Ingredients (8 inch cake)

Chocolate Cake

• Semi Sweet Baking Chocolate 113g (3/4c)
• Unsweetened DUTCH PROCESSCocoa Powder 24g (4T)
• HOT water 4 fl oz (1/2 c)
• SOFT Butter 169g (12 T)
• Whole Eggs room temperature 200g (4Lg)
• Yolks room temperature 36g (2)
• Sugar 200g (1 cup)
• Vanilla X 1/2 fl oz (1T)
• Yogurt 123g (1/2c)
• Milk 4 fl oz (1/2c)
• All Purpose Flour 225g (1 3/4c)
• Baking Soda 7 g (1 1/2t)
• Salt 3g (1/2t)

Simple Ganache yield 1 qt (4cups)

• Semi Sweet Baking Chocolate 12oz (350g)
• Heavy Cream 12 fl oz

Chocolate Whipped CreamYield 4 cups volume

• Heavy Cream 2 cup (464g)
• Confectioners Sugar 1 Tablespoon
• Simple Ganache 1/2 c (121g)

Chocolate Mousse: Yields 2 Qts

• Semi Sweet Baking Chocolate 1lb (454g)
• Hot Water 1/2 c (4fl oz)
• Dark Rum (I use Meyers) 1 Tablespoon
• If you do not want to use Rum leave it out and add 1Tablespoon more of hot water
• Egg Whites 5 (150g)
• Sugar 2Tablespoon (25g)
• Cream Of Tartar 1/4teaspoon
• Heavy Cream 2c (16 fl oz)

Instructions

For Chocolate Cake

Mix Method:

In the bowl of your Kitchen Aid mixer whip the eggs and the egg yolks on high speed with the whip attachment until foamy, and gradually start adding in your sugar very slowly.

The eggs will take about 5 minutes to reach the ribbon stage.

The ribbon stage is a stage where the egg/sugar mixture is very light in color, very thick and when you run the mixture off of a spatula or the beater blades, it makes a ribbon like effect before disappearing back into the mixture. You can also do a “figure 8″ pattern with the mixture and if it stays visible for a few seconds before disappearing you know you have achieved ribbon stage.

In the meantime while the eggs are whipping you can sift together the flour, baking soda and the salt and set that aside.

In a separate bowl combine the yogurt and milk together and set aside.

Next in another bowl add the cocoa powder to the hot water and whisk it smooth. This will be a muddy mixture to which you will next add the melted chocolate. Last you will add your SOFTENED butter and vanilla extract to this and whisk all smooth.

At this point your eggs should be ready, and you will add the entire melted chocolate/cocoa powder mixture to the whipped egg mixture, and whip until it is all uniform, just about 30 seconds more.

Next we begin the alternating of the dry ingredients with the liquid milk/yogurt mixture, beginning with the dry ingredients and ending with the dry, in 3 and 2 additions. (DRY-LIQUID-DRY-LIQUID-DRY)

Mixing just until incorporated between each addition as well as stopping to scrape the sides of your bowl from time to time too.

Pour the batter into your desired pans as listed above, and bake at 350

degrees F for approx 25-40 minutes or until it is springy to the touch and read UNTIL ITS DONE for more clarity on bake times!

Method for Ganache

In a large mixing bowl reserve the chopped baking chocolate while you boil the heavy cream either in the microwave or in a saucpot.

Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate in the bowl and whisk to melt and smooth.

Store at room temperature for 1 day or in the refridge for up to 2 weeks.

Chocolate Whipped Cream

Prepare the whipped cream in the bowl of the Kitchen Aid Mixer with the Whip attachment on high speed.

Continue whipping until you acheive desired peaks necessary for your specific application. Just before you have reached your desired peaks consistency, pour in the warmed (NOT HOT!) ganache and whip a few seconds longer.

Soft- Medium – Firm peaks are the 3 stages of whipping cream.

Always refrigerate any cake or dessert that is made with whipped cream as it is highly perishable.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, you may have to rewhip to regain consistency.

It is not a great idea to store whipped cream for more than a day really, as it will lose its volume that we worked so hard to achieve. But if you MUST, 3 days maximum and you WILL have to re whip again, so in my opinion, what’s the point?

Mousse Mix Method

First melt the chocolate in a large bowl.

Add the hot water to the melted chocolate all at once, very quickly while whisking vigorously to incorporate well.

Add the optional rum.

In a small bowl rub the cream of tartar through the granulated sugar to combine well.

In a clean mixing bowl with the whisk attachment whip the egg whites until foamy and then sprinkle in the sugar/cream of tartar very slowly.

Do not dump all the sugar at once or you will deflate your egg whites and they will not whip as full.

Continue whipping until you reach medium-firm peaks but not overwhipped to the point of “styrofoam”. The cream of tartar will help ensure you do not overwhip the whites.

In a separate mixer bowl, whip the heavy cream to make whipped cream to medium-firm peakes. Again be sure not to overwhip you cream.

Take a small portion of the egg whites and fold them into the chocolate mixture to lighten the mixture. Use a whisk to fold in the remainder of the whites and aerate the mixture.

Next do the same thing with a small amount of the whipped cream, lightening and aerating the mixture by whisking it through. Gently fold in the remainder of the whipped cream. Some small streaks of chocolate or whipped cream may remain. Tightly cover your bowl and refrigerate overnight.

Refrigerate until firm and use to fill cakes, or pastries or simply for serving in a bowl.

Be sure to refrigerate any pastry with Chocolate Mousse as it is highly perishable.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Assembling the Cake

Yes that’s right, there is no ONE single magical recipe that when you pop it into the oven it comes out looking like this!

You will in fact have to start a couple days in advance (to make easy work of it all) and prepare your 4 recipes needed to create this fabulous Professional Bakery Style Cake in less than 10 minutes!

You will amaze your friends and family with the ease at which you “Slap it all together!”

You will Need:

1 Recipe Chocolate Cake

1 Recipe Simple Ganache or Shiny Ganache For Glazing Cakes it is your option which you prefer to use.

1 Recipe Chocolate Whipped Cream

and 1 Recipe Chocolate Mousse

Of course you can go ahead and prepare one recipe after another all in one day, and by 9pm you may have this fabulous cake, but you will most likely be too exhausted to enjoy it!

That is why I recommend preparing as much in advance as possible.

You can bake your cake layers as much as a week (or even 2 weeks like I do sometimes!) in advance, just be sure to wrap them properly for freezing. See this video demo on how I do that. How to Wrap Cake for Freezer Storage

Next prepare the Chocolate Mousse, this is an absolute MUST to prepare in advance because you will need it to firm up for at least a half day before it is firm enough to use inside your cake.

Then Ganache will need to be made and then of course the Whipped Cream. DO not make the Whipped Cream until the DAY YOU ARE ASSEMBLING your cake!!

Everything else though, can be done several DAYS in advance.

Pipe circle of whipped cream in a dam on top of first cake. Fill with mousse.

Place second cake on top of mousse. Crumb coat the cake with whipped cream. Pour on ganache.