Triple Layer, Double Chocolate Cake

This cake is truly a monster.  It’s the biggest round cake I’ve ever made and the biggest I’ll ever make.  It got to be so tall that cutting and serving required patience, assistance and lots of room for error.  The slices were so tall they didn’t even fit on my usual dessert plates! Luckily @ok2baprincess was kind enough to bring larger, plastic, serving plates.

So, when making this cake, be sure to have plenty of people over to eat it! We had 18 people over for this Cake and a Movie night and still had about 1/4 of the cake left!

The cake is dense, rich and the frosting… dare I say incredible?  Yes, I dare.

We paired this cake with the movie My Blueberry Nights, another incredible Wong Kar-wai film.  What’s more? I made a Lavender-Blueberry ice cream which sealed the whole “blueberry” and “nights” theme.  Sounds kind of tricky but the combination turned out to be absolutely perfect.

Once again, this recipe comes from a combination of recipes I viewed at Epicurious.com and SmittenKitchen.com.  SmittenKitchen has become one of my favorite sites, you must bookmark it.

Who came this time around? Well here’s the list!

@aurablush @ok2baprincess @clettenberg @savannahbrooke @brooding_soul @mdanbom @mark1221 @madmax69 @fotofobe @babyfishie @prozacgod @kaleb1983 and a few non twitter folk.  Eighteen in all tried this cake and it seemed like a winner all the way around.

Triple Layer Double Chocolate Cake with a Truffle Ganache
Chocolate Cake Base
Makes about 9 cups

• 6 ozs semisweet chocolate with honey-almond nougat (I use Toblerone)
• 2 1/4 cups freshly brewed coffee
• 4 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 3/4 cups flour
• 2 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla

You’ll want to start this recipe off by brewing a pot of coffee.  This served two purposes for me, one, it kept me up while I baked this cake at 1:00 AM and two it brings up the acidicy of the cake to help cut through the richness.

Measure out 2 1/4 cups of coffee into a medium bowl and add Toblerone chocolate.  Set this aside, occassionally stiring to ensure the chocolate melts.

In a large mixing bowl, preferrably with a stand mixer, mix sugar, sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Blend until well mixed.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and oil.  You’ll want to make sure the eggs and oil are completely emulsified.  Shake buttermilk well before adding to egg mixture followed by vanilla.

Using a strainer to catch the bits of almond, add the coffee and chocolate to the egg and buttermilk mixture.  Mix this until it has equal color and add to the dry mixture.

Mix well with the stand mixer scraping down the sides, until the batter is smooth and light.  This batter will be very wet.

Spray three 9-inch-diameter cake pans with baking oil (I prefer to use the kind with flour). Line bottom of pans with parchment paper. Spray parchment paper as well.

Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake the layers for about 70 minutes each, or until a tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes before placing in the freezer while you make the truffle ganache frosting.

Ganache Frosting
Makes a lot!

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 2 pounds semisweet chocolate
• 1 stick butter

Warm heavy cream, sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan until sugar is completely dissolved.  At a simmer, add semisweet chocolate whisking until all the chocolate is melted and smooth.  At this point you can add the butter, cut into 1tbsp chunks to melt and mix with the chocolate.

Remove frosting from heat and pour into a bowl which can be refrigerated.  This frosting will be ready to apply to the cake once it has thickend up a bit.  It should have the consistency of rich caramel when it’s ready.

Remove cakes from the freezer, frosting from the refrigerator. Remove one cake from the pan, topside down on the cake platter. Peel away parchment paper. (You can choose to level the top of the cake by cutting it or just flip it upside down to save time and have an extra tall cake)

Frost the flat top of the first layer and add the second, and then the third and finally, frost the sides of the cake by pouring the remaining frosting onto the top of the cake and letting it slowly ooze down the sides of the cake.  You can use your offset spatula to smooth the sides if you want that effect, though the natural fall is quite beautiful.

Place in the refrigerator until ready to cut and serve.

You will need a tall cup with HOT water ready when you slice the cake.  Use a sharp knife and dip in hot water between slices to clean the blade and allow it to slice through the ganache with ease.  This will keep your 8-9 inch tall cake from turning into a  inch cake!  Thin slices are key since this cake is so rich, or and why not pair it with the Lavender-Blueberry Ice Cream?