I am back to posting after a long gap! Life is going tough these days with lots of additional responsibilities on personal and professional fronts, so that my favorite baking projects are also being neglected. These days I am not a regular baker anymore - baking only in special occasions. In last few months, though I had baked few items and the recipes are pending to be posted here. I was not being able to make any time for my blog, but this time the credit goes to my sisters to give me a real push for updating my blog after so many days. My dear sisters, you know, who you are! Thank you so much my dearies, you all mean a lot to me!!
So here I am with my latest baking project - Choco-Vanilla Checker-board Cake!
It was the birthday of my man and I had to plan something exquisite for him. This time I was thinking of creating something different. He is not a big chocolate-flavor fan, I had to keep this in my mind. At the same time,my daughters like anything having chocolate! Why my daughters, even I am also a blind chocolate fan! So I wanted to make all the taste-buds happy and satiated. Initially I was planning for a double layer choco-vanilla cake, with dark chocolate ganache icing. Then I started to search for some more variations in this genre and I got this one - a choco-vanilla checker-board cake!
Many of you might think - it's a difficult recipe. Even I somehow had this notion that a checker-board cake will require a professional skill. But after watching few Youtube videos, I knew I can make it. Because, it is that easy! And I can assure you, all of you can make it after going through this blog!
You should have at least 2 days in hand to jump into this project. First day, you will be baking the cakes, prepare the ganache and store it in refrigerator overnight. On the second day, you are going to be assembling the cake and complete the icing. Again put it inside the refrigerator to set the icing and serve it in the next day.
To start with, you should bake two cakes - one vanilla cake and another chocolate cake. Cool the cakes at room temperature, cover them with cling wrap and store in refrigerator. This will make the cakes moist and soft.
For the ganache, I have used the following ingredients -
Amul Whipping Cream (200 ml) - 2 packs
Bournville Dark Chocolate Bar (200 gm) - 2
Butter - 1 Tablespoon
Prepare the ganache in a large glass bowl, keeping it in the top of steaming hot water. Add the cream first, break the chocolates in smaller portions and then add to the hot cream. Keep on stirring the chocolates into the cream, until it's nicely melted. Add the butter and mix thoroughly. Let the ganache cool down at room temperature. Later transfer it to refrigerator to set overnight.
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| Leveling two cakes |
To assemble the cake, first bring out two cakes from refrigerator, remove the cling wrap and let them rest a while at room temperature. The cakes should have same height - so you should place two cakes side by side and level it accordingly by slicing the top portion with a serrated knife, if needed. In my case, the vanilla cake was little bigger than the chocolate one. I sliced the top portion and used it as the base of the checker-board cake, to avoid wastage. However a base is not always necessary.
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| Cutting the rings |
Now coming to the cutting part. Take 2 bowls - one small and one medium sized bowl for cutting the center part and the rings from these two cakes. If you have round-shaped cookie cutters, you can use that too. I have used these bowls and it was quite easy to work with these bowls.
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| Ready to assemble |
Place the smaller bowl at the center of the two cakes. Using a sharp knife cut out the center part. Carefully separate it from the remaining portion of the cakes and place these aside. So now you will have 2 center parts of vanilla and chocolate cakes.
Next take the medium sized bowl and place on top of the cakes. Similarly cut out a ring from both the cakes. You will have now two middle rings - one vanilla and one chocolate. The remaining part of the cakes will be used as the set of outer rings.
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| Icing the base |
Now you are all set to assemble the cake and to ice it at the same time. Place one outer chocolate ring and one middle vanilla ring with another chocolate center as the first layer, on top of your cake board. Fill the top with ganache. Carefully push some ganache in between the ring walls, otherwise the cake might fall apart after cutting. I made this mistake, and so I am sharing this tips with you. On top of the first layer, place the outer vanilla ring and other middle chocolate ring along with the vanilla center part. Similarly ice it on top and on the sides generously with the remaining ganache.
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| Setting the first layer |
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| Icing the first layer |
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| Setting the 2nd layer |
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| Final icing |
You are almost done now. Place the cake inside refrigerator so that the ganache icing is nicely set. You can make any other topping of your choice or can stop at this level to keep it simple. I wanted to decorate a bit more, so did one more level of decoration with normal vanilla cream icing. To prepare this icing, I used the following ingredients -
Amul Whipping Cream (200 ml) - 1 pack
Icing Sugar - 2 cups
Vanilla - 1 teaspoon
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| Top decoration |
I used a star nozzle to create the simple icing decoration, Finally drizzled some chocolate sauce on top before serving.
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| Here is the checker-board! |
Happy baking and hope to see you soon!
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