19 March, 2018

Guinness Cake with Mascarpone Whisky Frosting and Ganache Coat

Posted in : Cakes on 19th March 2018 by : Ugne

Guinness Cake with Mascarpone Whisky Frosting and Ganache Coat

Be it St Patricks Day, or you just like boozy desserts- in that case this cake is just right thing for you!
Soft and rich chocolate sponge soaked in Guiness and whisky syrup, topped with fluffy boozy mascarpone frosting and velvety chocolate ganache. Beautiful treat for any celebration.

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Baileys Chocolate Ganache Frosting: (make in advance)

200g good quality dark chocolate, at least 72% cocoa solids- chopped
100g double cream
2tbsp (around 50g) Whisky
60g unsalted butter, cut in to pieces, room temperature

This is the first step in cake preparation.
Make Chocolate ganache
Place chopped chocolate in a large heatproof bowl.
In a medium saucepan, put double cream, whisky and butter. Cook over medium heat stirring often until it just starts to simmer.
Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate and let sit for a minute.
Stir gently with a spatula until completely smooth. If there still are some chocolate pieces, place the bowl over the pan with little bit of slightly simmering water and stir while heating until all chocolate has melted. (Or pop the bowl in the microwave on a medium setting for 20seconds intervals, stirring in between to check if chocolate has melted)
Place plastic wrap on top of chocolate ganache bowl and set aside to cool and set to room temperature. We will whip it with hand held mixer until fluffy when
Now we are ready for the next step- baking

Chocolate Guinness Cake Sponges:

350g all purpose flour
180g golden castor sugar
180g dark muscovado sugar
65g organic cocoa powder, I used Food Thoughts
100g dark, at least 72% cocoa solids chocolate
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
250ml Guinness
125ml Meridian grape seed oil
250ml buttermilk room temperature
3medium free range eggs room temperature, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180’C, grease and line two 7″/18cm loose bottom cake pans with parchment paper and dust them with cacao powder.
Place flour, sugars, cacao, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix slightly to combine.
Now pour Guinness into a small saucepan and heat until just simmering.
In the meantime, in a medium bowl break chocolate in to small pieces and pour hot Guiness over it. Leave to stand for a minute then whisk with hand whisk until all melted. Add buttermilk, beaten eggs, oil, and vanilla. Give it another good stir.
Add wet ingredients to dry flour mix in the stand mixer bowl mix on medium speed for 2-3 mins until batter is smooth and no lumps of flour left.
Divide it evenly between prepared pans (I used kitchen scale to ensure the batter is evenly distributed.)
Bake on a middle shelf in the preheated oven until knife or wooden skewer comes out clean- around 40-45mins.
When sponges are done baking, take them out of the oven and cool for 10 minutes in the pans then run around the edges with a knife and turn out onto a wire rack, peel off the parchment paper and let them cool completely before assembling.

Irish whisky mascarpone frosting

150g unsalted butter, softened
120ml double cream
250g mascarpone, room temperature
pinch of fine sea salt
250 grams powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Irish Whisky
1tsp vanilla extract

Prepare Mascarpone Frosting:
Once cake has cooled completely, prepare the frosting.
Place the butter, mascarpone
and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachemnt. Beat on a medium speed for 1-2minutes, or until creamy. Reduce speed to low, and slowly start adding double cream and then the powdered sugar, little bit at a time. Reduce speed to slow and add the Whisky and vanilla extract until incorporated.
Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula, increase speed to medium and beat frosting for 1 to 2 minutes until light and fluffy.

Buzzy soaking syrup:

50g castor sugar
50g Guinness
2tbsp Irish Whisky

Place sugar and Guiness in the small pan and place on small heat. Bring it to the boil and let it simmer for 3-4minutes until liquid starts to thicken. Now reduce heat to minimum and pour in whisky. Bring it to the boil and take off the heat.

Assemble the cake

Using serrated knife cut off the risen domes of the two sponges. Now cut each sponge in half horizontally.

Put your buttercream and ganache in the separate piping bags. Cut the tips ready for piping. You definitely can just spread by hand using spatula.

Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving dish. Pipe around the edge of the sponge some chocolate ganache, using spoon drizzle some syrup over the sponge and pipe some mascarpone frosting ion the middle.

Spread evenly not to go over chocolate ganache edges. Place another sponge on top and repeat with remaining layers alternating frosting with ganache. Smooth some ganache over the cake as a crumb coat. Chill for at least 20mins until firm and set.

Frost the chilled cake with the remaining ganache. It will start to set against the cold cake.

To smooth the top and sides of the cake, use a metal spatula that have been run under hot water or dipped in the bowl with hot water (wipe it off before use). Keep heating the spatula and repeat the process until the sides and top are smooth.

Using the remainder of the buttercream to decorate the cake top as it is a beer froth.