Mocha Cake
I love the monthly theme. I end up discovering new recipes or at least trying out some I always keep leaving for later.
So I had a mocha cake recipe, but I didn’t like it. I went around browsing and then I hit gold: mocha and chocolate. What could possibly go wrong?
A lot.
Original recipe
This recipe ended up being troublesome. First, there was incorrect instructions problem I ranted about in cooking. Then, I baked the dark sponge instructions called to divide in two, each one centimeter thick. It wasn’t thick enough to do that. It’s possible I didn’t fold in egg whites gently enough. But I also had my suspicions the original poster might have posted ingredients list for one sponge, baked double and presumed everyone knows that just like they presumed everyone knows one beats the eggwhite separately and adds it at the end, no need to write it down, just “beat egg”. I also visually compared the thickness of sponge and it’s similar to middle sponge, which uses 3 eggs + butter. Sponges of same size in similar recipes I baked before usually use 3-4 eggs per sponge. I decided to bake another same sponge anyway and I’m glad I did it. Can’t go wrong with more chocolate. Also, cream was very rich in taste and I’m not sure if it wouldn’t have been too much with less sponge and chocolate to mix it with. Plus less hassle without having to cut it in half.
Anyway, I’ll put the original ingredients list. See what works out better for you.
Dark sponge
4 eggs
4 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. flour
60g of chocolate
Melt the chocolate and leave to cool. Separate eggs. Beat yolks and sugar. Add sifted flour, then melted chocolate. Beat egg whites until they form peaks and fold into the batter carefully. Bake in oven at 180℃ for 20-25 minutes. (26cm pan. Mine is 21cm, so the sponge ended up being thicker.)
(If you cut it in half, every half is supposed to be 1 cm thick. Cut when it’s completely cooled down.)
Yellow sponge
3 eggs
75g sugar
75g flour
90g butter
Separate eggs. Beat yolks and sugar. Add flour. Melt butter and add it after it cools. Beat egg whites until they form peaks and fold into the batter carefully. Bake in oven at 180℃ for 20-30 minutes.
Cream
300ml milk
3 yolks
4 tbsp. flour
300g butter
300g sugar
4 tbsp. strong black coffee (cook 2-3 tbsp. ground coffee in 100ml boiling water.)
Heat the milk. Beat yolks with sugar, add flour and coffee. Stir into the milk and cook on low heat until it thickens, stirring constantly. Beat the butter and stir into the mixture when it’s cooled down to the room temperature.
Soaking coffee
100ml milk
1 package (for one cup) vanilla Nescafe (Basically any flavoured instant coffee. I ended up using what I had in the house - Caramel Macchiato. It was delicious.)
Heat the milk and dissolve the Nescafe in it.
Coating chocolate
50g chocolate
1 tbsp. oil
Melt the chocolate with the oil. Cool down.
Assembly and decoration
Place the first dark sponge. Drip a little bit of coffee on it (take care it’s not too soaked!). Coat with a thin layer of chocolate. Spread about 1/3 of the cream.
Place the yellow sponge. Drip the coffee on top, coat with chocolate, cover with about 1/3 of the cream.
Place the second dark sponge.
Coat the cake with the remaining cream.
Use the rest of the coating chocolate for decoration. The recipe mentioned placing it in a plastic bag with a cut corner, but dripping from the spoon worked out better for me. (And less chocolate lost when it’s not sticking to the bag.)
It was a lot of trouble, but it was worth it.
(Also, I need to start taking better pictures.)
So I had a mocha cake recipe, but I didn’t like it. I went around browsing and then I hit gold: mocha and chocolate. What could possibly go wrong?
A lot.
Original recipe
This recipe ended up being troublesome. First, there was incorrect instructions problem I ranted about in cooking. Then, I baked the dark sponge instructions called to divide in two, each one centimeter thick. It wasn’t thick enough to do that. It’s possible I didn’t fold in egg whites gently enough. But I also had my suspicions the original poster might have posted ingredients list for one sponge, baked double and presumed everyone knows that just like they presumed everyone knows one beats the eggwhite separately and adds it at the end, no need to write it down, just “beat egg”. I also visually compared the thickness of sponge and it’s similar to middle sponge, which uses 3 eggs + butter. Sponges of same size in similar recipes I baked before usually use 3-4 eggs per sponge. I decided to bake another same sponge anyway and I’m glad I did it. Can’t go wrong with more chocolate. Also, cream was very rich in taste and I’m not sure if it wouldn’t have been too much with less sponge and chocolate to mix it with. Plus less hassle without having to cut it in half.
Anyway, I’ll put the original ingredients list. See what works out better for you.
Dark sponge
4 eggs
4 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. flour
60g of chocolate
Melt the chocolate and leave to cool. Separate eggs. Beat yolks and sugar. Add sifted flour, then melted chocolate. Beat egg whites until they form peaks and fold into the batter carefully. Bake in oven at 180℃ for 20-25 minutes. (26cm pan. Mine is 21cm, so the sponge ended up being thicker.)
(If you cut it in half, every half is supposed to be 1 cm thick. Cut when it’s completely cooled down.)
Yellow sponge
3 eggs
75g sugar
75g flour
90g butter
Separate eggs. Beat yolks and sugar. Add flour. Melt butter and add it after it cools. Beat egg whites until they form peaks and fold into the batter carefully. Bake in oven at 180℃ for 20-30 minutes.
Cream
300ml milk
3 yolks
4 tbsp. flour
300g butter
300g sugar
4 tbsp. strong black coffee (cook 2-3 tbsp. ground coffee in 100ml boiling water.)
Heat the milk. Beat yolks with sugar, add flour and coffee. Stir into the milk and cook on low heat until it thickens, stirring constantly. Beat the butter and stir into the mixture when it’s cooled down to the room temperature.
Soaking coffee
100ml milk
1 package (for one cup) vanilla Nescafe (Basically any flavoured instant coffee. I ended up using what I had in the house - Caramel Macchiato. It was delicious.)
Heat the milk and dissolve the Nescafe in it.
Coating chocolate
50g chocolate
1 tbsp. oil
Melt the chocolate with the oil. Cool down.
Assembly and decoration
Place the first dark sponge. Drip a little bit of coffee on it (take care it’s not too soaked!). Coat with a thin layer of chocolate. Spread about 1/3 of the cream.
Place the yellow sponge. Drip the coffee on top, coat with chocolate, cover with about 1/3 of the cream.
Place the second dark sponge.
Coat the cake with the remaining cream.
Use the rest of the coating chocolate for decoration. The recipe mentioned placing it in a plastic bag with a cut corner, but dripping from the spoon worked out better for me. (And less chocolate lost when it’s not sticking to the bag.)
It was a lot of trouble, but it was worth it.
(Also, I need to start taking better pictures.)