I always love it when I have an excuse to make a whole cake - I can hardly justify the work of making an entire cake when its just the two of us. I made this cake this summer during Patrick's family reunion in Oregon. With two full houses of relatives, there were lots of mouths to eat it!
This is a layered chocolate cake with ganache frosting, strawberry jam, and fresh strawberries. I would have liked it to be circular, as the recipe calls for, but the rental house did not have any 9-inch diameter cake pans! Instead, I used a 9x13 (they didn't even have any 9x9s) and just cut the baked cake in half. It did the trick, and it still tasted great in rectangular form.
The ganache on this makes it super rich and quite messy to frost - especially if you don't have enough time to fully freeze and set the ganache like I did (there were too many outdoor activites to do - biking, hiking, swimming, floating down a freezing cold river.....). But, the drippings go nicely on the extra strawberries :) and you don't even have to wait for it to set!
And before the recipe, here's a beautiful view from the top of the hike that we went on before eating this cake :)
Recipe:
CAKE
2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
Preheat over to 350F and spray two 9 inch diameter pans. Blend flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl, form a well in the center. In a separate bowl, whisk water, buttermilk, oil and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry well and whisk to blend. Divide batter between pans and bake for about 30 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans.
Meanwhile.... make the ganache!
GANACHE
18 oz chopped bittersweet chocolate
2 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
Bring cream to boil, pour over chocolate in a medium sized bowl. Let stand 1 minute for chocolate to melt, and then stir until smooth. Refrigerate 1 1/4 cup ganache about 1 hour until it is thick enough to spread. Leave the other at room temp to cool - it should still be pourable.
Now its time to assemble...
STRAWBERRY TOPPING
Fresh strawberries
1 jar strawberry jam
Place one cake layer on plate, spread 4 tablespoons jam. Spoon several dollops of the chilled ganache over top, and spread until even. Place second cake layer on top of the first. Spread another 4 tablespoons strawberry jam on top. Pour almost half of the room temp ganache over the cake, spread over top and sides to cover. Freeze the whole cake until the ganache sets (20-30 min). Pour the rest of the ganache over the cake - spread evenly, smooth the edges, and make it pretty. Freeze to set ganache. Add strawberries in whatever pattern your heart desires, refrigerate until two hours before the time to eat, serve at room temp!
