Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

I must apologize for the lack of posts.. been a week since we moved to our new place.. been one busy week i must add... hubs was home all of last week... he was sick and so was my little princess.. took both to docs and they are fine now.. has the whole exercise of moving been more hectic than bef or has it always been a tiring experience? ahaks.. sometimes u tend to forget how tiring it can be until u have to go thru the whole moving procedure again.. we took with us like 35 boxes in total and managed to get rid some of the furniture that didnt "fit" into our new concept.. am slowly buying new stuff to decorate my place and knowing me.. i will probably end up buying more when we go to Europe next month..

So anyway .. we are settling in nicely.. I managed to do the unpacking within 3 days which i am proud of.. i never thought that i will get it done this quick.. i also managed to play around with my new found love which is my oven hehe.. at first I was a little worried but when my first cake turned out well.. i knew that i hv made the right choice when it comes to oven..

Salted caramel chocolate cake was the first cake that i had baked in my new oven... last week was moms bday and since everyone would be at moms.. i decided to bake a chocolate cake.. the cake itself was easy to prepare... didnt take that long to get it done and while waiting for it to cool down.. i quickly prepared salted caramel ganache and also the stablized whipping cream.. now.. one thing that i will change is the recipe for the stablized whipping cream.. i found out later that it melts pretty easily.. everything else was just ...oh so perfect :o)

Ingredients

For the Cake

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

For the Salted Caramel Ganache

9 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used 66% valrhona)

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

For the Vanilla Bean Filling

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

Sea salt for finishing

Instructions

For the Cake

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.

For the Vanilla Bean Filling

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.

Assembly

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.

Note: i doubled the recipe of salted caramel ganache and used three 7" baking pan.. i let my ganache thicken bef frosting my cake..

Source: Portuguese girl cooks

It was a simple affair.. we talked.. we hung out and we laughed.. (pardon me for the pics in this post.. was too lazy to take pics using my DSLR) - Happy bday to mom, Shiela, sis Lyn and also Dafinah!

Last but not least... i thought i'd let u peep into my wet kitchen.. this is where i do my heavy cooking.. my dry kitchen is only meant for baking and today i managed to bake my first batch of macs.. Alhamdullilah..

My unfilled macs