Chococcino Cake

Have you ever seen a recipe for a cake and said, OOH I can make that.

I did that a few months ago.  Well, I looked at a picture of a cake and thought, that sounds so good, next chance I get to make a fancy cake, I'm going to try that.

Mine doesn't look anything like the other cake.

and...

I had adventures in the kitchen.
Actually I had adventures the entire day.  None of which were all that great.

For starters...
I read the instructions on the cake, checked to make sure I had all the ingredients, and then started.  Well, I had all the ingredients but the Baileys Irish Cream, since I don't care for it all that well, I subbed in some Coffee Liqueur.

I have a scale so I could weigh my ingredients, I have the right measuring cups so I know exactly how much 100 ml is.
But, I think an American 8 inch cake pan is not quite the same as a British 8 inch cake pan.  I could have, should have divided the batter into two pans, or used my new 8 inch springform pan.  As it is, I did put some batter into a small spring form pan which just happened to be handy. (and I've since found out that a British 8 inch cake pan is deeper than an American 8 inch cake pan). 

Also my stove is not level, which usually doesn't make a whole of lot of difference but, when the cake starts expanding and cascading over the edge, kinda like a "I Love Lucy" episode, well, it really does make a difference.  sigh.

Luckily for me I used a cake pan I bought many, many, many years ago, and it has this really neat feature, that you use to cut under the cake so it comes out great.

Also, I upped the quantities on a couple of the ingredients, and if I make this again, I'll tweak it some more.
The original recipe called for a scant 4 teaspoons cocoa powder, total, and I ended up using tablespoons instead of teaspoons, and it still needed more.  I do have a scale and weighed out all the ingredients.
Recipe:

• 8 oz. + 3 oz. butter
• 8 oz. Superfine Sugar
• 2+1+1 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
• 3 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract (next time I'll use my Coffee Liqueur instead) *
• 10 oz. Self Rising flour  (2 1/2 cups flour)
• 2 teaspoons Coffee Liqueur
• 100 ml Double Cream ( 3 1/2 oz.  heavy whipping cream)**
• 250 grams Full Fat Cream Cheese (8 oz.)
• 150 grams Melted Chocolate (about 6 oz.)
• 2 Tablespoons + 10 oz. Confectioner Sugar
• 2 oz. Cream or milk

Cake:

Preheat the oven to 315 degrees.  Grease or butter a deep 8 inch Springform pan and line with some parchment paper.

Cream the 8 oz. sugar and 8 oz. butter together until pale and creamy and the sugar has dissolved or broken down.   Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to beat until each egg has totally incorporated.  At this point the batter will look a little broken. Add one teaspoon of the coffee liqueur  Sift together the self rising flour and half the cocoa powder and add to the batter a spoonful at a time, making sure each addition is incorporated.   Pour into the pan(s) and bake for about 45 minutes or until it can pass the toothpick test.  In other words, stick a toothpick in and if it comes out clean, the cake is done. 

Let cool while you make the cream cheese filling.

Filling: ***

Melt the chocolate, set aside to cool. (I'll tell you about my adventures a little later on. )

Cream together the cream cheese, the heavy cream, 2 tablespoons or more of confectioners sugar.   Then  whip in the cooled, melted chocolate.  Set aside.

Cut the cake into two layers.   (or three if you are coordinated enough)  then spread the cream cheese mixture onto the cake. 

Put the top on. And as you can see, it was not very even. 

Frosting: ****
3 oz. butter, creamed
10 oz. confectioners sugar
1 Tablespoon Cocoa Powder
2 tablespoons Coffee Liqueur
2 oz. milk or cream (as needed)
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, Coffee Liqueur, Cocoa Powder and confectioners sugar together. 
If it's too thick, drizzle in a little of the cream or milk to thin it out. 

Use a piping bag to decorate the cake.   I have a neat trick for getting the frosting into the piping bag, but that will require another post. 

Decorate however you like.

* I would ditch the Vanilla Extract completely and just use the Coffee Liqueur.
** For the Double Cream, I actually added 2 tablespoons full fat Sour Cream to the heavy whipping cream to make a fake Double Cream.
*** For the Filling.  I would add more confectioners sugar, would also melt the chocolate with the some cream to make a proper Ganache before adding it to the cream cheese.  I think that would add richness and better mouth-feel.   
**** I ended up making a double batch of frosting, and next time will do it a little differently.  I would make it more of a Mocha by using some instant coffee powder along with the cocoa powder.

And now for the adventures, sigh.
I ended up with a bowlful of chocolate that had seized up.  Somehow a drop or two of water must have gotten into it.  But I didn't want to throw it out, so I used a fork to break it up a little, making it into a kind of chocolate dust, put that in the fridge and I'll use it to garnish a chocolate dessert at a later date.
I also felt as if this cake needed more chocolate all the way around, and next time, and I will be making this again, I will increase the amount of chocolate I put in.  I will also make a simple ganache and whip it into the frosting as well.
Here's a couple of pictures of the miniature cake I made.

  Which is gone now, but you can see the layer of cream cheese filling and the general pale color of the cake.  
The crumb was actually very nice on the cake, not heavy at all.