Last week it was a marathon of cake baking for me. With 2 anniversaries in the family, I managed to bake 4 sponge cakes for 3 finished festive cakes. It was a successful challenge and, as the time was so short, there was no place for tests or failures.
I went with the version of the cake that I master the best: the sponge cakes. The one you see in this post is the last one, made for the anniversary of my son at the school. It might look simple but is not. Basically, it is a sponge cake with the bottom cut in through the centre of the cake to introduce a chocolate filling, then covered back with the removed parts of the cake. The glaze was practically painted with warm chocolate ganache, as it was too thick to reveal the beautiful shape of this bundt. A thinner glaze would have worked better but I had to choose one that hardened to avoid transport issues.
Unfortunately, I do not have a photo with the inside as it was not cut by me but I will repeat this process with a future cake for you to see.
Happy birthday, my little bunny! I do not know when these years have passed since you arrived in this world, but you brought so much happiness and joy into our lives!
Ingredients:
Sponge cake:
- 400g eggs (about 8 pieces)
- 253g flour (sifted)
- 200g sugar (divided into 150g + 50g)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
- half a lemon juice
- 6g baking powder (optional)
- 4 tablespoons of water/milk
Filling:
- 100g milk chocolate
- 100g heavy cream (40% fat content)
Glaze:
- 100g dark chocolate
- 80g heavy cream (40% fat content)
Directions:
- Prepare the pan: brush with melted butter and sprinkle flour over. If you are using a bundt cake pan, this step is essential in order to get the cake easier out of the pan after baking (and in one piece). If you are using a classic round pan, you can use parchment paper to avoid sticking.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- In a bowl, mix the flour with baking powder. Baking powder is optional but if you want to be sure that your cake will not fail, I suggest using it. I did use it because this cake should have turned out perfect from the first try with no excuse.
- With the help of a stand/hand mixer beat the egg whites with lemon juice until foam. Add the 150g of sugar in steps and continue to beat until dissolved and the meringue looks glossy and forms peaks. It takes about 7 minutes with the mixer turned on to the maximum speed.
One note, measuring the egg weight while separating the yolks from whites can be tricky. Either you use 2 kitchen balances or you brake them into a bowl that you weigh and remove the yolks with your fingers (this is a risky version). Alternatively, you measure the eggs with the shell and you subtract the empty shells weight in the end, although it will be tricky to balance back the quantity if you get over. Your choice, however, try to stay in the quantity of eggs with +/- 2%, otherwise, the cake might change its texture. - In parallel, or after the previous step, beat the egg yolks in another bowl with 4 tablespoons of water or milk, the vanilla essence and the remaining 50g of sugar. Mix on a high speed for 10 minutes. You can do this step in parallel with the previous one if you have 2 mixers. I did the egg whites in the standing mixer and the yolks with a hand mixer. This minimises the loss of bubbles from the meringue until you finish the yolks. This egg yolk composition must be very foamy too.
- Combine the 2 compositions + the flour mixture in the following way: add 1/3 of the yolks over the meringue, then 1 tablespoon of flour on top. Stir 2-3 times with a spatula using up and down movements. Repeat 2 more times until you finish the egg yolks. Continue with the remaining flour mixture, adding one spoon at a time and stirring maximum 2-3 times with the spatula after. You need to minimise the string while ensuring that all ingredients are well combined. The composition will deflate a bit but it should still remain foamy.
- Pour this composition into the pan. On the top, spread it more to the sides as in the middle the cake will raise much more than on the sides.
- Put the pan into the oven and bake it at 180ºC for 45 minutes. In the end, test it with a wooden stick (toothpick) to be sure it gets out of the cake clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan until you feel comfortable touching it, without feeling burned, That would take about 15-20 minutes.
- Revert the bundt on a rack and let it cool completely.
- Prepare the filling in a little pan at bain-marie. All you need to do is to melt the chocolate into the heavy milk until smooth. Then let it cool for a few hours. If you are in a hurry, put it in the fridge for 2 hours or even in the freezer for 30 minutes after it cooled off.
- Put the bundt cake back in the pan and remove a strip of cake from the centre. Cut it nicely because you'll need to put it back. Pour the filling inside and add the removed pieces of cake back. This will create a surprise filling inside the cake.
- While keeping the cake in the pan, put it in the fridge for the filling to set. One hour should be enough. If the filling was enough solid when you added it, this step can be skipped.
- You can now revert the cake and prepare for the glaze.
- As for the filling, melt the chocolate in heavy cream at bain-marie. Immediately, pour it over the cake. This is a thick glaze, it does not drip easily but you can spread it with the help of a knife or brush. As my bundt cake had a nice shape that I wanted to preserve, I used a brush.
- Put it then back in the fridge until the glaze has hardened or you can serve it as it is.
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