Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Chocolate Cake & Mango Ganache



Yup! We are going to Israel this summer for vacation. I cannot contain my excitement!  I am leaving this Friday, and wont return for 2 weeks. Therefore, I want to leave all my readers with a dangerously addictive mix-in-pan-eggless-chocolate-cake. All my desserts have some basic chocolate flavor to it recently, and that is because chocolate has been on mind- A LOT! Hopefully getting a change of scenery, will help inspire some  new dishes. I have a feeling I may also post from Israel as I am taking my laptop with me.

Most of what I bake on my blog is from JoyofBaking.com A FABULOUS baking website and just my style.


A story about the Mango Ganache: It was supposed to be Mango frosting but it turned into ganache. I never made frosting before because I don't like decorating cakes or desserts much. I find it time consuming, but you may have guessed that by now because most of my recipes are super simple. Anyway, I had a mango staring at me in the fridge, calling out my name! Ok, so when I somehow ruined tried the recipe, I had no idea at what point frosting becomes frosting.  Anyway, I completely freaked out  that even after adding so much sugar, the consistency would not harden. It was making me sick. I couldn't go on any further,  so I left the soft consistency and managed to chill it in fridge long enough for it to become a mangoish glaze over the chocolate cake.

SO, I guess I will see you all on the other side of this break?
In the meantime, I hope I have convinced you to make this cake, and EAT IT!

Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Joyofbaking.com

1 1/2 cups  all purpose flour
1 cup  granulated white sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed), sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon lemon juice (or vinegar)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F  and place rack in center of oven. In an ungreased 8 inch square cake pan, stir together the flour, sugar, sifted cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the melted butter, water, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. With a fork, mix all the ingredients together until well blended. Bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.



Mango Frosting Ganache







1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup mango puree(blend mango chunks in blender with sugar)
Zest and juice of 1 lime
  
4-5 cups of powdered sugar (i ended up using 6 cups & stopped)
In a mixing bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add mango puree, zest and juice. Mix well. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until desired spreading consistency is reached. My consistency never reached a peak. After a while, adding more powdered sugar just made it too sweet. I didn't want my chocolate cake to be overpowered by a "too-sugary" frosting/ganache. I also chilled it for about 1 hr, before applying on cake.  This particular recipe created a whole lot of ganache, I think one can easily half the quantity for a regular cake.

ice.eat.enjoy!

10 comments:

  1. Have a wonderful trip and take lots of photos for us! Now, hand me a slice of this delicious cake!

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  2. Loving the mango glaze/ganache/whatever. As my mother says, it all looks the same in your stomach, and I bet it tasted delicious anyway.

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  3. Mango GANACHE? Amazing! I would never even think to create this!

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  4. mango ganache? wow, that sounds like an amazing flavor combination.

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  5. OOH so sorry its taken me so long to respond. I am back from my vacation! yay! thanks for your comments, i think one can make ganache this way with any puree of fruit. I would like to try Kiwi this summer.. yummm

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  6. Hey, I love cooking too, he, he... Mango Ganache sounds like an amazing flavor! I like so much Chocolate Cake...

    Greetings!

    PD: Sorry about my bad english, I'm from argentina. If you want, you can see my photos and say me what you think about them, because all my texts are in Spanish, so, If you want you can use a translator.. hehehe, now, regards

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  7. Gave you a lovely award, and it's waiting for you on my blog. Go grab it! :)

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  8. You could try a mango ganache using this recipie as well:
    http://themacarondiaries.tumblr.com/mangoganache

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New Ideas? Alterations? Substitutes? I wanna know!