Extreme Chocolate Birthday Cake

Hello, it’s Nicole here! So, it was my birthday not too long ago…now, my husband hates shopping at the best of times, let alone right now with everything that is going on. So being the thoughtful husband that he is (albeit, with some ulterior motives :P), and knowing how much I love chocolate, and cake, and chocolate cake, and spending time with him…but mostly chocolate cake…he suggested that we bake a big multi-layer chocolate cake together for my birthday. Of course I said yes, and thought I’d share it here too.

 There used to be a restaurant in town that my parents like to go when I was growing up, and they had this delicious 7 layer chocolate cake that my dad absolutely loved. The restaurant shut down, and years later my dad finds out someone he knows used to work there and gave him the recipe! The original recipe was for 12 cakes, but has been cut down for one so that’s why some of the measurements may seem a little funny.  (I also included the measurements we used to make two ¼ sheet pans).

 We decided that this was the chocolate cake we were going to bake, and frost it with my favourite chocolate frosting recipe from my mom (we doubled it), and fill between the layers with Samantha’s chocolate mousse, which we have blogged about here. Since we wanted more than two layers, but only had two cake pans, we decided to do two sheet pans (took 3 single recipes) and cut them both in half for a rectangular four layer cake.

 

Without further ado…here’s our cake:

 

Chocolate Cake

Makes one 10” round cake

(Amounts in brackets, for two 12”x17” sheet pans)

 

Ingredients:

1 cup Sugar (3 cups)

¼ cup + 2 tsp. Cocoa Powder (¾ cup + 2 Tbsp)

½ cup + 2 Tbsp. Oil (1¾  + 2 Tbsp.)

½ cup + 2 tsp. Hot Water (1½ cup + 2 Tbsp.)

2/3 cup Mayo (2 cups)

1¾ cups Flour (5¼ cups)

1 tsp. Baking Powder (1 Tbsp.)

1½ tsp. Baking Soda (4½ tsp.)

2/3 cup Buttermilk (2 cups)

3 Eggs + 1 Egg White (9 Eggs + 3 Whites)

 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300°F

In a mixer with the whisk attachment, mix the sugar and cocoa, until blended. Add the oil and blend until smooth, then add the hot water and mix well. Add the mayo and blend until smooth.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and buttermilk.

Mix on low until all dry ingredients are wet – make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Now mix on high to get rid of any lumps – do not over mix.

Add eggs and mix on medium speed until well blended – do not over mix.

Pour batter into greased & lined 10” pan put in the preheated oven right away (do not let them sit out). Bake for 50-60 mins.

Let cool before filling and frosting.

Mousse

(We made 1 1/2 recipes)

Recipe here

 

Chocolate Frosting

(We doubled this recipe)

Ingredients:

½ cup Sugar

½ cup Water

¼ cup Cocoa Powder

6 oz Dark Chocolate

6 oz Unsalted Butter

 

Directions:

Heat sugar, water and cocoa in a saucepan, stirring until smooth and sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate and butter to the pan and whisk until both are melted and mixture is smooth.

Chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator. Mix on high speed in mixer until fluffy.

 

Once all the components were ready, we trimmed the edges of the cake then measured and cut them both in half so we had four equal sized layers. We decided to build it on a sheet pan because we didn't have any other plates or trays that were big enough! We split the mousse into three equal parts. Put the first layer of cake down an covered it with mousse, followed by the second layer of cake, then mousse then cake, then mousse, then cake.

    

We then put this in the freezer to harden up the mousse a bit before frosting it. 

We had a bit of a mishap when layering the mousse on. The second layer of cake broke in half when we put it on, and then when we put it in the fridge to harden the mousse up a bit, it slid and the top layers started falling off and getting mousse everywhere. We were able to fix it, but next time we would probably surround each layer with an frosting ‘dam’ along the edges to hold the mousse in. The weather was also fairly warm, so that probably didn’t help. In the end, we put it in the freezer once we fixed it, so that it would be easier to frost. This also made the tray messy, but thankfully that doesn't change the flavour!

It was delicious, and chocolatey…and GIANT…and heavy! Now I understand why in all those cake shows on TV they talk about how heavy their fancy cakes are!! There was so much cake that we shared some with my family, my husband's family and still had extra that we put in the freezer so we could enjoy it again later.

Mousse/Moose Creations

It’s Moose Tracks day. I find this a very interesting name for an ice cream, it’s definitely very Canadian and it’s perfect because it’ll be Canada Day in a few days so you can make your mousse/moose treat to celebrate. The first thing came to our minds were cute little moose and chocolate mousse so we’re combining to the two to make a divine and cute treat.

We decided to make chocolate mousse in chocolate cups topped with a homemade cute little moose toppers.

To make the moose toppers, Nicole used her handy dandy Silhouette. We picked out a moose we liked and cut it out on red, brown, and white cardstock and then we glued a toothpick between two of the moose heads to make a nice little topper. (They're also great for cupcakes!) It’s super easy; take a look...

First off, you’ll want to make your chocolate edible cups so that they are properly set.

You’ll need a 6 or 12 cup muffin pan. Fill each one of the cups with water and place a popsicle stick in each cup. Freeze until completely solid. We also did some mini muffin cups as well.

We did this a few night before we made the mousse just to make sure that they set.

Right before you are ready to “make” your cups, melt the chocolate. We are melting some white and some semi-sweet chocolate so we can have a variety of cups.

Take your muffin tins out of the freezer and let them warm up for only a minute.

Now remove the ice molds from the tins and submerge in the melted chocolate of your choice. Make sure you don’t fully submerge just dip up to the top rim.

Place the molded chocolate on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Give the chocolate a minute or so to set and then they should just wiggle off of the ice and you should have a cute little chocolate cup.

***Ok, so above was how they were supposed to work, but in real life...not so much. We ended up improvising and using another technique to make the cups which worked just fine. Our ice molded perfectly but we had a problem with taking them out. The ice melted so fast that they were wet, so when we dipped them into the chocolate, they didn't stick and over time made our chocolate chunky. After trying quite a few times, we ended up with a few successful ones and then Nicole used the chocolate to coat the inside of a muffin liner and then we put them in the fridge to harden. It worked out fine in the end. Maybe you'll have more success than us so give both ways a try and see what happens.***

Now to make the mousse for the moose to go into.

You will need:

300 grams of semisweet chocolate chips

4 eggs

½ sugar

2 cups of whipped cream, more if you want to put some on top

Mix the eggs with the sugar and whip until medium peaks form, about 8 minutes. 

While whipping, melt the chocolate chips.

Whisk the chocolate into the whipped eggs and sugar. Set aside in a large bowl.

Whip the 2 cups of whipping cream. When it looks very thick, take out 1 cup and fold into the egg and chocolate mix and then whip the rest of the cream until peaks form and fold the rest into the chocolate mixture.

Now this is the part where you’ll scoop your mousse into the little chocolate cups if you make them or you can scoop it into ramekins to set as well. 

Make sure you let your mousse set for about 3 hours in the fridge before serving. You can top with just the moose toppers or add on some whipped cream and fruit if you like.