Mocha sponge, dacquoise, salted caramel, chocolate walnut layer cake (can you blame me, we’re on lockdown)

Hi everyone! With holidays around the corner, I’m baking a couple of desserts ahead of time and storing them before Thanksgiving. Hopefully I won't have too many family members nibbling before The Day, which often happens. Or cakes disappearing, that also happens.  (I'm more often than not secretly pleased when that happens.) 

Here’s the thing, since we don’t live in the states, cooking this feast in France isn’t as easy as you may think. You usually cannot get a turkey in November. Usually I have to pre-order one so I can get one on time. You usually cannot get fresh cranberries. Pecans are hella expensive. And the list goes on. Also with lockdown, one of my children can’t come home, we can’t invite friends or family over, so there will only be the three of us this year. So I’m not going to go overboard with a feast... except for preparing our favorite things.

Back to this dessert, now that I’ve « mastered », that’s exaggerating, more like, « can whip up a dacquoise without a recipe» (me thinks I'm so clever), I’m now experimenting with layer cakes. Especially since I had some leftover dark chocolate ganache. This cake basically evolved on its own according to ingredients available in the house. Namely, leftover frosting, frozen egg whites (yes, you can defrost), nuts we’ve gathered from walnut trees on our walks this autumn. Told ya I’d use up those bushels ! 

A couple of pointers, prepare the ganaches at least a day before (made mine even a week before), however I whipped them up the day of assembly. Remember that as you whip the cream, ganache fluffs from air being whipped into it.  After cooling in fridge, the ganache does shrink somewhat.  So if you have guests, decorate only the same day you present the cake. If you don't have time to make 2 ganaches, you can skip the dark chocolate ganache and put a layer of cherry or apricot jam. Bake 2 layers of cake one day and another layer another day so it’s not like a baking marathon in your kitchen. Unless of course you like that kind of thing. 

Here are the Ingredients :

Mocha cake layer :
4 egg yolks
2 egg whites
50 g butter

160 g cake flour

80 g sugar

2 tablespoons of instant coffee in 2 tablespoons of hot water
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla 

Preheat oven 170° C / 325° F. Line round 9-10 inch pan with wax paper. Separate eggs.  Mix yolks with sugar, softened butter, coffee, sour cream and vanilla.  Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Fold egg whites into batter.  Pour into pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the middle is firm.  Allow to cool on a cooling rack.  Remove wax paper once cooled.

Dark chocolate ganache :

150 g of bittersweet dark chocolate

10 cl + 10 cl whipping cream

Melt the dark chocolate.  Warm 10 cl of whipping cream and add to melted chocolate. Whip up rest of whipping cream. Once chocolate mixture has cooled fold in whipped cream. Allow to cool, cover with plastic wrap touching chocolate (so it doesn't form a crust) and refrigerate overnight.  The next day, whip up with a mixer first on low then high speeds, adding a tablespoon or two of cream to soften if necessary.

I created a slightly larger dacquoise layer, but no worries, it shrinks after a day or so.

Dacquoise:
2 egg whites
70 g of sugar
70 g of almond flour or powdered walnuts
1 tablespoon of flour

Preheat oven 170° C / 325° F. Line cookie sheet with wax paper. Beat egg whites until stiff.  Gently fold in sugar and powdered nuts, flour. Spoon into pastry bag and pipe a spiral to create a flat circle about 1 inch wider than your cake pan.  If you don't use a pastry bag, create a flat round layer with a spatula.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick test comes out clean.  Allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Walnut brownie layer (if you don't have time to bake this, slice the mocha cake in half and use as 2 layers)
100 g dark chocolate
50 g butter
75 g flour
75 g sugar
1 egg
25 g walnut oil
50 g chopped walnuts
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt 

Preheat oven 170° C / 325° F. Line round 9-10 inch pan with wax paper. Melt dark chocolate with butter in a pan over medium heat. Remove from heat once melted. In a bowl, mix egg, oil, sugar, flour, baking soda, salt.  Fold in melted chocolate once cooled. Pour into pan, sprinkle nuts on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the middle firm. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Caramel ganache may not seem thick at first, but allow to refrigerate overnight or a couple days, and then whip at first on first low speed, then higher speeds.  It will thicken as you whip air into the cream.

Salted caramel ganache:
150 g white chocolate
10 cl + 10 cl whipping cream
70 g salted caramel
1/2 teaspoon sea salt 

Spoon the caramel ganache into a pastry bag.  Even if the chocolate brownie layer cracked as I removed from pan (forgot to put wax paper), no worries after layering between cakes and decorating on top.  you know what they say about accidents in the kitchen...

For the assembly, place the cooled mocha layer on a dish.  Spread dark chocolate ganache on top (or cherry or apricot preserves if you prefer not to make this cream). Layer dacquoise over filling.  Layer caraamel ganache over dacquoise.  Place chocolate layer over filling.  Decorate on top with caramel ganache.

Where are the cracks now, eh?

Enjoy everyone, and happy November holidays.