Marias Menu » Dessert Recipes

Moist Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream & Ganache

Maria — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:03:43 +0000

I went a bit overboard with this cake… Chocolate cake with butter cream & ganache! There’s a reason… it’s our wedding anniversary :) Baking a cake is not part of our anniversary tradition. It very much depends on my mood. Anyways, this year I thought I’ll be a bit extravagant with the cake ;) After the cake was done, I was impatiently waiting for Jose to come home from office, so that we could cut it. Got the cake from the fridge, got the knife and was waiting to hear the wonderful things about the cake. Here it comes… “is this cake tilted?” Ohh yes… that’s what he notices first, not the roses, not the hearts but the ’tilting’ of the cake. But then… I was expecting this, after all some things never change ;)

People say marriage is one adventurous journey with both smooth drives and bumpy roads. We’ve also had our share of dramas and ups and downs. At times we drive each other crazy, at times we make each other laugh our hearts out and most importantly we make each other happy! That matters the most to me.

Now about the cake, it tasted great (if I should say so myself). I should say the chance of a moist chocolate cake slathered with butter cream & ganache going wrong, is almost next to impossible. It all tastes good, on their own, so you can imagine how it tastes when it’s put together :) I got the cake recipe from my dearest friend & neighbor Sonia. This cake is super moist, I think my ultra moist chocolate cake has a strong competition now. Thanks a lot Sonia for sharing this wonderful recipe with me. The butter cream recipe is adapted from here. Dont get scared by the length of the recipe, its pretty simple to put together, trust me.

Btw, here is a step by step pictures of making the cake:

Moist Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream & Ganache

Recipe type: Dessert

Author: Maria Jose

Prep time: 25 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 8

Ingredients

For the cake
Plain Flour (Maida) – 1 3/4 cups
Sugar – 2 cups
Cocoa powder – 3/4 cup
Baking powder – 1 1/2 tsp
Baking soda – 1 1/2 tsp
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
Eggs – 2 (room temp)
Oil – 1 cup (I used sunflower)
Boiling water – 1 cup
Milk – 1 cup ( I used room temp)
For Chocolate Buttercream
Unsalted butter – 1 cup (226 gms), softened
Icing sugar – 3 1/2 – 4 cups
Cocoa powder – 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
Whole milk/ whipping cream – 4 tbsp
For Ganache
Whipping/heavy cream – 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp
Chocolate chips – 3/4 cup ( you can use baking chocolate also)
For Sugar syrup
Sugar – 1/3 cup
Water – 1/3 cup

Instructions

Preheat the oven @180 C, 10 mins before baking.
Mix together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder & baking soda. In a deep vessel, mix together essence, eggs, oil, boiling water & milk. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients & mix with a hand whisk or a wooden spoon, till the batter is mixed well.
Pour into a greased baking tin lined with parchment paper or cupcake tin lined with cupcake liners. Bake in the preheated oven till the tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Baking time is given in the notes.
Butter Cream Preparation
Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Turn off the mixer. Sift 3 cups powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the dry ingredients do not blow everywhere) until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.
Ganache Preparation
Heat the whipping/heavy cream till small bubbles start appearing around the edges. Switch off the gas. Add chocolate chips to the cream & let it rest for 5 mins. After 5 mins, whisk till it becomes smooth.
Sugar Syrup Preparation
Mix together water & sugar. Heat it till the sugar dissolves & let it boil. Remove from fire. Let it cool completely.
Assembling of the cake
The cake has to be cooled completely before icing. I cut each cake into two layers, to have a four layered cake. Place one of the cut cakes on a cake board & brush it with sugar syrup, make sure the entire cake is brushed. Place some butter cream on top of it & spread using a spatula. Repeat the process till all the layers are used. After the top layer is placed is covered with buttercream, apply the butter cream around the sides as well. Once this is done, keep the cake in the fridge for 20-30 mins. Make the ganache in the meanwhile & let it cool & thicken a bit.
Take the cake from the fridge & cover it with ganche. Decorate as per your liking. Return the cake to the fridge.
Keep the cake @ room temp for 20 mins, before serving.

Notes

For the cake shown in the pic, I made only half the qty of the above recipe. Got two 7 inch round cakes. I baked the cakes @ 180 C for 30 mins.

The cupcakes will be ready in 15 mins. I’ve got 3 dozens standard size cupcakes with the quantity mentioned above.

Icing notes: Since I wanted to keep aside some icing for decoration, I added cocoa powder only in the end. Pour the ganche over the cake, only after the butter cream is set. To know whether the cream is set, touch it with your finger and see whether the cream is sticking, if not, its ready.

I kept the butter cream covered cake on a wire rack and placed a sheet of al.foil under it. I poured the ganache over the cake. Do the decorations on the cake, when ganche is half set.

You can store the frosted the cake in refrigerator for 2 days. The plain cake can be stored @ room temp, in an air tight container for 3-4 days.

Why not leave a comment? Quick, head on over to MariasMenu.com for more tasty, delicious and simple recipes! Remember to check out the Recipe Index to find some easy-to-cook dishes. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about MariasMenu!

No Bake Cheese Dessert With Caramel Topping

Maria — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:24:01 +0000

Have you finalised your Christmas Menu yet? Is there a vacant spot for a dessert? If so, here’s a quick and simple dessert. No baking, no cooking (almost), just assemble the layers and a yummy dessert is ready! I got this recipe from my friend, Anila. She got it from one of her friends… A big thank you to whoever discovered this recipe :) Since you’re busy with holiday preps, I’m not taking much of your time.

But before you go…

Jose & myself wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas! May this festive season bring you joy, happiness & peace!

Shall we go to the recipe?

No Bake Cheese & Cake Layered Dessert with Caramel Topping

Recipe type: Dessert

Author: Maria Jose

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

For Base Layer
Pound Cake – 1 (I used Sara Lee’s All Purpose Pound Cake, 300gm)
Milk/Sugar Syrup – 2-3 tbsp
For Middle Layer
Kiri Cheese – 6 squares/108 gms (refer notes)
Dream Whip Sachet (whipping cream powder) – 2 small (refer notes)
Thick Cream – 125 ml (I used Puck brand)
For Top Layer
Creme Caramel Pudding Mix – 2 packets
Coca-Cola – 330 ml can

Instructions

Slice the pound cake & layer in a pudding dish. Brush the milk/sugar syrup over the cake to moisten it.
Whip the whipping cream powder as per package instructions. Add thick cream & cheese to the whipped cream & beat well using electric beater till its combined well. Spread this mixture on top of the cake layer. Keep it in the fridge while you make the top layer.
Add Coca-Cola to the contents (sugar syrup+pudding mix) of Creme Caramel packets. Mix well & let it boil. Remove from fire. Allow to cool for sometime. Keep a close eye to make sure that it doesnt get set. Pour this over the cream & cheese layer. Return to fridge & let it set for 5-6 hours or overnight. Slice & serve chilled.

Notes

Though I’ve tried this only with Kiri Cheese, I guess you can substitute it with Cream Cheese. If you are using liquid whipping cream instead of dream whip you will need 500 ml (approx). 1 packet of creme caramel I used serves around 4-5 people.

If the top layer (Caramel pudding mix+coke) tends to thicken, heat it again and cool it slightly and pour over the middle layer.

For eggless version, you can use an eggless cake for the base.

You can store it in the fridge upto 3 days.

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cupcake

Maria — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:11:19 +0000

Has it ever happened to you, that you try out something new & start wondering… why you never tried it before? It just reminds me of the famous scene from the evergreen Malayalam movie Nadodikattu where Mohanlal’s character asking Srinivasan “eda Vijaya, entha namukku ee budhi nerathe thonnanjathu?” to which Srinivasan’s character replying “Dasa, oroninnum athintethaya samayamundu mone”. Ohhh how I miss Malayalam movies of those days! (For my non-Kerala friends, in short: “There’s a time for everything”). Anyways, let’s come back to our cupcake. After having the very first bite of this cupcake, I was asking myself why I never tried baking something that has a strong coffee taste before? Looks like now is the right time. Anyways, as I always say… better late than never!

I’m presently in a cupcake baking spree & I ended up with this one day. I was happy with its taste, texture n looks too :) I hope you too will like it. Go ahead, bake it & enjoy!

Here is the recipe:

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cupcake

Recipe type: Dessert

Author: Maria Jose

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 15

Ingredients

Eggs – 2, room temp
Unsalted Butter – 125 gm, softened
Caster Sugar – 1 cup (substitute given below)
Milk – 1/2 cup, room temp
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp
Instant Coffee Powder – 2 tbsp
Self-Raising Flour – 2 cups (substitute given below)
Chocolate Chips – 1/2 cup ( you can use semi sweet or milk choc chips)
Icing
Icing sugar – 1 1/2 cups
Butter – 125 gms, softened
Instant Coffee Powder – 1 tsp
Choc Chips – to decorate

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180 C, 10 mins before baking. Line a 12-cupcake pan with cupcake liners. In a medium sized bowl, lightly beat the eggs, add butter & sugar, then mix until light & fluffy. Add milk, flour, vanilla essence & instant coffee, stir to combine. Beat with an electric mixer for 2 mins until light & fluffy. Stir through the choc chips.
Divide the mixture between the prepared cupcake tin. Bake for 18-20 mins until risen & firm to the touch. Cool for a few mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool fully before icing.
Icing
Mix together the icing sugar, butter & coffee until well combined, then beat until light & fluffy. Use a piping bag fitted with a nozzle of your choice to pipe the topping onto the cupcakes. You can also spread the icing on the cupcakes using a knife. Decorate with choc chips.
Substitution for self raising flour: to get 1 cup self-raising flour, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder+ 1/4 tsp salt to 1 cup all purpose flour. (source: http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html)
Substitution for caster sugar: to get 1 cup caster sugar. process 1 cup granulated sugar (usual sugar) in a food processor/mixer until fine, but don’t powder it like icing sugar. (source: http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html)

Notes

I used Nestle Sunrise brand coffee powder. I used Hershey’s milk choc chips. I got around 15 std size cupcakes & 12 mini cupcakes from the above qty. The std size cupcakes were ready in 15- 20 mins & the mini cupcakes were ready in 10-15 mins. I stored the frosted cupcakes @ room temp for 2 days in an air tight container. Its always better to sieve the icing sugar before adding to the icing mix.

Recipe Source: The Complete Series Cupcakes

Ultra Moist Chocolate Cake

Maria — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:06:45 +0000

So tell me… are you a curiosity-kills-the-cat kinda person like me? In that case, I’m not testing your patience. Here are the winners of the giveaway…

Winners of Amazon Gift Coupons:

Sonia Thomas
Preethi
Maria John
Sanyukta
Tina R.M

Winners of the Cupcake Giveaway:

Seeba
Reena

Thank you so much for your lovely comments. It does make us feel wonderful.

Ok, now after reading the name of the winners, you will be in either of the 3 states below:

1. You got lucky today and too excited to think about anything else…

2. You didn’t get lucky and think “yeah, it always happens to me, I aint that lucky” and start to grumble about how unlucky you are.

3. You couldn’t care less about the giveaway n stuff. You are too busy with other stuff to fret about such silly things…

Let me tell you something… irrespective of your state of mind, I definitely want you to please care about this recipe. This is absolutely worth it! I waited almost 6 years for this recipe! Yep… 6 loooong years! This recipe is from a professional baker. I’ve been having this cake almost every other week for the past 6 years but the recipe remained a mystery to me. I speculated about the ingredients and techniques for long and wondered, how can anybody bake something so so moist and yummy. I got a shock of my life when I got the recipe finally!

There weren’t any ingredients from the alien world or complicated techniques as I had speculated. That again proves something, you don’t have to be complicated or extra ordinary or even different to be special in life. I guess being simple n easy is the best! Anyways, coming back to the cake, it was just like any other cake recipe, in fact it is just sooo simple and easy, you wouldn’t believe me! The end result is so magically moist and you feel like drowning in that deep dark rich brown goodness. Ok, I think that’s enough talk! The thing I liked most about the cake is that, its not too sweet, even if you top it up with some ganache. You will be able to still think straight & act normal even after having a huge slice of it. Yeah… I dont like ‘a piece of cake’ controlling my behaviour ;)

Yeah yeah… ok here’s the recipe, but I wanna share something else with you before that (please bear with me a minute). So we celebrated the fifth b’day in a grand way, I suppose. Yep, it was pretty grand for us, considering the fact that we are not the type who make every event into an occasion, this was pretty grand. Ok what I was trying to say is that, MariasMenu got her b’day wishes, you got your return gift, but what about the b’day present for the b’day baby? Ohh yes! She also got a gift, yep a new lens! You’ve already seen the work of the lens in the Chicken Tomato Roast. I dont know whether you noticed any difference there, did you? You know what… I’ve this habit of trying to relate each n every situation in my life to some proverbs/wise saying/ old saying. Here’s how I feel about the new lens in my hands… “pattikku muzhuvan thenga kittiyathu pole” or “Korangante kaayil poomala kittiya pole” ;) ( I guess translation will not give you the exact idea, so my non Malayalee friends, please excuse me :) ) what to say, it’s a tie!

Please check out these cupcakes at Swapna’s place. Thanks a lot dear! Nisha also tried these cake, please check out her version here. Thank you Nish! There is another version here, thank you so much Priya!

Check out the these cupcakes made by Naseeba. Thank you Seeba dear!

So here is the recipe for the Ultra Moist Chocolate Cake:

Ultra Moist Chocolate Cake

Recipe type: Dessert

Author: Maria Jose

Prep time: 25 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 50 mins

Serves: 15

Ingredients

Milk – 1 1/2 cups
Butter – 100 gms (1/3 cup + 2 tbsp approx)
Oil – 1/4 cup (I used sunflower oil)
Coco Powder – 1/2 cup ( I used Hershey’s)
Self Raising Flour – 1 cup (Refer notes for substitute)
Egg – 1 beaten, room temp
Baking Soda – 1/2 tsp (refer notes)
Sugar – 1 cup + 2 tbsp (250 gms)

Instructions

Preheat the oven @ 180 C/350-375 F, 10 mins before baking. Heat together milk, butter, oil & coco powder till the butter melts. Let it cool to room temperature (btw, dont get disappointed if you dont get the dark brown colour at this stage, you will get it once the cake is baked). Add flour, baking soda, sugar & beaten egg to the cooled wet ingredients. Beat it well using an electric beater or hand whisk till it is mixed well. You can either use it to make cupcakes or cake. I made a 9 inch loaf & 10 standard size cupcakes with the above qty. Bake in the preheated oven for 15- 20 mins for the cupcake & 25- 30 mins for the loaf cake. The baking time can vary depending on each oven.
For cupcakes: Line your cupcake tin with paper liners (I use 2 liners per cupcake) & pour 3 tbsp of batter in each case. I’m referring to the standard size muffins here.
For cake: Grease your cake tin well & line with parchment/baking paper. Pour the batter.
For Ganache:
Whipping cream – 1/2 cup
Baking chocolate – 3/4 cup (I usually use Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Chips. You can also use Hershey’s semi sweet chocolate chips for this)
Place the baking chocolate/ chocolate chips in a bowl. Heat the whipping cream on low flame till small bubbles start appearing around the edges. Pour the heated cream to the bowl with choc chips. Let it rest for 5 mins. Whisk it using a manual whisk. This will give you a liquid consistency ganache. If you want to thicken the ganache for spreading, place the bowl on some ice & whip it. It will start thickening. Spread the ganache on cooled cupcakes/cake. Enjoy!

Notes

This is an extremely moist cake, so I wont suggest it for making it as a layer cake. You can store the cake (without ganache/icing) @ room temp for 3-4 days in an air tight container. The original recipe calls for baking powder. But I’ve read somewhere that for chocolate cake, baking soda is good. The explanation for that is Baking soda will react with coco powder and gives a darker colour to the cake. I used castor sugar for the recipe for easy blending of ingredients. However you can use the regular sugar. You can serve this cake as a dessert along with a scoop of your fav ice cream :)

Substitution for self raising flour – to get 1 cup self-raising flour, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder+ 1/4 tsp salt to 1 cup all purpose flour. (source: http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html)

Eggless Vanilla Cupcake With Chocolate Frosting

Maria — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:17:16 +0000

We are meeting after a small gap I guess? Yeah…my last post was around Easter time. I was hoping to say hi to you in between but didnt work out. Something or the other popped up just like that. Anyways, what news at your end?

I’m here with a baking recipe after a long time. It’s mainly because baking has taken a back seat recently. I was trying so hard to cut down on my sugar & butter intake, but it only increased my cravings & ended up having more from outside :( Anyways I baked these cupcakes when some friends came over. It was such a pleasure to bake after a long time & these little cuties did a good job in motivating me to start baking again. After all there is nothing like good old vanilla cake smothered with chocolate frosting.

Btw, I didnt tell you..these are eggless cupcakes. Though I’ve posted some eggless bakes before, it’s not party stuff…That was mainly some healthy bakes. Nothing wrong with that, but I do prefer some sugar & butter high when I’m in a mood to celebrate :) Yep, I’m in a mood to celebrate. You remember Adi boy, my nephew? Well, I’ve two nephews now, my brother & family is blessed with a cute little fella, Siddharth on 5th May. I’m so looking forward to meet him & also my niece Liana :)

Talking about celebration, no celebration is complete without chocolates, right? Check out See’s Candies. They have a great collection of chocolates designed for special occasions like these. Their varieties include truffles, candy bars, sugar free etc; I’d like to try their Springtime Truffles, it looks so delicate & smooth. I’m sure they will make an awesome gift item too. I for sure dont mind receiving a beautifully wrapped Chocolate Box as a gift ;)

Now, shall we hop on to the recipe?

Here we go…

Eggless Vanilla Cupcake With Chocolate Frosting

Recipe type: Baking

Author: Maria Jose

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 12

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour (Maida) – 2 1/2 cups
Soda Bicarbonate – 1 tsp
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Powdered Sugar – 2 cups
Butter – 3/4 cup (170 gm), softened
Yogurt – 1 cup, room temp
Hot Milk – 1/2 cup
Vanilla Essence – 1/2 tsp
Hersheys “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup (113 gms) butter
2/3 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk/water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven @ 180 C, 10 minutes before baking.
Sift together all purpose flour, baking powder & soda bicarbonate. Beat softened butter, powdered sugar, hot milk, yogurt & vanilla essence together till light & fluffy. Fold in the sifted flour. Line a muffin/cupcake tray with liners. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 mins.
Icing
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk/water, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk/water, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Notes

Cupcake Notes: This is originally a cake recipe, so you can bake it as a cake also. For the above mentioned qty, you can use a 8-9 inch round cake tin. I made only half the qty mentioned above & got 12 standard size cupcakes. I stored the cupcakes at room temp for 3 days in an airtight container.

Icing Notes: I used water instead of milk. I made only half the qty of icing. The consistency of the icing depends on the qty of water added. For the icing consistency seen in the picture, you need to add more water. The cupcakes need to be cooled completely before frosting.

Carrot Halwa

Maria — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 06:22:58 +0000

I still remember the eagerness on their faces when they entered the room… the eagerness to know the magical number sealed in that small envelope in their Project Manager’s (PM) hands. Those numbers were an indicator of how much their work was appreciated. This is one of the fondest memories that I have from my very short career life.

As an HR professional, I was a part of the process that delivered those envelopes. Unfortunately I didn’t get an envelope at that time because I was serving my notice period. Honestly, I didn’t care much… I was eagerly waiting for my mega bonus in Bahrain… you know who ;) Moreover I thought I’ll get my envelope in my next job. But Life had other plans for me, though I worked in 2 more companies, envelopes seemed to be an extinct species.

I thought about those magical envelopes again when I was jobless & ‘blogless’ ;) I was sad about missing my chance of experiencing that feeling and wondered whether I’d ever get another shot. Well, I was wrong again. Today, I’m getting my magical numbers on a daily basis. But then I haven’t celebrated the numbers so far. Each time I planned to celebrate, my Project Manager (read Jose) reminded me that what matters is quality and not quantity, (as if I didn’t know) and he gave me new goals & targets like a ruthless PM!

Anyways now I’ve decided enough is enough. Let’s celebrate. I’ve decided to dump the PM & I’d like YOU, my team mate to join me in this celebration. Ohh I haven’t told you what we’re celebrating right? It’s a small number game, MariasMenu FB page has 1,000 + likes. This is the third 1,000 for this site. The first was 2 years ago when we had more than 1,000 eyeballs a day, the second was a few months back… we crossed 1,000 subscribers. I know this is a very small milestone but I’m compensating for missing my chance of the magical envelope ;) Thanks a billion to you!

Btw, since we dumped the PM there is no sponsored giveaway :( I’ve only a virtual sweet treat for you below. Let’s see… I’ll try to convince the PM and arrange some nice giveaways next year… deal?

Since it’s Diwali time, I wanted to share an Indian sweet with you. Gajar Ka Halwa is something that I love. Though I’ve made it several times, I wasn’t able to record the measurements, hence the delay in posting. I’m not sure whether this is the authentic or traditional method, but this is how I make it :). Hope you too will like it. This is something that you can make, to satisfy a sudden sweet craving.

Wish you and your family a happy Diwali! May this festival season brings you joy & happiness & prosperity!

Here is the recipe:

Carrot Halwa

Recipe type: Dessert, Vegetarian, North Indian

Ingredients

Grated Carrots – 2 cups
Warm milk – 2 1/2 cups
Sugar – 1/2 cup
Crushed cardamom – 2
Ghee – 1-2 tbsp
Cashew nuts – a handful

Instructions

Heat ghee in a pan. Add cashew nuts & fry it for a minute, remove from the pan & keep it aside. Add crushed cardamom & fry it for a few seconds. Add grated carrots & cook it for a few minutes. Add warm milk & sugar to this. Let it boil. Reduce the flame & cook till the carrots are soft & the milk is evaporated. Add fried cashews to this & mix well. Serve hot or warm with Vanilla ice cream.

Notes

The above quantity is just enough for 2 adults. I used low fat milk. You can adjust the qty of sugar to suit your taste.

Black Forest Roulade

Maria — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 09:36:21 +0000

I was just waiting for this day. Yep, its Sweet Punch time again and this month I got to select the recipe. Now you know why I was waiting ;). As per the list made by the Sweet Punch team, it was either roulade or swiss roll. If you are wondering what’s the difference between the two, check out this. Roulades can be sweet as well as savoury. I decided to go for the sweet version, after all we are baking for “sweet punch” right ;)? You can read more about roulade here.

I selected roulade because it sounded fancy and also I remembered bookmarking a chocolate roulade recipe in my Martha Stewart baking book. But after going through the recipe I was a bit disappointed because it used raw eggs for the filling. Now I dont fancy any kind of raw egg in my food and decided to find out another recipe. I started going through all my baking books and finally saw this recipe in one of my fav books, Australian Women’s Weekly.

I wanted to make sure that the recipe works well, so I tried it before sending it to the baking group. I also got feedback from my friends about the same and I made some changes in the recipe based on their feedback.

Now about the recipe, it can be considered as a rich dessert, the base is made with chocolate & eggs without any flour and its filled with whipping cream & cherries. It’s very moist and its texture is kind of gooey. If you like chocolate flavor, I’m sure you will enjoy this. I was very much tensed about the rolling part, because it tends to break. Luckily it came out well, though there were some minor cracks.

I enjoyed baking and eating it too. Hope you will also enjoy it :) Dont forget to check out the roulade round up on Sweet Punch Website.

For the base:

Dark chocolate – 200gm, chopped coarsely
Hot water – 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Instant coffee powder – 1 tsp
Eggs – 4, separated (room temp)
Caster sugar – 1/2 cup (110 gms)
Caster sugar – 1 tbsp, extra
Thickened cream – 3/4 – 1 cup ( I used whipping cream)
Kirsch – 1 tbsp

Cherry filling

Seedless black cherries – 425gm can
Cornflour – 3 tsp
Kirsch – 1 tbsp (refer notes)

Position oven shelves; preheat oven to 180 C. Grease 25 cm/30 cm swiss roll pan; line base with baking paper. Combine chocolate, water and coffee in large heat proof bowl; sit bowl over saucepan of simmering water. Using wooden spoon, stir until chocolate melts then immediately remove bowl from fire.
Beat egg yolks & sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until thick & creamy; this will take about 5 minutes. Using large metal spoon, fold egg mixture into warm chocolate mixture. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Using metal spoon, gently fold egg whites into chocolate mixture, in two batches. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven about 10 mins.

Meanwhile, place a large sheet of baking paper on board; sprinkle with extra sugar. Turn cake onto sugared baking paper; carefully remove lining paper, cover cake loosely with a tea towel. Cool cake to room temp.

Beat cream & kirsch in small bowl with electric mixer until firm peaks form. Spread cake evenly with cooled cherry filling then spread Kirsch cream over cherry mixture. Roll cake from a long side, using paper to lift and guide the roll; place on serving plate. Dust with cocoa powder. Cover roll; refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. You can also dress up the roulade with cherries or by piping some cream on top.

Cherry filling

Drain cherries, reserving 1/4 cup (60ml) of syrup. Using knife, chop cherries coarsely. Using wooden spoon blend cornflour and reserved syrup in a saucepan. Add cherries; stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, cool to room temp.

My Notes:

If you dont have a swiss roll tin, use a rectangular baking tin.
I used canned red cherries instead of black cherries and cherry brandy instead of kirsch. If you cant find kirsch or cherry brand use the syrup from the canned cherries. I used chocolate with 50 % cocoa for the base.
I find the taste of cherry brandy a bit dominating, adjust the qty of kirsch/brandy to suit your taste.
The roulade is a bit delicate and tends to stick on to the baking paper, be careful while removing the paper and also while rolling.
It’s a very moist roulade, its very soft even if you serve it straight out of the fridge.

Notes & Tips from the Women’s Weekly Magazine:

This cake is a cross between a mousse and a fallen souffle. It’s ideal to make it on the day of serving.
To successfully make this cake, it is vital that the egg yolk/sugar mixture is beaten until thick and that the egg whites are beaten only until soft peaks form. Overbeating will dry out the egg whites and make it difficult to fold them into the chocolate mixture.
To test if the cake is cooked, touch it with your fingertips: it should feel slightly firm and springy.

Storage:

As per the AWW notes, the filled roulade will keep for up to 8 hours in an airtight container in the refrigerator. However I stored it for 2 days in the fridge and didnt notice any change in the taste or texture.
As per the AWW notes, unrolled and unfilled roulade can be stored, covered with a piece of baking paper then a damp tea-towel, overnight in the refrigerator.