Hey guys! I'm back with another cake post. I love the way this cake looks. Look how smooth the icing looks and the perfectly piped rosettes. The chocolate ganache looks so delectably smooth and rich. I am getting hungry for chocolate justing staring at this image.
This cake is a chocolate buttermilk cake with dark chocolate ganache icing and apricot cream. Decorated with white chocolate and dark chocolate fans, piped rosette border, and a white chocolate ganache drizzle. I love how simple this cake looks but it is super effective. Only a couple of colours in the decorating and its all chocolate. Yum!
Today at work in vancouver (at the lamplighter) it was a Sunday brunch and I was serving a couple of friends coming in hungover, some tourist, some wife and husbands having their usual. Then one guy sits at my table and is twitching so much. I asked him how he was going and straight away I knew he was fried. He couldn't even look me in the eyes. His body was twitching so much and he had a swollen side lip from chewing his lip so much. He ordered the chicken waffle for breakfast. I gave him some water and let him be.
He was twitching so much you could pick him out of everyone in the restaurant easily when I began telling my co worker about this guy I was serving. He spilt 2 glasses of water and once I brought him his breakfast and he struggled to use his knife and fork. He had them in the wrong hand and was trying to cut his meal.
I then got him to pay straight away because I was scared he would walk out on me because he is in 10 different worlds. I brought him his bill and he said yes yes yes consecutively really fast about eight times. He then said I will pay with plastic (meaning his credit card) this summed up what level he was on.
Vancouver has been a huge learning curve and will continue to be while I live here how lucky I am and how privileged I am to be able to go back to a healthy country with a good economy. It has been a huge eye opener in the first month and continues to teach me to appreciate everything I have.
When I am walking to work from my hotel (I have been staying in a hotel suite for a vacation stay for a month, while I look for my own place) when I am walking to work I see about 8 fried people just in their own world. And I see about 2 homeless per corner on every block in downtown Vancouver. It is so sad. Just yesterday I was walking to work, I saw an elderly lady about 65+ years old, sitting in a wheelchair in the middle of the pathway with a swollen leg in a cast. She had all her smudged makeup, red lipstick on her forehead and mascara on her chin and she was just looking at the sky in the middle of the path.
I can't believe it everyday I walk to work. Of course I am use to it, but it still brings me back to reality overtime I complain i didn't make enough tips at work or something. It is just a huge eye opener to how sheltered me are in little old NZ and even Oz. I think I used to see maybe 3 homeless when I was walking in the city of Sydney. And none in NZ.
It is such a big issue here in Vancouver (the homeless) and it is really sad because its a beautiful city, with beaches, lakes, parks and mountains. But you just have to be mindful when coming to the corner of blocks and homeless are yelling across the st to each other in the middle of the day or shooting up.
But after that little tourist tour of Vancouver enjoy the recipe for the cake guys!
Recipe:
Chocolate Fan Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Buttermilk Cake:
Chocolate Ganache Dripping:
(White chocolate dripping, painted in gold)
Chocolate Fans:
linzxvi.wixsite.com/linz/single-post/2018/05/05/Lemon-Honey-Passionfruit-Cube-Cake
(Tempered Chocolate Fans White Chocolate and Dark Chocolate)
(White Chocolate painted gold)
Chocolate Ganache:
Apricot Cream:
1 can of apricot halves, drained
1 Tablespoon gelatine
3 Tablespoons cold water
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups cream
Method:
Place gelatine over top of water in a small bowl, mix the two together until they bloom. About 5 minutes. Set aside.
Blend apricot halves in a food processor to produce a fruit puree.
In a medium saucepan combine apricot puree, lemon juice, sugar and gelatine mix. Heat over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the gelatine is incorporated.
Place in a clean bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile beat the cream to stiff peaks, once the apricot mixture has cooled down a bit, fold in the cream mixture into the apricot mixture.
Pour the apricot cream into two lined 9cm cake tines with glad wrap. Make sure there is glad wrap draping over the edges of the cake tin.
Smooth out the top of the mousse and place in the fridge to set.
Assembly:
Cut off the tops of the cake and make sure they are levelled.
Place a bit of ganache on the bottom of the cake board to adhere the first cake layer. Spread chocolate ganache over the cake, pipe a border around the cake and place the apricot cream disc in the middle of the cake. Cover with chocolate ganache.
Place the next cake layer on top and so on. Repeat this process until there is no more cake layers or apricot disc.
Begin a crumb coat with the chocolate ganache and do a rough frosting to lock in all the cake crumbs.
Place in the fridge to set the first crumb coat.
Remove the cake from the fridge and begin your final frosted layer. Make sure it is super smooth.
Drizzle the chocolate ganache icing down the sides of the cake. Wait a couple of minutes for the ganache to set.
With a fine art brush, dip the paintbrush in gold paint and begin to paint the ganache drizzling gold.
Stick your tempered chocolate garnishes on top of the cake.
Pipe a rosette border with the chocolate ganache.
Yum, apricots and chocolate!
Definitely an apricot fan!
xx
