Hello my friends! How have you been?

This blog post has been in the pipeline for awhile and now I can finally upload it!

Since my husband made my Little Mermaid birthday cake , I decided to return the favour. And decided to make him a 3D Skull shaped Birthday cake.

I brought the cake tin called Wilton Dimensions, 3D Skull Pan, it is good! The cake came out really beautifully and it kept its skull shape.

Since I told my friends what I was planning to make, they were so intrigued and want to see my process. Today I am going to share my experience and the recipe! So you can try it for yourself.  Beware this is an EPIC recipe

Get ready to make…..

 Dark Chocolate Truffle Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce and Buttercream covered in Chocolate Ganache. Including Impromptu Chocolate pudding and White chocolate Popping candy

Phew…..

This recipe is from Peggy Porschen Boutique Baking and we have her book on my shelf. I added a few extras because Birthdays are meant for spoiling the Birthday boy/girl rotten.

This recipe requires a lot of patience! This was roughly 3/4 days of baking, considering I was battling with the heat, the ganache melted slightly.

RECIPE

// Dark Chocolate Truffle cake

CAKE MIX
250g Plain chocolate 53% + cocoa solids
335ml milk
570g soft light brown sugar
210g unsalted butter softened
4 large eggs
365g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate soda
pinch of salt
15g cocoa powder

GANACHE 

275ml Whipping cream
350g Plain chocolate 53% + cocoa solids (chopped or buttons)
30g glucose (Which I could not find!)

Serving: 8 – 16 people
Cake lasts for a week.

This recipe could be used for any round or square cake tin. I used Skull shaped one because my husband like skulls. Also, It’s his birthday.

1  // MAKING THE CAKE

Grease the cake tin with butter and pinch of flour.

On low heat, break up the chocolate in the saucepan and milk and 285g sugar, stir it until it melts and becomes a sauce. If it is grainy consistency, that’s because of the sugar. Leave it to the side

Mix the softened butter with the sugar with a folk until it is creamed together.

Beat the eggs lightly and slowly add to the creamed butter mixture while whisking quickly.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate soda, salt and cocoa powder together. Then add the butter mixture in two batches. Mix together slowly until the batter is combined.

Slowly pour the hot chocolate mixture into the batter in a thin and steady stream. Mix it all together until it is a smooth texture and well combined.

Immediately pour the sponge mix into the greased lined cake tins and bake for 30 – 40mins depending on your oven.

My kitchen oven is so temperamental, so I preheated it to the MAX temperature and then lowered to 190° degrees.

Good indication is when the sponge is cooked is when the sides are beginning to shrink away from the cake tin. Also put a cocktail tick in the thickest part of the cake, if it comes out with a smallest amount of crumb, it is cooked.

Take the cake out and leave it to rest for 30mins. Then I popped the cake on the cooling rack and leave it to cool for another 30mins.

This was mentioned in the book:
“Once cooled, I wrapped the sponge in cling film to ensure the moisture is sealed and the sponge firms up to the perfect texture for trimming and layering. When it is trimmed to soon, the sponge tends to crumble and break into pieces”

Once the sponge is cooled, To put the two halves  of the skull together – I cut the excess of the cake to make it a smooth surface. Then I put the salted caramel buttercream in the middle.

I was having trouble with the cake as it was sliding down a lot. So I had to insert cake pop sticks inside and rebuild and mould the front of the skull with the excess cake.

Why waste delicious cake!

2 // MAKE THE GANACHE 

Place the cream in the sauce and bring to a simmer.

Place chocolate and glucose into a bowl and pour the hot cream over it. Whisk until it is smooth. Once combined, leave it to set at room temperature and it should be a consistency of soft butter.

// CONFESSION

Now,… I couldn’t get any glucose so I thought I’d make Sugar Syrup since that’s what it is. I was wrong.

The consistency of the chocolate ganache was too wet due to the lack of thickening agent of glucose and having sugar syrup.

To try and save it, I halved the ganache mix and added a little bit of Golden Syrup and icing sugar mixed together. But the consistency was too loose and it was like chocolate pudding.

Hence, I made an “Impromptu Chocolate pudding” by accident. Friends had said it tasted like shop-brought pudding!

END CONFESSION //

Then cover the cake with the chocolate ganache and enjoy the smell. Leave it to cool at room temperature for it to solidify. Since we had a heat wave, I left the cake in the fridge overnight after it cooled down.

2.5 // EASY OPTIONAL EXTRAS

You don’t have to go the extra mile like I did. My hubby loves salted caramels so I tailored this recipe for him. You can use the chocolate ganache instead of buttercream or the sauce. But goddamn – salted caramels are tasty!

// SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE
75g best-quality unsalted butter
50g soft light brown sugar
50g caster sugar
50g golden syrup
125ml double cream
1 teaspoon Sea salt

1. Melt butter, sugars and syrup and butter in a small heavy based pan and let simmer for 3 minutes, swirling every now and again.

2. Add the cream and half a teaspoon of sea salt**  and swirl again, give a stir with a wooden spoon and taste.

** Please do not use TABLE SALT it won’t taste good.

3. Be cautious so that you don’t burn your tongue – to see if you want more salt before letting it cook for another minute.

// SALTED CARAMEL Buttercream
200g Salted caramel Sauce
160g salted butter, softened
200g icing sugar, sifted
nylon piping bag (optional)
medium or large star nozzle (optional)

1. Cream the butter and icing sugar for at least 5 minutes and add the salted caramel sauce.

3 // DECORATING THE CAKE

 

It was kinda creepy to see a skull shape in my shape, I think it scared my parents a bit. Anyway,…

I put the Heavy skull onto a Cake stand and smooth the ganache again around the eye holes, teeth, to get the details back.

I made some chocolate shards by I melted 500g White Chocolate and added popping candy. Once it has combined together – I got greaseproof paper and pour the white chocolate mixture on it. Then I put another layer of greaseproof paper on top and start rolling it into a cylinder. Once that’s done, I left it to the fridge to cool.

Once the chocolate cylinder has cooled, unroll it and you get interesting shards of chocolate and place onto your cake. I had extra melted white chocolate to add to my piping bag and piped details around the eyes.

I brushed some edible gold glitter on there too…

Seat down, have a cuppa and admire the work your have done and surprise everyone!

 END RECIPE //

This recipe is indulgent and delicious. It is not low fat, to be honest – it’s a birthday cake and it’s a treat you don’t have every day. The thing is I loved sharing it with everyone, so I bring the picnic basket with tubs of salted caramel sauce and impromptu chocolate pudding to dip the cake in.

Also, I illustrated my hubby’s Birthday card with his dog, Bruno giving him birthday wishes.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this. For this month, I am calling truce with my hubby and leave cake making to the experts.

Thanks for reading! xx