What was the mood and it was berry-berry
soft , with Valentine’s Day just gone by, the fridge had a couple of fresh
Strawberry packs, these ofcourse were left after I had finished baking a batch
of ‘Strawberry Nutella Cookies’ for my friend and ofcourse a dessert for my
Valentine.
You may not know but you may have
fallen in love with strawberries dipped in chocolate.
The sign of strawberries and you know
the summer is just about to set in. Thanks to some very smart cultivators in
India who realised two decades ago, that Strawberries can be grown in the hills
of this tropical country, we have today abundant of fresh strawberries coming
our way.
The time was just right, to bake this
cake it was the weekend, complimented with a lovely weather and few showers
that late afternoon.
I doubted that my new 9 inch mould ring
will fit my round baking tin. It was the first time I was using the ring, and I
just wished it fit my round baking tin.And guess what it just fit right.
I could have made this cake with the
heavy mousse I usually make but I decided to do this with the Bavarian Cream
because it is very light.
The extra layer of strawberries and cream makes this
cake heavy and I think the Bavarian Cream was the right choice.
A luscious and moist cake with Bavarian
Cream, fresh strawberries and dark
chocolate
Ingredients:
Chocolate Cake
4 eggs
125g caster sugar
90g flour, sifted
30g cocoa
25g unsalted butter, melted
Strawberry Cream Filling
150ml whipped cream
2tbsp powdered sugar
150gm strawberries, chopped
Bavarian Cream
150gm dark chocolate, chopped
400ml low fat cream
3 tsp gelatin
30gm sugar
50ml milk
3 egg yolks
1 tsp Vanilla Extract or ½ Vanilla Bean
Chocolate Glaze
150gm dark chocolate, chopped
200ml low fat cream
1tbsp Corn Syrup
Garnishing
Strawberries, sliced or the sides an
few for the top of the cake.
Cocoa powder
Icing Sugar
Method:
Chocolate Cake
Prepare a 9 inch baking tin with
parchment paper in the bottom and butter the sides.
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.
Sift the flour and cocoa. Mix well.
Whisk the eggs and sugar together, and
then beat over a bain-marie for 8-10 minutes until it doubles in volume and
becomes pale yellow, leaving golden ribbon trails. Once it has doubled in volume,
remove from water, and continue beating with an electric beater or a stand
mixer till the mixture becomes cool.
Gently fold in the sifted flour and
cocoa.
Add the melted butter through the sides
of the mixing bowl without disturbing the volume of the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until the sponge
is firm to touch, and teaster comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin to
10-15 minutes.
Strawberry Cream Filling
Combine the strawberries, sugar and
whipped cream, to prepare a filling.
Bavarian Cream
Dissolve gelatin in a ¼ cup of cold
milk.
Place chocolate in a large bowl.
Heat cream, milk and half the sugar
until simmering, make sure you donot bring this to boil. Whisk the egg yolks
with the remaining sugar, add one-third of
the hot milk mixture over the eggs whisking continuously until well combined.
Pour this mixture back into the pan with
the remaining milk mixture. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the
cream is thickened and coats the back of the spoon.
Remove from heat immediately and stir
the gelatin into this hot milk mixture well, then strain this over the
chocolate. Stir until smooth. Cool this mixture. You may cover the mixture with
a cling film close to the mixture to avoid formation of thick layer.
Chocolate Glaze
Place chocolate in a bowl.
Heat the cream and honey in a pan until
simmering. Pour over the chopped chocolate and stir until smooth.
Assembling the cake
Cut the sponge horizontally into 2
layers. Place in the dessert ring on individual serving platter. Top this first
layer of cake with the strawberries and cream mix, followed by the second layer
of cake.
Line the sides of the dessert ring with
sliced strawberries, gently pour the Bavarian chocolate Cream into the ring and
gently level it. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or atleast for 4 hrs before
serving.
Glaze the Mousse with the prepared
chocolate glaze and pour over the
set Bavarian mousse.
Chill for another hour, dust the edges
with cocoa powder , garnish the cake with strawberries, and dust with icing sugar to give it that soft
snowy look.
Unmold from the dessert ring.