ganache filling & glaze

2 1/2 cups fresh cream
560g good quality bittersweet chocolate (finely chopped, or diced in a food processor)

Method

Cake layers

• Preheat oven to 180°C
• Spray 3 20cm round cake tins with non stick cooking oil spray , and line bottoms with rounds of wax paper. Spray the paper as well, and dust pans with flour, knocking out excess
• Whisk together water, cocoa, and espresso powder until smooth, then whisk in milk and vanilla
• Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt
• Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until fluffy, then add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition
• Add flour mixture and cocoa mixture in batches, beginning and ending with flour and mixing at low speed until just combined.
• Divide batter among pans (about 2 1/3 cups per pan), smoothing tops. Bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes for 7-inch pans or 20 to 25 minutes for 8-inch. Cool in pans on a rack 30 minutes, then invert onto racks, remove paper, and cool completely

Prepare ganache while cakes bake

• Bring cream to a simmer in a 3 – 4 liter  saucepan and remove from heat. Whisk in chocolate until smooth. Transfer ganache to a bowl and chill, covered, stirring occasionally, until thickened but spreadable, about 4 hours. (If ganache becomes too thick, let stand at room temperature until slightly softened.)

Assemble cake

• Arrange 1 layer on a cake stand or plate and spread 2/3 cup ganache evenly over it. Top with another cake layer and 2/3 cup ganache, spreading evenly, then third cake layer. (Chill ganache if necessary to keep at a spreadable consistency.) Chill cake until ganache filling is firm, about 1 hour. Keep remaining ganache at a spreadable consistency, chilling when necessary.
• Spread a thin layer of ganache over top and sides of cake to seal in crumbs, then chill 30 minutes. Spread remaining ganache evenly over top and sides of cake

Interesting fact:  The word “Ganache” (pronouced  ɡəˈnɑːʃ/) is the French word for “jowl” originally from Italian ganascia (“jaw”).  Definition of “jowl”:  The flesh under the lower jaw, especially when plump or flaccid.  Used in the sense of chocolate cake Ganache refers to the meaning “cushion”–as the cream seems to “cushion” both the flavor and texture of chocolate.

Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients for the tart dough (for 2 tarts)

½ cup (110 g) butter, softened
½ cup (100 g) sugar 2 cups (230 g) all-purpose flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

Ingredients for the citrus filling

2 cups (440 g) granulated sugar
4 large eggs
½ cup (1.2 dl) orange juice
¼ cup (0.6 dl) lemon juice
Grated peel of 2 oranges
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Ingredients for the chocolate frosting

½ cup (1.2 dl) heavy cream or whipping cream
7 oz (200 g) semisweet chocolate (40-50% cocoa)

Method

1. Line the bottom of a springform pan of 9 inches (23 cm) diameter with greaseproof or other non-stick paper and grease the sides of the pan.
2. Using an electric mixer, cream the softened butter and sugar.  Add flour and cocoa powder, and finally the egg. Reserve in the fridge for a few hours or more.
3. Preheat oven to 350 deg F (Gas mark 4 or 180 deg C).
4. Using your fingers, pat down half of the tart dough into the bottom of the springform pan (not the sides); keep the rest frozen until next time.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 7 minutes.
6. For the filling, mix sugar and egg for 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer.
7. Add lemon juice, orange juice, grated orange peel, flour and baking powder, and mix well.
8. Transfer to the springform and bake at 250 deg F for about 30 to 40 minutes. A wooden pick inserted in center should come out clean.
9. Using a knife, loosen carefully the cake from the sides of the springform pan. Let the tart cool to room temperature in the pan.
10. For the chocolate frosting, heat the cream almost to a boil, add chopped chocolate, and stir until smooth. Let it cool until it thickens.
11. Spread the chocolate frosting evenly on top and sides of the tart.

Variations

A. Instead of lemon, you may use 2 limes and grated lime peel, and reduce the amount of orange peel accordingly.

Drop the colours, one by one, into the middle of the pan, in neat concentric-ish gobs. Remember the cake is going to be sliced in the side there, so mixing it around on top isn’t going to make your slices any more psychedelic (trust me, I did the three-dimensional thinking for you already).

When you’re three colors in, start doing the reverse with the other pan. Since I’m going in rainbow order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, I got from red to yellow in the first pan, then purple, blue, green in the second. This is so that your two pans are equal if your measurements aren’t exact (and they’re not likely to be).

Tips From Aleta

For the frosting recipe, see Omnomicon or buy ready to use frosting – I LOVED the Devil’s Food frosting which is available in England – absolutely delicious, but I’m sure traditional frosting will be just as tasty.

I found that questions several times as a comment to my post on Chocolate Cake In A Mug, and I decided to do a whole post about cake flour. It never occurred to me that there might be other countries in which cake flour isn’t as popular or widely available as in South Africa.  For those of you who mostly use all purpose flour, I have below the definition of what cake flour is, and then also a substitute for it

When I searched the internet for a proper explanation, I found this…

Cake flour is a highly specialized type of wheat flour, intended for use in making cakes, cookies, and other delicate baked goods. Several characteristics differentiate cake flour from other wheat flours, making it unsuitable for certain tasks like baking bread. Many markets carry cake flour, and in a pinch a substitute can be made with ¾ cup sifted bleached all purpose flour and two tablespoons of cornstarch.

When baking a cake, most cooks aim to create a light, fluffy cake with a tender crumb. This requires a flour with a low protein content, as protein promotes the production of gluten, which can make baked goods more tough. It also means that the flour must be very finely milled, to keep baked goods from getting heavy. Finally, a flour which is starchy and able to hold large amounts of fat and sugar without collapsing is required.

All of these needs are addressed with cake flour, which is made from the endosperm of soft wheat. The endosperm is the softest part of the wheat kernel, making cake flour the finest flour available. As cake flour is milled, it is heavily bleached, not only to make it white but to break down the protein in the flour. Typically, cake flour is around seven percent protein, much lower than other flours; bread flour, for example, has twice that amount of protein.

The delicate, fine texture of cake flour is accomplished by heavy milling. The fine grain absorbs fat readily, ensuring that butter and other fats in cakes are well distributed throughout the batter. Cake flour can also carry a high volume of sugar when compared to higher protein flours. Since cake flour is a high-starch flour, it is extremely well suited for certain baking tasks. Cake flour is also lighter than conventional flour, which is why the substitution above falls short of a full cup.

Cookie and cake recipes which call for cake flour should be made using cake flour, if possible. In the production of certain other baked goods, cake flour can replace ordinary flour for a lighter end product, using one cup and two tablespoons of cake flour for every cup of flour called for in the recipe. Cake flour should not be used to make breads and other leavened products, as it is not strong enough. Also, as a general rule, a recipe which calls for “sifted flour” requires the cook to sift the flour before measuring, while “flour, sifted” is flour which is measured and then sifted. Since sifting changes the volume of flour, this seemingly petty distinction is actually very important.

However interesting it might be to know what cake flour really is, I managed to also find a substitute for it, which might be a bit more interesting for you if you want to use a recipe which uses cake flour.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch

Directions
To make two cups of cake flour combine 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour with 1/4 cup cornstarch; proceed with your recipe.

• 4 Tablespoons cake flour
• 4 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons cocoa
• 1 Egg
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 3 Tablespoons oil
• 1 Mug

Instructions:

• Mix flour, sugar and cocoa:
• Spoon in 1 egg
• Pour in milk and oil, and mix well
• Put in microwave for 3 minutes on maximum power (1000watt)
• Wait until it stops rising and sets in the mug
• Tip contents out of mug onto saucer and enjoy!

Its Friday, and ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!! Cool eh?

My day has been good so far though I am at work – I’m looking forward to tonight too – the family is coming over, and I have to still get a few snacks! If I had the time I’d have baked a cake like this one in the picture, isn’t it STUNNING?