Giveaway Winner is…..!
Congratulations to Anita, comment #249 for winning the cookbook and scale! I have sent you an email, ou have 48 hours to claim the prize, or the next winner will be chosen!
Happy 2nd Birthday to Portuguese Girl Cooks!
Two years ago, I hit publish on my very first blog post and Portuguese Girl Cooks was born. At that time, I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen or what this space would turn in to. I started this blog as a way to chronicle my kitchen adventures, and to share recipes with family and friends. I never imagined that anyone would actually take time to stop by and read it. Actually, I was really surprised when they did.
I haven’t always been super consistent with my blogging, especially in the first year. That had to do a lot with my being a perfectionist, something I’m constantly working on. If there is one thing I have learned during these two years, it’s don’t compare yourself to others; instead let them inspire you. When you do that, you will find your own voice, style, and passion. In the process I’ve discovered that I have immense passion for baking, sharing, and most surprisingly, food photography. I have seen a definite improvement, and hope to keep improving as time goes on. It’s nice to have a place to see that progression in my photos and the growth I have made. I’ve learned to be fearless in the kitchen, and have learned that even if it doesn’t work out, keep trying. Everything will eventually come together.
Over the last 2 years I have been amazed at how kind and welcoming the food blogging community is, and how many friends I have made as a result. This community really is an amazing bunch of people!
Most of all, I want to thank each and everyone of you who have stopped by in the last 2 years, who have left comments, followed me on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest,etc. All of your comments, and the friendships that have been formed mean more to me than you will ever know. They have helped me, and uplifted me during hard times. Thank you for your loyalty. For your kindness, I have a small token of appreciation for you!
One thing that I cannot live without in my kitchen, and something that my grandpa gave to me many years ago was a kitchen scale. It is absolutely indispensable for me, and I believe any home cook or baker should have one. So, I’m going to give you the opportunity to win one!
Also, I’ve been wanting to get my hands on this book for a while, and I am going to order one for myself, and I want you to have one too! This book is written by the owners of Baked NYC, and it is their 3rd book. This one looks especially good because they have categorized the book into recipes with their top 10 ingredients, which just so happen to be my favourite ingredients, so this is a perfect fit!
Now, a birthday just wouldn’t be a birthday without a cake. So I made one of those too! Those of you who know me personally, know that I am pretty much the layer cake queen. But over the last 2 years I haven’t shared nearly enough of my cakes with you, my blogging friends. Generally, I make a lot of cakes but they are usually for parties, birthdays, or gifts. And frankly speaking, it might be kind of odd for me to show up with a cake that has a piece cut out of it, or at least I happen to think so. As a result, many of them haven’t made it to the blog. Going forward, I’m going to make an effort to share more of them with you, because in fact, it is my favourite thing to bake. I already have a huge list of cakes to share with you. But still have a good mix of other things as well.
If you’ve been here before you know that I have a thing for salted caramel, so of course the perfect birthday cake would include it. The cake base is my absolute go to chocolate cake, it’s absolutely perfect. I have been making it for years without a single fail. It’s a one bowl chocolate cake which makes it a snap to make, and best of all easy for cleanup. It’s perfectly chocolatey, incredibly moist, and stays fresh for days. It’s perfect as cake or cupcakes. There is not one thing I would change about it. It’s that good. The cake is filled with a salted caramel dark chocolate ganache. Yes, salted caramel dark chocolate ganache. Chocolate ganache is amazing, but chocolate ganache with salted caramel? It’s incredible. Make some, please. And what makes it a ding dong? The creamy vanilla bean filling over the chocolate. Then the cake is covered with the same salted caramel chocolate ganache. Honestly, this is one good cake. No more words. Except, make it.
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A rich and moist chocolate cake filled and covered with salted caramel chocolate ganache and a light vanilla bean whipped cream.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cups cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup hot coffee, or 1 cup boiling water and 2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 9 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used a 72% venezuela orgine)
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
- 2 big pinches sea salt, preferably fleur de sel
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 1 1/4 teaspoons unflavoured gelatin
- 1 1/2 cups chilled heavy cream
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line 2, 9-inch baking pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add in the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until well combined.
- Add in the buttermilk, hot coffee, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until well combined. About 1 to 2 minutes.
- Divide batter among cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted comes out almost clean, about 35 to 40 minutes. Let cake cool in pans about 10 minutes then remove from pans and cool on a cooling rack until completely cooled.
- For the Salted Caramel Ganache
- Place the chocolate in a medium bowl.
- In a medium heavy bottomed pot, combine the sugar and water, and stir to combine. Heat the mixture over medium high heat, without stirring, but swirling occasionally if the sugar is colouring unevenly. Heat until the sugar turns amber in colour. Remove from heat immediately and slowly add the heavy cream while whisking. If there are any clumps of sugar, return the pot to low heat and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and fleur-de-sel (or other coarse salt). Pour the caramel over the chocolate. Allow the mixture to sit for about 5 minutes, then gently stir until the ganache is well combined. Set aside to thicken, about 1 to 2 hours. *If the ganache becomes to thick, warm it over a double boiler until more workable to in the microwave for 10 second intervals.
- Add the cold water to a small bowl, then sprinkle the gelatin over it. Allow to sit for about 10 minutes, until it has set.
- In a small skillet, add about 1/2-inch of water, and heat over medium-high heat. Place the small bowl with the gelatin directly inside the skillet. Stir the gelatin until it is melted, about 2 minutes. Remove the bowl from the skillet.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla bean seeds, and beat on high speed until soft peaks have formed. Slowly add in the melted gelatin mixture and continue to beat until stiff peaks have formed.
- Take the first cake layer and place it on a cake board or cardboard round slightly smaller than the cake layers. Spread a layer of ganache (a spreadable consistency) over the cake, about 1 cup. Top with the vanilla bean whipped cream. Top with the second cake layer. Refrigerate the cake for about 2 hours until the filling has set.
- Heat the remaining ganache over a double boiler until it is a pourable consistency.
- Set a cooling rack over a clean baking sheet. Remove the cake from the fridge and set it on top of the cooling rack. Pour the ganache over the cake so that it covers the tops and sides of the cake. Pour any ganache that has gone onto the baking sheet back into the bowl. If you have enough ganache, give the cake a second coating. Sprinkle the top of the cake with additional fleur-de-sel, or coarse sea salt. Refrigerate cake.
- *see notes for alternate directions
Notes
Remove cake 1 hour prior to serving. Because the vanilla bean filling is a stabilized whipped cream, it will be stable at room temperature. This cake will keep for up to 3 days well covered.
Jessica’s Notes:
- Please note that the cake pictured above is a 3 layer, 6-inch cake, which also yielded 6 cupcakes on the side. The cake stood to be 6 inches tall, which is almost too tall, even for me. This same recipe will make a 2 layer, 9-inch cake which I think is perfect for this particular cake.
- Instead of pouring the ganache over the cake, I opted to cover it with the thickened ganache (more like frosting). When I make this cake again I will likely pour the ganache to cover it, because I think it will be easier and quicker, and less likely for it to mix with the cream filling. I have written the instructions to reflect these changes.
- If you would rather frost the cake with ganache like I did, I would recommend making 50% more of the ganache recipe.
- For the cake: Don’t worry about the cake tasting like coffee, if you don’t like it. You won’t taste it, the coffee brings out the flavour of the chocolate.
- If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask
Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy!
Jessica
Cake from Hershey’s. Salted caramel ganache and filling adapted from Bon Appetit, October 2012.
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