Today is Re’s sixteenth birthday! Happy Birthday, my dear son! I’m always excited when come to baking birthday cakes, I can take as long as a week to pick a recipe and thereafter another few days thinking on how to decorate the cake. It is no mean feat to ganache a cake. If I say cream frosting is difficult, then I think ganache frosting is challenging.
Since Re mentioned that he likes to have a chocolate cake, I chose this Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake as it received raved reviews from many who tried. The ganache shared in the recipe is different from the usual chocolate ganache, no whipping cream and chocolate chips, but, condensed milk together with cocoa powder being used instead. Interesting, I thought. Somehow I find the chocolate ganache is not solidified despite being chilled in the fridge overnight, it has the consistency of chilled condensed milk. Anyone has the same problem? This steamed cake cracked a little in the centre and because the cake wasn’t flat, I trimmed off the uneven top which in turn affected the appearance – cake crumbs underneath the layer of chocolate ganache started to show up. So I made another half portion of ganache and pour over the cake, but still couldn’t cover the cake crumbs – guess the ganache wasn’t thick enough. Or perhaps I should have placed the trimmed part face down on the cake board and use the cake bottom as the top for a better ganache result. Nothing can be done now, I can only think of beautifying the cake with some white chocolate swirl chips….haha..
Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake
Source : Neyeeloh, with slight modifications. Click here for Esther’s recipe in chinese.
Makes one 8″ round cake
Ingredients
(Cake Batter)
180g butter
180g caster sugar
200g full cream evaporated milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten with a folk
100g cake flour
50g cocoa powder ( I use valhorna )
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp rum
Method
1. Line and grease a 8” round baking pan.
2. Combine sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla extract and butter in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted. Remove from heat, set aside.
3. Heat up the steamer.
4. When (2) is slightly cooled, add in beaten eggs and rum. Stir to combine well. ( I added rum in this step )
5. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda together into a large mixing bowl, then pour egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir to mix well ( the cake batter should be runny ).
6. Pour batter into the prepared pan and place it in the steamer, making sure that your cake pan is not touching the water. Cover the top of the pan loosely with a piece of aluminium foil.
7. Cover the steamer and steam over medium heat for 45 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan before turning out for further decoration.
Ingredients
(Chocolate glaze)
200g condense milk
½ tsp vanilla extract ( I used 1tsp rum )
2tbsp vegetable oil
20g cocoa powder ( I used valhorna)
1/8tsp salt
Method
1. Combine sifted cocoa powder, condense milk and oil in a bowl and mix well. Stir over low heat till thicken ( keep stirring all the time).
2. Add in salt and vanilla extract/rum, stir to mix well.
3. Let the chocolate mixture cool a little before spreading onto the cake.
Using condensed milk for the ganache sounds really odd. I find ganache really easy to do – equal parts chocolate and butter, melted in the microwave, let it cool a little and then stir through some cream. Full details here: http://eatingadelaide.com/chocolate-ganache/
Yeah, a little odd but tasted good. Just that ganache using condensed milk was a little runny . Thanks for the info:)
Nice Birthday cake you made for your kid..
Thank you!
yeah, i think it’s better to use the bottom part of the cake as the top since you’ve trimmed the cake. I think i have used condensed milk ganache before but whether got milk or not, i’m terrible at pouring and decorating cake with ganache, i just find myself difficult handling all sorts of ganache! Nevertheless, your cake still looks beautiful!
It’s never easy to ganache a cake. I have to hide the flaws with choc swirls…thanks for the compliments.
Happy Birthday to Remus! May is a birthday month in your house! And your cake looks lovely,I have not made ganache with condensed milk before, so I really have no idea! Decorating the cake with choc swirls is a great idea!
Hi Joyce, thanks for the birthday greetings. May is a month full of cakes, before we can finish one cake, the next is waiting..thanks for the compliments ^_^