Sponge Cake with Whipped Ganache

As much as I love being off of work during the holidays, I do have to admit that it starts to get a bit boring. There's no structure and lots of time to twiddle my thumbs. Of course there are many things I *could* have accomplished such as cleaning out the closets and painting moldings around the house, but somehow that just doesn't fit in my day.

So what's a girl to do? Cook. Yes, that's the only reasonable solution. Of course, the downside to that is also that I live by myself and working out has also been on the 'no time for that' list. Oh well, there's still plenty of time to accomplish those new year's resolutions!

Onto the cake. I don't think I I've ever made a cake not from a box before so this was new and exciting. After looking through all the possibilities, I chose moist sponge cake. As if there can be a *wrong* choice for cake, right?

Moist Sponge Cake
adapted from Baking by James Peterson

The ingredients were simple enough.
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk or heavy cream
3 tbsp butter
3 whole eggs, warmed
3 egg yolks, warmed
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup cake flour

I used all purpose flour as I couldn't find cake flour. Not sure what difference it would make, maybe one day I'll try again with the cake flour.

You can make this either in a sheet (13x17, preheat to 400) or a round pan (9 inch, preheat to 350)

Combine the vanilla, milk and butter in a sauce pan and melt the butter (I did this step over medium heat)

Meanwhile, combine the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer and mix on high for 5 minutes. Now, most of us don't keep our eggs 'warm' so what's a girl to do? Stick the eggs in hot tap water for 5 minutes. Bingo bango, you've got warm eggs without having to wait very long.



After you've mixed the eggs and sugar for 5 minutes, transfer the mixture to a separate bowl and pour the butter and milk mixture down the side of the bowl and gently fold it into the batter. You can tell you don't want to mix the heck out of the batter since it's so light and fluffy and airy. To mix it a lot would deflate it and that would be no bueno.

Now take the flour, 1/4 cup at a time and sift it into the wet mixture. Unfortunately I don't have a sifter so I just dumped the first quarter cup into the mixture. FAIL. Remmeber how light and fluffy the mixture is? The flour sunk to the bottom (the result of which you will see later). I tried to fold as gently as possibly and added the other two doses by sprinkling it with my fingers. Way better.

Pour this golden, yummy smelling batter into your pan of choice and bake for 12 minutes for a sheet cake and 25 minutes for a round cake.

I will have to say, it turned out very light and fluffy and scrumptious looking. I sliced it in half and low and behold, there were little flour pockets. Drat. That was from the first quarter cup of flour I had added without 'sifting'.

So I decided the next step would be to frost it. I have never made frosting either, but decided on sort of an alternative frosting. A ganache that has been whipped. Now, a ganache is just equal parts chocolate and heavy cream. In this case I used 8 oz of each and used dark chocolate. But you could easily do this with milk or even white chocolate.

Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble and then pour over the chocolate. The milk will melt the chocolate. If you're going for a ganache, you can stop there.


I chose to whip it up to give it a more frosting like texture. I read that you can whip it anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes, depending on the temperature. Be careful not to overmix, or you'll end up with chocolate butter (I think I came dangerously close!)



Then frost away!



The result? Well, I have to say I'll probably go for a traditional frosting next time. The sponge cake is very delicate so the ganache, although whipped, is still very dense and very rich, so all I could really taste is chocolate. Which may not be a bad thing for some of you. But I love balance. So I think I would either do two cakes, or save the ganache for something a little sturdier. Doing a little extra research, I found that with an equal proportion of dark chocolate to cream you get 'truffle dark' ganache "Beaten to a thick and velvety texture for fillings"

Ah ha! no good for frosting, but great for filling. Noted. You live and you learn, right? In the end, no harm, no foul, they were both tasty!

Can a brownie be too rich?

The answer to that is no. Duh. When I was looking for something chocolaty to make with my brand spanking new professional Kitchen Aid mixer, I found a recipe by Ina Garten labeled 'Brownie' Pudding'. Sounds interesting enough. Sounds like undercooked brownies, which, if it's anything like uncooked cookie dough, I'm completely on-board with. The reviews were mostly good, although a few people mentioned it was too rich. Huh? How is that possible? Well, I was determined to find out.

The ingredients couldn't be more simple:

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter (ah, I see....RICH)
  
• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup good cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
• 1 tablespoon framboise liqueur, optional

My modifications? No liqueur (didn't have any on hand) and I used 1 tsp of high quality vanilla extract instead of the vanilla bean. You could use up to 2 tsp as a substitute, if you'd like.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly butter or spray a 2-quart (9 by 12 by 2-inch) oval baking dish. So, full disclosure on this, I used a 9 by 13 rectangular baking dish. I think this may have had some effect on the end result, but I'll get to that later.

Melt the 1/2 pound of butter and set aside to cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for 5 to 10 minutes, until very thick and light yellow. Can I tell you how cool it is watching this happen for 5 minutes when it's your first time using your very own mixer? Like magic.

Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder and flour together and set aside. Or just dump them both in a bowl....either or.

When the egg and sugar mixture is ready, reduce the speed to low and add the vanilla seeds (or vanilla extract), framboise, if using, and the cocoa powder and flour mixture. Mix only until combined. With mixer still on low, slowly pour in the cooled butter and mix again just until combined.

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared dish and place it in a larger baking pan.

Add enough of the hottest tap water to the pan to come halfway up the side of the dish and bake for exactly 1 hour. You can see that I didn't have a bigger pan to put this in, so I improvised. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? I couldn't get the water halfway up, but there are worse travesties in the world.

A cake tester inserted 2 inches from the side will come out 3/4 clean. The center will appear very under-baked; this dessert is between a brownie and a pudding.

The result of my improvising with the pan size and the lack of proper submersion? These were pretty much solid all the way through. Soft, but cooked. The top layer was this super yummy, really thin, crisp layer while everything underneath was rich and moist. Was this sweet? Yes. Was it rich? Yes. Did that stop me from eating quite a bit of it with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream? No way.

These were definitely delicious. Not really easy to cut into traditional brownies, but perfect for putting in a bowl with some ice cream.

Piacere (enjoy)!