It's My Birthday!

Hi my dear friends, today is my birthday!

This year I prepared chocolate cake filled with chocolate brigadeiro with mascarpone cream covered with dark chocolate ganache.  I’ve used brigadeiro in many of my recipes, but this was the first time that I tried it with mascarpone cream.  I loved the result.  The chocolate cake is an adaptation of the Double chocolate recipe from the book Miette.

Talking about the cake decoration, I used polymer clay to make the flowers. I’ve never tried this before and I really liked to work with it. The technique is quite different compared to gum paste. For example, I just used my fingers to model and shape the flower petals, differently from the gum paste, which I have to use cutters. Besides polymer clay flowers are harder to break. 

My Birthday Cake

Double Chocolate Cake

(adapted from Miette Book)

1½ cups (7½ ounces) all-purpose flour
1¼ cups (4½ ounces) natural unsweetened cocoa

1½ teaspoons baking soda

½   teaspoon baking powder
¾  teaspoon kosher salt
2 ounces 70 percent cacao chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup boiling water
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
½ cup butter, melted
2¼ cups (16 ounces) sugar

1. Liberally butter two 6-by-3-inch regular or contour cake pans and dust with sifted cocoa powder. Tap out the excess cocoa.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

3. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set aside.

4. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Whisk until the chocolate is melted. Let the mixture cool for 15 minutes.

5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and vanilla. Set aside.

6. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs on high speed until foamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and slowly pour in the butter, whisking until combined, about 30 seconds. Raise the speed to medium and whisk until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds longer.

7. Reduce the speed to low and slowly pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Slowly pour in the milk and vanilla mixture. Add the sugar and whisk until the batter is smooth and liquid, about 2 minutes.

8. Stop the mixer. Remove the bowl and add the sifted dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated, preferably by hand, lifting and folding in from the bottom center. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again just briefly by hand. The batter may still look a little lumpy, but stop mixing.

9. Pour the batter through a medium-mesh sieve into a large measuring cup or bowl to remove any lumps. Press against the solids in the sieve with a rubber spatula to push through as much batter as possible, then discard the lumps. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake until the tops spring back when lightly pressed and a tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

10. Transfer to wire racks and let cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. When the cakes are cooled enough to handle the pans but still a tad warm to the touch, carefully run an offset spatula around the edges of the pans to loosen them, then invert the cakes onto the racks and remove the pans. (Note: If you are making the Old-Fashioned Cake and therefore using a contour pan, just invert the pans and drop them sharply onto the racks; they should fall out cleanly. Using an offset spatula in a contour pan will mar the edges of the cake.) Let cool for about 20 minutes longer. Wrap the cakes tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate to ensure that the interiors are completely cooled before decorating, at least 1 hour or for up to 3 days. To freeze, wrap tightly in a second layer of plastic and store in the freezer up to 2 months.

Belgian Brigadeiro with Mascarpone Cream

(from Lulu's Sweet Secrets)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons butter

7 oz Belgian milk chocolate

12 oz mascarpone cream

Place condensed milk, butter ang chocolate in a saucepan. Stir to combine. Over medium heat cook, stirring, until thickened. Set aside to cool.

In a bowl, beat the mascarpone by hand with a whisk until smooth, and then incorporate the brigadeiro. Stir to combine. 

Dark Chocolate Ganache

18 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups heavy cream

Bring cream just to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, add chocolate, stand until melted (5 minutes), stir until smooth and glossy. Refrigerate until firm yet still pliable (45 minutes-1 hour) then stir until smooth.

Assembly

Divide each cake in two layers. Place one chocolate cake on a serving plate. Spread 1/3 recipe chocolate brigadeiro over top.  Repeat the chocolate cake and chocolate brigadeiro twice.  Top with remaining chocolate cake. Cover with chocolate ganache.