Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Chocolate Blackout Cake Part II - Creamy and Thick Ganache Frosting



For my blackout cake, I wanted a very thick, creamy and smooth chocolate frosting. I was thinking about ganache, but thicker and more pipeable, but one that would remain soft at room temperature. After seeing a recipe in The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock, I thought that adding more butter to my ganache might be the way to achieve the result I wanted. I tried various ratios of cream, butter and chocolate but couldn't seem to get it thick enough, yet soft enough, at room temperature. When I added more cream, the frosting was soft enough, but it lacked body. Then it occurred to me that what I needed was to add some oil to the frosting. This worked beautifully. As you can see, this is a VERY rich frosting. You'll have more than enough to frost a 2-layer 9-inch cake, but it takes so long to set up, I wanted you to have extra in case you need it for decorating, or whatever.

1-3/4 cups heavy cream
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces at room temperature
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)
1-1/2 pounds semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place the cream, butter and sugar in a medium pot (the cream bubbles up quite a lot, so take this into consideration). Set over medium-high heat, and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is melted. Boil for 30 seconds.

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium-size bowl. Pour the cream mixture over the chocolate. Let it sit for a five minutes, and then stir. Let it stand for another five minutes and then stir in a figure-eight pattern until the chocolate and cream are completely blended and the chocolate is melted. Strain the mixture through a medium-mesh strainer into a bowl. Set the frosting aside to cool (cool room temperature is best) until spreadable – 2-4 hours, depending on the depth of the bowl and the temperature of the kitchen. Stir slowly and occasionally as the mixture is cooling. Do not refrigerate the frosting to speed up the process, or you may make the frosting grainy. Once you have frosted your cake, the frosted cake can be refrigerated in a covered container. Remove it from the refrigerator an hour before serving the cake.

3 comments:

Nicole said...

I just want to lick my screen at the moment :P

JennJennTheFoodJunkie said...

what is the stuff around the cake???

Penny Wantuck Eisenberg said...

If you go to blackout cake part 1, where the cake is being made, you'll see that I've instructed you to keep the cake that you cut off when you level the cake. These can then be cut into bits or squares and sprinkled with powdered sugar, and patted onto the sides of the cake. that's what you're seeing in the finished cake.