In this case though, I was just really excited to make this cake! I made this Cherry Ripe Cake for Kai's birthday last October. I organised a surprise birthday dinner for his birthday last year, and as part of that made a cake - which was a surprise too! Obviously it's a bit tough to bake a birthday cake as a surprise for someone you live with, so I organised for him to go on a boys night out, and I arranged to drop the cake off at our friend Mary's place, who lives around the corner.
I've been keen ever since to make the cake, and make it well. Then I was browsing on Twitter the other day, trying to do the social media thing I'm not very good at and try to find followers, and found a fantastic blog post about icing cakes at MyButterHalf. Seriously, this is amazing. So well written, the photos are brilliant and give you all the information you need to ganache a cake well!
I did invest in a bit of new equipment for this as well - I mentioned a little while ago that I've been slowly replacing my bakeware. For this recipe, I needed two round baking dishes - I have three random dishes I've inherited from my mum, all three are different sizes and they all look burnt from being so old. So I bought two fancy new cake tins to replace mine! Then while I was at it, I bought a cake leveller and a flat spatula (I actually thought I was buying an offset spatula but it turns out I was wrong!) I also invested in a cake board (apparently not as expensive as I thought!) and a cake turntable.
As suggested by the MyButterHalf blog post, I baked my cakes the night before and had everything all ready to go the morning of the birthday BBQ, with the cake board and the turntable all ready. I was probably more excited about the cake than the BBQ itself!
As you can see, the cake turned out really well! I was hanging out for someone to say, "Wow the ganache looks silky smooth!" but no one did (haha!) But everyone thought it was delicious and I was proud of myself!
Let me know what you guys think!
RECIPE
Prep time: 40 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
CAKE:
Butter, for greasing the pans
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
¾ cups good quality cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1¾ cups of coconut milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup of cherry brandy or cherry liqueur
200g of glace cherries, chopped into small pieces
1 cup of shredded coconut
CHERRY COCONUT BUTTERCREAM:
125g of butter, cut into cubes
1 cup of icing sugar
200g of glace cherries, chopped into small pieces
¼ cup of shredded coconut
2 tsp of cherry brandy
red food colouring (optional)
CHOCOLATE GANACHE:
1 cup of cream (not thickened)
300g of dark chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon of cherry brandy or liqueur (optional)
1. Start with the cake. Preheat the oven to 175 Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) and butter 2 8-inch/20cm round cake tin and line with baking paper.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and add the sugar and mix on low speed until combined.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, oil, eggs and cherry brandy. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.
4. With mixer still on low, add the coconut milk, cherries and coconut and mix until just combined.
5. Pour the cake batter into two 20cm prepared cake tins and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
6. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then turn out onto a cake rack and cool completely.
7. For the cherry buttercream add the icing sugar and butter into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Add the food colouring, if using, and beat until well combined. Then add the glace cherries, coconut and cherry brandy.
8. To make the chocolate ganache place the cream and chocolate in a saucepan over a low heat until melted and smooth. Add the cherry brandy (if using) and set aside and let it come to room temperature.
9. To assemble the cake top one cake with the cherry coconut buttercream and then pour the chocolate ganache over the cake, letting it run down the sides. Then use a large offset spatula to spread from the center toward the edges, so that the cake is evenly and completely covered.
10. Decorate with fresh cherries or decorate with chopped up cherry ripe bars.
Source: Delicious Everyday and MyButterHalf