TRIPLE CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE image

Yield 10-12 servings

Number Of Ingredients 25

Ingredients

Cake:
1 ½ c sugar
1/3 c water
2 tbs instant coffee
1 ½ c (9 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
9 tbs sweet butter, room temp
12 eggs, separated, room temp
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 1/2c finely ground walnuts
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cream of tartar
Filling:
6 oz semisweet chocolate chips
½ c butter, room temp
2/3c confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, separated
Glaze:
1c dark unsweetened cocoa, sifted
pinch of salt
2/3c heavy cream
1/3c sweet butter
1 1/3c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Optional: 2c raspberries.

Steps:

1)Make Cake Preheat oven to 350. Butter 2 9" cake pans. Line with parchment paper; butter and flour paper. Do this carefully, or else cake will stick. Combine sugar, water and coffee powder in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until warm. Add chocolate and vanilla and stir until chocolate melts. Cool. Cream butter in a large bowl with electric mixer. Beat in egg yolks one at a time. Gradually beat in the chocolate mix. Add walnuts and beat for 3 min. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites, salt and cream of tartar until mixture is stiff but not dry. Fold in 1/3 of egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in remaining whites. Pour into prepared pans and bake until tester inserted into center comes clean; 45-50 min. Cool layers completely in pans on racks. 2)Make Filling Melt chocolate; set aside. Cream butter and confectioner's sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition. Gradually beat in melted chocolate, then add vanilla to the mix. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, then fold into chocolate mix. 3)Assemble Cake Trim layers w/bread knife to even out. Spread filling between the two layers. Freezing the layers before you trim them makes the cake a bit easier to work with. I spread the filling over the bottom layer and then put it in the freezer again to firm up; this keeps the top layer from squishing the filling. 4)Make Glaze Combine all glaze ingredients except the vanilla. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly until smooth and thick - about 5 min. Be careful not to undercook or else the glaze will be grainy with sugar. Let mix stop bubbling; add vanilla. 5)Glaze cake Glaze must be applied quickly or else it will be too hard;it stiffens rapidly as it cools. To glaze, simply pour it over the cake. If you plan to decorate the cake, do so immediately after glazing. Heap berries around the sides of cake to hide any messy drips.