Black and White Chocolate Cake

So now that I'm pretty much free to do whatever I want since I graduated, I've wanted to try something more challenging. Up until now, I haven't tried to make pies and tarts yet, which I'll hopefully do very soon. But putting that aside, I always found making cakes intimidating. There are so many steps involved, and it takes so long to assemble! And when I saw this cake in Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, I thought, this looks SO good but it looks like SO much work. That's when I knew I had to try it.

So let me begin by saying that when I made this cake the first time: complete FAIL. After all, I'm not an expert. With that said, I was determined not to give up. To give myself some credit, when I did make it the first time (or try to anyway), I wasn't feeling very good and I wasn't in the mood to make it, but I promised my little brother I'd make it for him since the week before it was his birthday. So despite feeling horrible, I made up my mind to do it, and let me tell you, I had a bad feeling from the start. Personally, I need to be in full concentration mode and in a relaxed state of mind when I'm baking because I tend to be very absent-minded and mess up very easily. Anyway, as you will soon see, this is a vanilla cake with buttermilk (or as Dorie Greenspan puts it, a "yellow buttermilk cake") filled with a dark chocolate pastry cream (which to me seemed more like a light pudding) and white chocolate whipped cream (which was also used to frost the cake) and topped with chocolate curls (I've never done chocolate curls before, so that was one part I was REALLY looking forward to).

Basically, the cake started out okay. But THEN, I accidentally left it in the oven a couple of minutes too long and it got a little overdone. I told myself, OK that's fine...I can make do with that. Then I move on to the dark chocolate  cream. That turned out good, thank God. In the recipe, it says the chocolate cream can stay for up to 3 days in the fridge as long as it's tightly sealed. Again, thank God for that because I ended up keeping it in the fridge for that long until I was able to make a second attempt at this cake. Then before I tried to make the white chocolate whipped cream, I thought, I should just slice the cakes in half so I don't have to do it later. I start slicing the cakes, and they were breaking!! At that point, I panicked because it would be disastrous to frost and fill a cake that was fallen apart. Regardless, I kept going. Like the cake, the whipped cream started out okay. But later on, I realized that I didn't pay attention to one very important sentence. It said to beat the initial bit of cream until you get the "softest peaks," and the peaks ended up turning into medium peaks. Then towards the end, I accidentally whipped the cream too much and it became grainy and curdled. Unfortunately, once it reaches that point, you can't save it. It pains me to say it, but I put almost a whole pint of whipped cream and 6 oz. of white chocolate in the trash. Luckily, my dad ate the broken pieces of cake with his tea for the next few days. So that's my story.

After three days, I felt much better and thank God, my second attempt turned out great! With that, I would like to say a few things about this cake. First of all, the actual cake is a little dry, and I would probably substitute it with another recipe that produces something more moist. Also, the cake would probably taste MUCH better if the chocolate cream was substituted with chocolate ganache. Now, on to the good stuff. I'd say that the best part about this recipe was the white chocolate whipped cream and the chocolate curls on top! YUMMMMM. The chocolate curls were VERY hard for me to make, and usually it is for people who try it for the first time. In the end, I was able to manage it though. So enjoy and good luck trying this recipe if you find it appealing =) I can definitely say that it was fun for me to make the second time around! This is how it turned out when I made it:

Ingredients:

For the cake-

• 2 cups cake flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 sticks (10 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

For the dark chocolate pastry cream-

• 2 cups whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp cornstarch, sifted
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 7 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
• 2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 5 pieces, at room temperature

For the white chocolate whipped cream-

• 6 oz white chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Optional -

• Chocolate shavings or curls, dark or white or a combination of both for decoration

1. Get ready by centering a rack in the oven and preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9-x-2-inch round cake pans. You can line the bottoms with parchment or wax paper (I didn't). Put the pans on a baking sheet.

2. To make the cake, first sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. Using a mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy.

3. Add the sugar and beat for another 3 minutes. Then, add the eggs one by one, and then the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition.

4. Beat in the vanilla; don't worry if the mixture looks curdled at this point. Reduce the mixer to low speed and add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk alternately, adding the dry ingredients in 3 batches and the buttermilk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients). Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed, and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter.

5. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula. Bake the cakes for 28-30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point. When fully baked, the cakes will be golden and springy to the touch, and a thin knife or toothpick inserted into the centers will come out clean.

6. Transfer the cakes to a rack, cool for about 5 minutes, then unmold and invert to cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.

7. To make the dark chocolate pastry cream, first bring the milk to a boil. Then, in a saucepan, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, cornstarch, and salt until thick and well blended. Whisking without stopping, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk (according to Dorie Greenspan, this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won't curdle) and still whisking, add the remainder of the milk in steady stream.

8. Put the pan over medium heat, and whisking vigorously, constantly, and thoroughly (make sure to get the edges of the pan), bring the mixture to a boil. Keep boiling it for about 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.

9. Finally, whisk in the melted chocolate, and let stand for 5 minutes. Then whisk in the pieces of butter, stirring until they are fully incorporated and the chocolate cream is smooth and silky. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create an airtight seal and refrigerate the cream until chilled, or for up to 3 days.

 10. To make the white chocolate whipped cream, put the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl and put the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir frequently to melt the chocolate evenly. When the white chocolate is melted, remove the bowl from the pan.

 

11. Bring 1/2 cup of the heavy cream to a boil. Then, pour the hot cream into the melted white chocolate and let it sit for 1 minute. Using a small spatula, stir the chocolate gently until it is smooth. Let it sit on the counter until it reaches room temperature. (I wanted it to cool quickly, so I places the bowl in another bowl filled with cold water, or you can fill it with ice. It cooled in no time!) Keep in mind, the mixture cannot be the least bit warm when you add it to the whipped cream.

12. Working with a mixer (I prefer using a hand mixer when dealing with egg whites or whipped cream because it gives me more control), beat the remaining 1 cup heavy cream only until it holds the softest peaks.

13. Then, turn the machine to high, add the cooled white chocolate all at once and continue to beat until the whipped cream holds firm peaks. Turn the whipped cream into a bowl if you need to, press a piece of plastic wrap gently to the surface to create an airtight seal, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 6 hours.

14. To assemble the cake, first see if the cakes have crowned (meaning that they are point and rounded like a hill on top). If they are, use a long serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion to even them and straighten the top out. Then, slice each layer horizontally in half.

15. Place one layer cut side down on cardboard cake round or on a cake plate/stand protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. Remove the dark and white chocolate creams from the fridge and whisk each of them to loosen and smooth them. With a long metal icing spatula, spread enough dark chocolate cream (about 1 cup) over the cake layer to cover it completely.

16. Top the cream with another cake layer, cut side up, and cover this layer with white chocolate whipped cream, making the white layer about the same thickness as the chocolate layer.

17. Cover with another cake layer, cut side up, and cover with another cup or so of the dark chocolate cream.

18. Finally, top with another layer of cake, cut side down, and frost the sides and top with remaining white chocolate whipped cream. (Sorry if mine looks a bit messy - by this time, I was really tired and just wanted to get it over with!)

19. If you like, decorate the top with chocolate curls or shavings NOW. Refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours before serving.

As I said before, by this time I was so tired, I forgot to take pictures of making the chocolate curls and white chocolate shavings. But, I have a couple of websites that might help.

• TLC Cooking "Chocolate Garnishes" 
• How To Make Chocolate Curls - Tasty Kitchen Blog 
• How to Make Chocolate Curls - From Karen's Kitchen

Basically, take the chocolate of your choice, melt it, and spread a thin layer of the chocolate on a baking sheet. The chocolate that I used was one of my all time favorites from England, Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate. I also used Nestle Toll House White Baking Chocolate, which didn't curl unfortunately, but did make shavings. So I left it at that.

Stick the baking sheet in the freezer for a few minutes. You know it's ready because when you take the pan out and put make a thumbprint on the chocolate, the print won't show. If the melted chocolate is still not solid enough, your thumb will make an imprint in the chocolate.

When you take out the baking sheet and the chocolate is solid enough, take a spatula like the one shown below, and test it by scraping down the pan at an angle (lifting the spatula up while sliding it down), and the chocolate shouldn't crumble or break, but roll up and make a curl. Most importantly, the hardest part is that while you make the chocolate curls, the chocolate on the baking sheet keeps getting warm, and then it doesn't curl properly. So you have to keep sticking it in the freezer every minute for another minute or so to harden it again. And on top of that, when you do get the curls, you have to quickly stick them in the fridge on a plate or wax paper because they will start to melt immediately. Don't even try holding them in your hand because the warmth from your body will destroy them. Then you'll have to remelt the chocolate and start all over again! I apologize if this is not clear enough. Like I said, the websites I provide will probably do a better job of explaining and showing it.

Anyway, by the time I was done, this is how it turned out. First, I arranged the chocolate curls all over the top. Then I sprinkled around the white chocolate shavings. I probably could've done a better job if I wasn't so tired. But it'll do!

Perfect Chocolate Curls