Source: The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg. Third Ed.
Makes 20 servings.
Preparation time: 1:30 hours
Tips: Serve with Raspberry sauce, see recipe under "Sauces".
Ingredients
Preparation
melted unsalted butter
12 ounces sweet dark chocolate
14 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 1/4 cups water
12 ounces granulated sugar
18 ounces soft unsalted butter
12 eggs
6 ounces sugar
3 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1. Brush melted butter over the inside of two 10-inch cake pans. Place rounds of baking paper in the bottoms and butter the papers. Set the pans aside.
2. Cut the dark chocolate and unsweetened chocolate into small pieces.
3. Bring the water and 12 ounces of sugar to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate; stir until the chocolate is melted and completely incorporated. Add the butter, in chunks, and stir until melted. Set aside at room temperature.
4. Whip the eggs with the 6 ounces of sugar at high speed for about 3 minutes. The mixture should be light and fluffy. Do not whip to maximum volume as you would a sponge cake; incorporating too much air will make the finished cakes crumbly and difficult to work with. Very gently, fold the melted chocolate into the egg mixture. The chocolate may be warm, but it must not be hot.
5. Divide the batter between the two prepared pans. Place the pans in a water bath.
6. Bake immediately at 350 F degrees for approximately 40 minutes or until the top feels firm. Refrigerate the cakes for at least two hours or, preferably, overnight. The chocolate must be completely set before you unmold or finish the cakes.
7. Unmold the cakes by briefly warming the outside bottom of the pans (moving them over a gas or electric burner just until the cake moves freely inside the pan), and invert them onto 10-inch cardboard circles. Peel the circles of baking paper off the tops of the cakes.
8. Select from Option A or B for the cake presentation.
-Option A: Whip the cream with the 2 Tbs. of sugar to just under stiff peaks. Place the whipped cream in a pastry bag with a no.4 (8-mm) plain tip. Mark the top of the cakes into quarters to easily locate the exact center. Starting at this point, pipe a spiral of whipped cream, with each circle touching the last one, over the entire top of each cake. Cut the cakes into the desired number of servings using a thin knife dipped in hot water. Sprinkle the chocolate shavings lightly over the top.
-Option B: Dust top of cakes with sifted cocoa powder, top with chocolate shavings or make a design using a stencil and powdered sugar.
9. Decorate as many dessert plates as you will need with cocoa powder and stencil. Place a cake slice off- center on a prepared dessert plate. Pour a round pool of raspberry sauce in front of the slice. Decorate the sauce using the Sour cream mixture. Place fresh raspberries with a mint leaf each available.
NOTES : 1) Sour cream/heavy cream Mixture for piping into raspberry sauce to decorate individual servings: Mix enough heavy cream into sour cream to make the same consistency of the sauce you are decorating.
2) Bake a day ahead.
3) Cakes may be frozen when complete.
Makes (2) 10-inch cakes.
TO DECORATE:
Light chocolate shavings, to decorate
Sour cream / heavy cream Mixture (see note 1)
Cocoa powder & stencil, to decorate
Raspberry sauce to serve with
Chocolate Decadence
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