S1E1 Showstopper: Chocolate Celebration Cake

I made it to my first showstopper challenge, and having come first in the technical (against myself) I'm feeling like my chances of moving on to next week are pretty high.

This week, the instructions state that the bakers are required to use their own original recipe to create a Chocolate Celebration Cake. I'm going to make an executive decision and say that I don't have to use an original recipe, as I do not yet have enough confidence in my baking skills to fabricate a whole recipe from scratch, and I already have to alter recipes to accommodate my dietary restriction. I could just tell you that I'm using my own recipe and you would have to believe me, right? You can decide whether or not I should be kicked out of this competition with myself.

So, now that we've established that I'm definitely following the rules, let's get on with it. I'm planning to make a chocolate sponge with chocolate buttercream, honey creme patissière, dark chocolate ganache and homemade honeycomb (or sponge toffee) on top. 

Again, I don't know how long the bakers had to complete this challenge, so I'm giving myself 3 hours. 

I actually prepared for this bake. I got back to Vancouver last night (I've been staying out on Pender Island for the past five weeks) and planned out my bake thoroughly so that I could grab the ingredients in the morning and start as early as possible. I got the kitchen ready, assembling all the ingredients and tools that I would need. 

I was SO ready to go. Evie started the timer. 

First thing I did was go to grab the parchment paper to line my tins, and there was no parchment paper. 

So, Evie stopped the timer and went to get me some.

This time, I was really ready to go. Evie started the timer. Again. So, I lined my tins, then preheated the oven.

I made my cake batter first. I used a recipe that I had used recently and absolutely loved, so I was very confident in making this batter quickly. I split it into three tins and got them into the oven right away.

Once my sponges were baking, I got started on my crème patissière (creme pat). I have never made creme pat before, but it seemed like it was pretty much the same as custard, which I have made many times (Evie loves custard, probably even more than she loves jam). As I wanted this cake to have a honey theme to it, I made my creme pat with honey instead of sugar. I used honey that I bought at a local market on Pender Island yesterday to make it extra special. I think the Mary Berry would approve.

    

I topped my creme pat with cling film and set it on the counter to cool and set. By this point, my cakes were done, so I set them on cooling racks to cool in their tins.

Now came the most exciting part. I finally tried sponge toffee! I even went on a special trip to Canadian Tire this morning to get a new thermometer.

Making sponge toffee consists of heating sugar and corn syrup to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and then mixing in some baking soda to create a chemical reaction which causes the mixture to bubble up intensely and then harden. I have always wanted to try it.

You want to make sponge toffee now, don't you? It was just as fun to make as I was hoping it would be, even though I burned the sugar slightly. I set it aside to cool down and harden.

I started on my ganache by heating up a can of coconut milk and pouring it over some dark chocolate chips. I had to let it sit for 5 minutes without touching it, which was torture.

Meanwhile, my cakes were almost cool! I turned them out of their tins and remove the parchment lining. Is there anything as satisfying as peeling the parchment paper off of a cake?

Okay, back to the ganache. 

It came out so thick and glossy. This is my first ganache, people. I'm so impressed.

And with that, all that was left to prepare was the buttercream! I've made quite a bit of buttercream recently, so this part wasn't quite as exciting for me as everything else. I don't have any special buttercream pictures. No offence to buttercream.

Now it was time to assemble. 

I decided to break the honeycomb in a plastic bag to avoid too much mess, so I don't have any awesome toffee-smashing pictures to show. Sorry.

The final product:

Time: 2 hours 42 minutes

I am extremely proud of the result.

This is the first bake of the three challenges so far with no catastrophes! The balance of the different chocolate elements worked really well, and the crème patissière gave a lovely lightness and texture in the middle. My only gripe is that I was hoping that the honey flavour would come out a bit in the creme pat, but you can't taste it at all. Still, I had four judges tonight (not including me), and even though I told them to be brutal with their judging, this cake got nothing but praise! My brother even gifted me a "Hollywood Elbow-Bump". High praise indeed.

This was a great way to end my first cake week.

Thank you for reading!

Recipes used (even though this was definitely an original recipe):

Sponge and Buttercream: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/triple-chocolate-layer-cake/

Crème Patissière: https://www.theflavorbender.com/creme-patissiere-vanilla-pastry-cream/

Honeycomb: https://sugarspunrun.com/honeycomb-recipe/

Ganache: https://www.thespruceeats.com/vegan-dark-chocolate-ganache-1001556