This is the cake I made for my husband's Birthday last month. It is a simple pineapple-chiffon cake, layered with chocolate ganache, covered with mascarpone + whipped cream icing and decorated with home-made
fondant roses and butter cream icing.
I knew this cake could not fail and, everybody who tasted it confirmed it! It did pose difficulties as, first of all the oven was not behaving! Not that there was anything wrong with it but, it's just that I've purchased a new OTG and haven't got the hang of it yet. This cake is best baked in a round oven. But still, ultimately it was done!(though not to my satisfaction). The second problem came when I chose a combination of mascarpone and cream for icing instead of only cream. I am very fond of mascarpone and in my eagerness I mixed 2/3 parts mascarpone and 1/3 parts cream to do the icing, which proved to be a mistake!
Mascarpone becomes thick on beating but it never stiffens! The result was that the icing tended to slide down again and again and I had to keep returning it to the fridge. I should not have used more than 1/3 parts mascarpone. The ultimate result was a very uneven icing and I had to do a lot of hodge-podge decoration to cover it up! But it tasted 'Great'! So, 'all is well that ends well!'. So, here is how to go about it-
Ingredients:-
(1)- For the cake-
1. Flour, sifted- 260 gm.; 2. Sugar, ground- 280 gm.; 3. Baking powder- 3 tsp.level;
4. Salt- 1tsp.; 5. Veg. Oil- 100ml.; 6. Egg yolks- of 6 eggs; 7. Egg whites-of 7 eggs; 8. Pineapple juice-150ml.(tinned juice can be used); 9. Cream of tartar- 1/3 tsp.; 10. Pineapple essence- 1 tsp.
(2)- For icing-
1. Mascarpone cheese-150 gm.; 2. Whipping cream- 300 gms.; 3. Icing sugar- 100 gm.; 4. Vanilla essence- 1 tsp.
(3)- For layering- Chocolate Ganache is to be made with the following-
1. 50 gms. dark, semi-sweet chocolate, chopped; 2. Heavy cream-100 gms.; 3. Sugar-2 heaped tbsp.;
4. Vanilla essence-1/3 tsp.
(4)- For decorating- Butter-icing is to be made for it as-
1. Butter-icing- made by beating together 150gm. unsalted butter, 100 gm icing sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla essence.
2. A few mauve and yellow fondant roses and some leaves. In India these things are not available in the market so, they have to be made at home.
Method:-
(1)- For the cake-
1. First of all sprinkle baking powder over flour and sieve 3-4 times so that the two are nicely mixed. Now sprinkle salt over it and mix nicely with fingertips.Keep aside.
2. Take egg-yellows in a clean bowl, beat lightly , add 2/3 sugar and beat till thick and light in color. Add oil, beat some more and add pineapple juice along with essence.
3. Turn the oven 'on' at this stage. This cake should be baked in a slower oven. The recommended temp. is 160 C but I prefer baking it at 140 to 150 C.
4. Take a clean and dry mixer bowl, put egg-whites in it, sprinkle cream of tartar over it and beat for half a minute on medium and then on high till whites become quite fluffy. Start adding sugar, a little at a time, beating continuously till egg-whites are quite stiff and sugar has dissolved.5. Sprinkle the flour over egg-yellow mixture and mix with a spatula to combine nicely so that you get a smooth batter. Now add 1/4 of the egg-whites into this batter and mix gently to make the whole batter light.
6. Tip this whole, lightened batter on top of the remaining 3/4 egg-whites and mix very gently by cut-and-fold method, taking care not to deflate the egg-whites and yet mixing evenly. Scrape the bottom of the bowl also otherwise, some batter may be left sticking to the bottom as it sinks down, being heavy.
7. Take one 9 inch round baking pan and one 6 inch, round pan, nicely cleaned and dried ( not greased or lined) and, fill them approximately half with the batter, not more as it needs a lot of space to expand.
8. Bake one cake first, at 140 C. It may take anywhere between 60 to 90 minutes. It is done when a clean skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Take it out of the oven and immediately hang it upside-down on a wire rack to cool completely otherwise it sags in the middle. In the same manner bake and cool the second cake also.I'd made 2 small cup-cakes also which were not used in this cake.
9. Cooling the cake completely will take more than 2 hrs., after which time, with the help of a sharp knife, loosen the edges from the pan and , with the help of a blunt table knife or a spoon handle, try lifting it's edges from the pan- bottom slightly and gently. Once you've loosened the cakes from the pan, let them remain in the pan and put in the fridge, covered with foil, till they are needed for icing.
(2)- Preparing the ganache for layering-
1. Take chopped chocolate pieces in a heat-proof bowl. Bring cream to a boil in a sauce pan and as soon as it reaches the boiling point, pour it over the chocolate pieces, cover with a lid and leave it for 2-3 minutes. The cream would've softened the chocolate in this time so stir to make a smooth paste of chocolate and cream. Mix-in sugar and vanilla also. Let cool a bit.
2. Take the cakes out of the fridge and slice both the cakes into two layers. The chocolate ganache would've cooled to only slightly warm by this time. Spread it on lower slices of each cake (do not let it drizzle down over the sides).Let the Ganache cool down completely before covering with the second layer of each cake. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate again till you prepare the icing.(3)- The Icing-
1. Beat mascarpone with 2tbsp. sugar in the mixer bowl, till it thickens (it will not become stiff like icing cream).
2. In another bowl, beat the cream with remaining sugar and vanilla and, beat till it thickens and starts stiffening slightly. Stop immediately for if you over-beat, it may turn into butter.
3. Now mix cream and mascarpone, with gentle strokes. Your icing is ready. Take-out the cakes from the fridge and spread a thin layer of icing all around it and refrigerate, covered, for at least one hour. This step arrests the loose crumbs which, otherwise, may spoil your icing. Take out the cakes once again, place the larger one on your serving platter and cover with icing on all the sides, with a broad knife and place the smaller one on top of it. Ice the smaller cake also. Here I must mention that the consistency of your icing should be correct. I added more mascarpone and less cream so my icing kept sliding down as you can see in this picture. Don't repeat my mistake and your icing will stay on the cake.
To smoothen the sides and top you will have to wipe the knife again and again and, dip it in water.
If you are still not satisfied with the smoothness, put the cake in the fridge for 15 minutes or so, to harden the icing a little and then try smoothing by dipping your knife in warm to scalding water (not boiling). 4. Once the icing is to your liking on both the cakes, put them in the fridge again till you prepare butter icing for decoration.
(4)- Decorating-
1. First make butter icing by beating 150gm. unsalted butter, which should be beatable and not melting, with 100gm. icing sugar (you can add more if you like it sweeter) and vanilla essence. When you get a smooth and
light butter icing, stop beating it.
2. Now take-out the cakes and gently put the smaller cake on the bigger cake, fill you icing gun, put a nozzle of your choice and make shells or rosettes or whatever you prefer, on the margins and all over the cake making a design of your choice.
3. Arrange the fondant roses in a pattern of your choice and lo! your cake is ready to eat!
It is a very light, moist and tasty cake! You may go wrong in icing and decorating but this cake still never, ever goes wrong!
Enjoy!
