Thursday, February 9, 2012

Daring Desserts -

I love a challenge.  

My husband came home one night and told me I needed to create a cake for his work Holiday party. I immediately searched for holiday/red/festive cakes. All our children share January birthdays, so in this house, the winter is cake baking season. 


I decided on something that contained nutella and raspberries. Yummy and festive. After an exhaustive google search did not turn up anything eye catching I decided to combine these loves into one daring dessert. 

A four layer chocolate cake with a mixture of nutella and raspberry filling, covered with Italian meringue buttercream, flavored with raspberry and nutella. Topped with a chocolate ganache pool and decorated with raspberries and yes, more buttercream. It  looked heavenly. It tasted good too. Unfortunately everyone was too busy drooling and no one took a photo of the inside.


"Here is my entry to the Appliances Online daring desserts competition, 

check out the other entries on Handle the Heat" 


Chocolate Cake with Raspberry-Nutella filling and Chocolate Ganache


Chocolate cake recipe  from The Birthday Cake Book by Dede Wilson or your favorite cake recipe will do! Prepare 2-9 in cake pans with parchment paper. Bake according to your  favorite chocolate cake recipe.  Let cool until ready to frost. Freezing cake layers slightly will  make them easier to slice. 

Filling: 
1 cup nutella, warmed slightly
1 cup raspberry preserves, warmed slightly

Nutella-Raspberry Buttercream:
Adapted from The Birthday Cake Book by Dede Wilson
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup water
6 large egg whites (room temperature)
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 1/4 cups unsalted butter at room temperature cut in small pieces
1. Place 1 cup of sugar and water in a small saucepan. Stir to wet sugar. Bring to a boil over med-high heat, swirling the pan occasionally. Wash down the sugar crystals once or twice. Allow the sugar to simmer gently.
2. Place egg whites in a clean stand mixer and whip until frothy on low speed. Add the cream of tartar and turn the speed up to med-high. When soft peaks form add the remaining sugar. Continue whipping until stiff, glossy peaks form. 
3. Bring the sugar mixture to a rapid boil until it reaches 248 degrees. 
4. When the syrup is ready pour a thin stream directly over the meringue. Whip the meringue until cool to the touch. Once cool add the butter a few tablespoons at a time until the buttercream is completely smooth. 
5.  Add 1/2 cup of nutella to buttercream and 1/4 cup of raspberry preserves.  Whip until nutella and raspberry is completely absorbed by the buttercream. 

Chocolate Ganache:
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz semisweet chocolate
Heat cream in microwave until it boils.  Add chopped chocolate and mix until incorporated. 
Ganache is now ready to use.

Assembly:
Cut each cake layer in half (helps to freeze layers slightly before cutting). 
Mix nutella and raspberry together and spread of each layer. Pipe a dam of buttercream around edges to contain filling. Once all layers and stacked frost cake completely. Refrigerate to set frosting. Add ganache to top of cake to finish. 
UPDATE: I found a picture of the inside!
Four delicious layers with nutella/raspberry yumminess inside!






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