Phaedra's Wedding Cake, Try #1: Chocolate Cake with Orange Pastry Cream Filling and Chocolate Frosting

My wonderful sister-in-law has been kind enough to entrust me with the baking of the cake for her wedding in January. I've never baked a wedding cake before, so I decided to practice.

This was attempt #1, which turned out pretty well. The cake was absolutely delicious, but incredibly thick (vaguely like flourless chocolate cake) and probably too rich for a wedding cake. Also, my attempt at a crumb coat before frosting was a disaster... Unfortunately, the picture of the finished product has disappeared (as has the cake, alas)!

The recipe for the cake part of the cake came from the recipe for Devil's Food White-Out Cake in Baking by Dorie Greenspan. Because I was making a much smaller cake (18cm round pan), I cut the recipe by a third (which made for some interesting measurements). Also, the cake in the book is decorated with crumbs, which looks nice but isn't appropriate for a wedding cake, so we ate the layer designed for the crumbs instead.

For the filling I used the same Joy of Cooking recipe as for the Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes, but added some Cointreau.

The result was a yummy cake that needs some fine-tuning before it's a bona-fide wedding cake. Reviews (my husband's co-workers) said that the cake needed to be lighter, and the filling more plentiful (maybe I'll try two layers next) with a more orange-y flavour (probably going to use orange extract as well as Cointreau).

Here's the recipe, because even if it's not a great cake for a wedding, it's still a great cake!


For the cake:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temp)
• 1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs (room temp)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used a whole packet of vanilla sugar)
• 2 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk, at room temp
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 4 oz semi-sweet or milk chocolate, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Butter one, or if you have them, two, round cake pans and dust the inside with flour, tapping out the excess. You may want to line the bottoms with parchment or wax paper, but if you have the kind of tin that pops open, you don't really need to.
   
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, use a mixer (a stand mixer with a paddle attachment if you have one - I don't and a hand mixer worked just fine) to beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy.
   
4. Add the sugars and continue to beat for another 3 minutes.
   
5. Add the eggs one by one beating for one minute after each addition.
6. Beat in the vanilla (the recipe says not to be concerned if the mixture looks curdled - but it didn't).
   
7. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the melted chocolate. When it is fully incorporated, add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk (adding the dry ingredients in three batches and the milk in two); scrape down the sides as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter.
   
8. At this point, the batter will be thick, like frosting. Still working at low speed, mix in the boiling water, which will thin the batter considerably.
9. Switch to a rubber spatula, scrape down the bowl, and stir in the chopped chocolate.
10. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans (if you have them, otherwise just do one and wait) and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
11. Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point. Test to see if your cakes are done by inserting a thin knife into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cakes are done. (In our gas oven, at 175C, it took 1 hour for the cakes to bake, so make sure you check on them!)
12. Transfer the cake pans to a rack to cool. After about 5 minutes, run a knife around the sides of the cake and unmold them. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.
13. When you are ready to fill and frost the cake, inspect the layers. If the cakes have domes, use a long serrated knife (like a bread knife) and a gentle sawing motion to even them. With the same knife, slice each layer horizontally in half. Set three layers aside and crumble the fourth layer; set these crumbs aside.
    

For filling:

You may wish to double the amount of filling to get two thick layers. I halved the cake instead and made a much smaller cake.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 1 vanilla bean, split, or 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons Cointreau or other orange liquor
  

Directions:

1. Once you've got the custard on the stove, this can get tricky, so make sure you have a spatula or two and a whisk at hand, plus a bowl to pour the hot custard into.
2. In a medium bowl beat sugar, flour, cornstarch and egg yolks at high speed until thick and pale yellow (about 2 minutes).
3. In a medium saucepan, bring milk to a simmer over low heat (add vanilla bean if you're using that, but remove it once the milk is simmering).
4. Gradually pour about 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking to combine.
5. Heating the custard:
   • "The Joy of Cooking" says to scrape the egg mixture (use a spatula if your pans are sensitive) back into the pan (with the remaining milk in it), and cook over low to medium (low unless your oven is useless!) heat, whisking constantly and scraping the bottom and corners of the pan to prevent scorching, until the custard is thick and beginning to bubble. Then continue to cook, whisking, for 45 to 60 seconds. Using a clean spatula, scrape the custard into a clean bowl.
   • My take on this: This time it turned out exactly how it was supposed to. I have no idea why! But you may find that you notice your custard going from runny to lumpy practically immediately, despite constant whisking. Don't panic; just don't let it burn! Just pour your lumpy custard into the clean bowl and whisk it a few times, and it should even out just fine. If it did burn, then make sure not to scrape the burned bit on the bottom into the bowl.
     
6. If you're using the vanilla extract, stir that in now. Also, add 2 Tbsp of Cointreau, Grand Marnier, or other orange liquor.
   
7. You may want to cover the surface of the custard with wax or parchment paper to keep a skin from forming. I find that this just wastes custard as it usually sticks to the parchment paper (can't seem to find waxed paper here, so no word on whether that works better), and you can just eat the skin off the top of the custard before filling the cupcakes.
8. Let cool, then refrigerate before using. Make sure the custard is set before filling the cake!

For frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
• 4 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)
  
• 1 1/4 cups baking cocoa (not instant cocoa powder or the likes of Nesquik - I tried this this time. The result was a remarkably rich frosting that was extremely difficult to spread, despite copious amounts of cream.)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar, cocoa and vanilla. (Be careful not to add too much at once or you'll have a powdery mess all over your kitchen!) Slowly add enough milk until frosting reaches spreading consistency - you may not need the entire 1/2 cup or you may need more.

Taste your frosting as you go along (it'll be yummy!). That way you can add sugar/cocoa to your taste.

Refrigerate your frosting until your cake is ready to frost, but leave it out for a few minutes (ideally while you're setting up the cake) to allow the frosting to soften again.


To assemble your cake:

Once your cake body has cooled sufficiently, you can assemble it. Put the bottom layer cut side up on a cake round or cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper, or just use a big enough cutting board like we did if you're not concerned about presentation. Using a long metal icing spatula (I used a regular rubber one, which was interesting while applying the frosting but really fine for the custard), cover the layer with half the custard, spreading it evenly. Top with the second layer, cut side up, and add the remaining custard. Finish with the top layer, cut side down.

Frost the top and sides of the cake with the frosting (this is where the long metal frosting spatula comes in). Don't worry about smoothing the frosting. Cover the entire cake with the chocolate crumbs, gently pressing the crumbs into the cake with your fingers.

Next week: Red Velvet Cake with Orange Pastry Cream Filling and Buttercream Frosting