Ingredients: |
Ingredients: Chocolate Icing Ingredients
9 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate (not chocolate chips), coarsely chopped
2½ cups granulated sugar
1½ cups heavy cream
3 tbsp corn syrup
1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Cake Ingredients
3¾ cups sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 sticks (1½ cups) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
2½ tsp pure vanilla extract
1¾ cups buttermilk, room temperature
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Directions: |
Directions:Make the icing first so that it has plenty of time to cool and thicken.
Combine the butter, chocolate, sugar, cream, and corn syrup together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until the butter has melted, then stir occasionally as the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and the pinch of salt.
Transfer to a heatproof bowl and leave uncovered and set aside to thicken and cool for at least 2 hours, or more as necessary to reach a somewhat spreadable consistency.
Preheat the oven to 350º
Grease three 9 inch cake pans, line with parchment paper, then grease the parchment.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary. Add one egg at a time, beating well on medium-high speed after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.
With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix after each addition until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary. Do not overmix.
Each cake layer will have just under 1 cup of batter. Leave remaining batter loosely covered at room temperature while layers bake.
Scrape just under one cup of batter into each of the three cake pans and smooth out with spatula.
Bake for about 12 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans for about 2-3 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack lined with parchment.
Remove the parchment from the baked layer (or from the pan if it remained in the pan). Repeat greasing the pans, lining with parchment, and greasing the parchment. Repeat adding the batter for the next 3 layers and repeat the baking/cooling instructions.
Repeat preparing the pans and baking the cakes for the final 3 layers. You should have a total of 9 very thin cake layers that are relatively uniform in diameter and thickness. Allow all cake layers to cool completely before assembling.
Assembly
Carefully place one layer on a serving platter.
Make sure that the icing is at least room temperature, if not cooler (you can place briefly in the fridge if necessary). Spoon about ¼ cup of icing onto the layer and smooth evenly over the entire layer. It will drip down the sides, which is fine.
Repeat with the remaining layers, being careful to keep the layers from sliding around, since the icing is still very liquid.
Spread the remaining icing (if there is any) on the sides of the cake, or spread the icing that has dripped out around the sides of the cake. Be prepared to get very messy, as this cake may end up being iced with your fingers spreading the drippy icing.
Cover and place in the fridge to set the icing for at least 30 minutes before serving.
You can store this cake, covered, in the fridge for about a week. |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: I made this cake for Max's 24th birthday. It is the official dessert of the State of Maryland, so yay!
Making the layers was actually not that hard, other than finding a place to keep all of the layers as they cooled. I ended up spreading newspaper on the dining room table, putting cooling racks lined with parchment on the newspaper, and putting cakes just on parchment on the newspaper as they cooled (I only had room for 5 layers on the cooling racks). Icing this cake was the extreme challenge as the layers were sliding all over the place once the very glossy, liquidy icing was added. The final result was delicious, if not the neatest cake I've made!
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This recipe for Smith Island Cake is from