Its the time of the year again where my husband needs his yearly dosage of strawberry short cake. Last year we made black forest cake together for his birthday and it was determinably the best cake ever but this time I will be the one making the cake for him and I thought I'd share with you on how you can make this quick and easy chocolate layered cake for your love ones too. This cake is made with a really quick and straight forward chocolate sponge piped with milk chocolate whipped cream which is much more stable than whipped cream alone. The sponge is also really light and creamy, making it perfect if you love light cakes that are not too sweet.
The Chocolate Chantilly Cream is super delicious and light. You will however, need to prepare them first thing and ahead of time to allow for it to chill enough to whip. The trick is to allow the chocolate base to cool fully before adding in the next lot of cold cream and then rest it in the fridge before you proceed to preparing the chocolate sponge.
RECIPE
Equipment: 160mm x 70 mm depth round cake tin with removable base
Yield: 1 x 3 layer stacked cake
Chocolate Sponge
150 g Whole Eggs (3 Medium eggs) - room temperature
70 g Caster Sugar
50 g Cake Flour
30 g Cocoa Powder
45 g Milk Chocolate - finely chopped
Chocolate Chantilly
175 g Full Cream 35% Fat (A)
200 g Milk Chocolate
200 g Full Cream 35% Fat (B)
Finishing
1 punnet Fresh Strawberries
Handful Fresh Blueberries - optional
qs. Icing Sugar - for dusting
Method
For the Chocolate Chantilly
Place Cream (A) into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once the cream have come to a boil, pour it over the chocolate sitting in a bowl then whisk until all the chocolate have fully cooled. Place a cling film touching the surface of the cream and leave to cool to below 32C.
Once the chocolate cream have cooled, add in the cold Cream (B) and whisk until well combined. Cover and leave in the fridge to rest for at least 6 hours. If you add the cold cream (B) when the Cream (A) chocolate mixture are still warm, your cream will need a much longer cooling time in the fridge before it can be whipped and ideally overnight.
The Chocolate Chantilly can be made a day prior. When ready for assembly, place the chilled Chantilly cream into a stand mixer bowl fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk on high speed until it reaches a pipeable consistency. Do not walk away from your mixer at this stage and avoid over whipping the cream to much or the cream can separate.
Tips: If you happen to overwhipped your Chantilly cream and they start to split, simply add in some un-whipped whipping cream and fold it through the mixture to bring it back to a smooth consistency.
For the Chocolate Sponge
Lightly spray the cake tin with oil on the base and around the sides. Place a round parchment paper at the base of the tin and set aside until ready to use.
Place the room temperature eggs and sugar into a stand mixer bowl and whisk on high speed until it triples in volume and is light and airy. This process takes approximately 8 minutes.
Once the egg mixture is ready, sift in the cake flour and cocoa powder previously mixed together in several additions while gently folding them through the egg mixture. Be careful not to be too vigorous at this stage and avoid deflating too much of the air. Once all the dry ingredients have been added and there are no signs of dry flour or cocoa powder in the mix, pour the cake mixture into the prepared baking tin.
Bake at 165C for 30 to 35 minutes or until when tested with a skewer it comes out clean.
Once baked, run a sharp knife around the edge of the sponge then remove thee sponge from the tin and the parchment paper at the base. Leave the sponge to cool onto a wire rack to fully cool.
Finishing
Once the cake has chilled, with a serrated knife, trim off the top to remove the domed top of the sponge then divide the sponge to three equal portions by slicing them horizontally.
Place 2/3 of the whipped Chantilly cream into a piping bag fitted with a star tip piping tip. Place 1/3 of the remaining whipped Chantilly cream onto the top of the first sponge and spread it in the centre. Sprinkle some diced strawberries in the centre on top of the cream then pipe the Chantilly cream around the edges. Place the second layer of the sponge on top and repeat the process with the second and third sponge. Decorate the top with mixed seasonal fruits.
Place the assembled cake into the fridge for at least 3 hours for the cream to firm up slightly before slicing and serving.
