Chocolate Ganache Cake

My friend Naina asked me to post a cake recipe. So here it is.

My attempts at making cake earlier used to be disastrous. There were times when my cake would simply fall flat, or be hard as a rock. If it did turn out okay, I'd find that the sugar wasn't right. I have failed miserably in cake making, far too many times.

Thanks to my friend Sahana, and a video on VideoJug, I was able to successfully make the basic sponge cake. For all those who still don't know how to make the basic sponge cake, here is the video:

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-sponge-cake

However it shows a cake made with 8 eggs. If you do have a large cake tin and a big oven, please go ahead with that recipe. My recipe is made with 4 eggs and half the rest of the ingredients. Here is my recipe.

For the cake.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs 
• 95 g sugar (powdered)
• 42.5 g plain flour
• 22.5 g corn starch
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 4 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. 
2. Now for the other things. Use all the ingredients at room temperature. Melt the butter beforehand. Keep the eggs out of the refrigerator till they come to room temperature.
3. Sieve the flour, corn starch and baking powder together. Keep them aside.
4. Apply some butter onto the inside of your baking tin. Dust a teaspoon of flour so that it coats the tin evenly in a thin layer.
5. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. 
6. Beat the yolks with an electric beater till they become frothy. Add 2 tbsp of sugar and beat again till they change their color to a very pale yellow. Keep them aside.
7. Wash all your mixer attachments. Any amount of fat on your electric beater will be detrimental to the whipping of the whites. (All your utensils for whipping the egg whites should be squeaky clean.)
8. Now start whipping the egg whites. Add the remaining sugar in small quantities till the entire sugar is used up. Add the vanilla essence. Beat the egg whites till they become stiff enough to not drip or creep even when the container is turned upside down.
9. Now pour the egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture. Mix it very slowly with a rubber spatula. Mix it very slowly and with feather touch, otherwise the air that was trapped in the egg whites will escape, and your cake will go flat.
10. Now add the remaining ingredients (flour and butter) and once again mix  it very slowly. 
11. Pour the batter into the baking tin and place the tin in the oven.
12. Bake for thirty minutes, or insert a skewer into the center of the cake. If the skewer emerges clean, your cake is done.
13. Place it on a wire rack to cool it down.

Here is the picture for  the cake.

Now for the ganache topping.

Ingredients

• 80 ounces (or 1 large cup) dark chocolate
• 3/4th cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter

1. The chocolate should be essentially at room temperature.
2. Chop the chocolate into very tiny pieces and place the pieces in a bowl.
3. Mix the cream and butter in a pan, and place the pan on heat.
4. When the cream and butter mixture comes to boiling point, pour it over the chocolate pieces.
5. Let it rest for a few minutes. 
6. Now begin mixing it very slowly with a spatula so as to NOT trap any air within the mixture.
7. Your chocolate ganache is ready.

Chill your cake first so that the ganache retains its shine. Remove any loose crumbs from the cake. Now apply a thin layer of ganache to the cake (much like the first coat of nail polish). Refridgerate for 5 to 7 minutes till the first layer sets. Now pour the remaining ganache in the center of the cake and spread it slowly with your spatula. Have a little ganache drip down the sides of the cake. Spread everything evenly till it becomes flat. Place the cake in the refrigerator for the ganache to set.

Your Chocolate Ganache cake is ready to be served!

Yo, this is why I started PIC.

Happy Cooking!