Decadent chocolate cake with strawberries
As a thank you gift for a friend I used that last of my chocolate ganache to decorate a cake. Funny enough I've never baked a cake before, decorated sure but not bake. I am quite happy with the results!
How I did it
I used store bought dark chocolate cake mix and baked it in two cake pans. The dark chocolate ganache was leftover from a previous experiment.
I reheated the ganache in a glass bowl in a saucepan with water.
To have the upper layer sit nicely on the lower one, I cut off the top of the lower layer to make it completely flat.
After the ganache completely melted I poured it on top of the lower layer.
I carefully placed the upper layer on top of the lower layer and then covered the entire thing in fresh bittersweet chocolate ganache. Using a spatula to liberally spread it around. For anyone wondering I used 8oz of bittersweet chocolate chips (eyeballing it in a measuring cup) and 4oz of heavy whipping cream.
As a final touch I put some strawberries on top.
Some final comments: Chocolate doesn't like water. Strawberries go bad quickly, especially after they are washed. On top of that I sliced them. So after washing them I wrapped them in a paper towel trying to get rid of extra water. Then after slicing them I patted them with the paper towel again. It seemed to work pretty well. We didn't eat the last piece until two days later and everything seemed fine.
Additional Pictures
How I did it
I used store bought dark chocolate cake mix and baked it in two cake pans. The dark chocolate ganache was leftover from a previous experiment.
I reheated the ganache in a glass bowl in a saucepan with water.
To have the upper layer sit nicely on the lower one, I cut off the top of the lower layer to make it completely flat.
After the ganache completely melted I poured it on top of the lower layer.
I carefully placed the upper layer on top of the lower layer and then covered the entire thing in fresh bittersweet chocolate ganache. Using a spatula to liberally spread it around. For anyone wondering I used 8oz of bittersweet chocolate chips (eyeballing it in a measuring cup) and 4oz of heavy whipping cream.
As a final touch I put some strawberries on top.
Some final comments: Chocolate doesn't like water. Strawberries go bad quickly, especially after they are washed. On top of that I sliced them. So after washing them I wrapped them in a paper towel trying to get rid of extra water. Then after slicing them I patted them with the paper towel again. It seemed to work pretty well. We didn't eat the last piece until two days later and everything seemed fine.
Additional Pictures
Looks great! I've baked very few cakes, how does using a store mix compare to making it from scratch? Of course in this case I think the ganache would have been such a strong flavour that it wouldn't make much difference (very delicious either way!).
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