Luxurious 24-Layer Chocolate Cake – Gemma’s Larger Bolder Baking

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Hello Daring Bakers!

WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE: Our Luxurious 24-Layer Chocolate Cake makes a mouthwatering assertion when it’s celebration time. And we actually have one thing to rejoice—it’s Larger Bolder Baking’s tenth anniversary! Ten years of baking with you, constructing a robust group, discovering what you’d like to be taught to prepare dinner, and growing recipes—it’s been a pleasure! So we’re marking this decade milestone with an elevated model of fan-favorite Greatest Ever Chocolate Cake with Whipped Darkish Chocolate Ganache. Our Luxurious 24-Layer model is GINORMOUS! It’s two dozen fudgy layers of cake, chocolate filling, and a bittersweet and milk chocolate ganache. Go huge or go residence!

• This cake is made with vegetable oil, giving it a luxurious texture and a moist crumb.
• Silky chocolate pastry cream is slathered on each layer, and the cake is enveloped in wealthy milk chocolate ganache.

For those who’re like me, most of your kitchen time is targeted on whipping up wholesome breakfasts, packing faculty lunches, and determining dinners that everybody will eat! That’s why it’s so enjoyable to dig right into a gorgeously indulgent recipe like this showstopper cake. Try extra Larger Bolder Baking favorites that carry the drama, like Beautiful Tiramisu Cake, Wealthy German Chocolate Cake, 3-Layer Neapolitan Cake, and Salted Caramel and Chocolate Brownie Trifle.

Maintain studying for a FREE present I need to give to you for this momentous event.

Desk of Contents

What’s Luxurious 24-Layer Chocolate Cake?

• Luxurious 24-Layer Chocolate Cake is a decadent multi-layered chocolate cake made by stacking 24 particular person layers with layers of chocolate filling in between. Every layer is skinny, and the cumulative, visually spectacular impact creates a wealthy and indulgent dessert.
• Completely yummy chocolate pastry cream is sandwiched between the layers, with the pudding-like filling giving the perfect textural distinction to the cake and holding it moist!
• Not like the anticipated chocolate buttercream, this cake is roofed in swirls of decadent ganache, sending it over the sting to make the splendid dessert of your goals.
• Layered truffles date again to historical Greek and Roman occasions. After baking powder was invented in 1840, fluffier layered truffles grew in reputation, and within the Victorian Period, serving an elaborate layer cake conveyed wealth and social standing. As we speak, a multi-layered cake is the centerpiece of a marriage, birthday, or vacation celebration.

Key Substances and Why

For the Chocolate Layer Cake:

• All-purpose flour

  • All-purpose flour with a protein content material of 11th of September% is ideal for making a cake with sufficient gluten improvement to create a vital construction whereas nonetheless having a young crumb.

• Granulated sugar

  • The sugar sweetens the cake and contributes to its moist texture.

• Dutch-processed cocoa powder

  • Dutch-processed cocoa powder is cocoa handled with an alkalizing agent to neutralize the naturally occurring acids, giving it a splendidly mellow chocolate taste.
  • For the reason that Dutch course of cocoa isn’t acidic, it doesn’t react with an alkaline leavener like baking soda to provide carbon dioxide. That’s why recipes that use Dutch course of cocoa are often leavened by baking powder or a mixture of the 2 like we have now on this recipe.

• Prompt espresso powder

  • Don’t fear, the cake received’t style like espresso! The 4 teaspoons of espresso powder are right here solely to intensify the chocolate taste.

• Baking powder

  • Baking powder comprises each an acid (cream of tartar) and a base (baking soda), which supplies it leavening energy even in a cake with a non-acidic ingredient like Dutch-processed cocoa powder.
  • Be taught extra about baking powder and baking soda and methods to make your individual.

• Baking soda

  • Baking soda contributes to the rise and tenderizes the cake’s crumb.

• Eggs

• Vegetable oil

  • Vegetable oil, a liquid fats, typically makes moister and extra tender truffles than these made with strong fats like butter.
  • The impartial style of vegetable oil lets the chocolate taste shine via.

• Extremely popular water

  • Extremely popular water prompts the cocoa’s taste compounds and dissolves the cocoa, guaranteeing the combination is lump-free and evenly dispersed.
  • The water additionally hydrates the batter, enhancing the cake’s moisture content material.

For the Filling:

For the Milk Chocolate Ganache:

• Heavy whipping cream

  • The fats content material in heavy cream is round 36%. This high-fat content material is essential to making a steady ganache combination that received’t cut up.
  • Heavy whipping cream provides the ganache a velvety mouthfeel and wealthy taste.

• Milk chocolate

  • Creamy milk chocolate has 38-42% chocolate solids and a excessive milk content material. It lends contributes to a creamy, clean ganache.
  • Milk chocolate is good and is called “consuming chocolate.” Its delicate taste retains the ganache balanced and never overwhelming.

• Bittersweet chocolate

How one can Make 24-Layer Chocolate Cake

• Put together to bake: Preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C) with the fan on, butter 4 cake pans and line them with parchment paper. Put a cake board on the cake adorning stand.
• Mix the dry elements: In a stand mixer, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt on low for 30 seconds.
• Combine the moist elements and end the batter: Add the eggs, oil, vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup (4 fl oz/120 ml) of sizzling water. Combine to moisten. Add the remaining sizzling water in two additions, scraping the bowl down with a silicone or rubber spatula, and blend to mix.
• Bake and funky the cake layers: Pour the batter into the ready pans. Bake within the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes till a cake tester or toothpick comes out clear. Let the truffles cool utterly. Wrap the layers properly in cling movie and chill within the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours.
• Make the Milk Chocolate Ganache: Place the finely chopped milk chocolate and bittersweet chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Warmth the cream simply to simmering, and pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for 5 minutes, after which stir till mixed. Let the ganache sit at room temperature, stirring often, till thickened.
• Assemble the cake: Minimize every cake into three layers. Put one cake layer on the cake board on the cake adorning stand. Unfold evenly with ½ cup (4 oz/115 g) of pastry cream. Repeat the method till the entire cake layers have been used. Unfold the remaining pastry cream over the cake as a crumb coat, and refrigerate for one hour.
• Frost the cake: Take the cake out of the fridge and place it again on the cake adorning stand. Unfold the chocolate frosting evenly however rapidly (the need ganache rapidly agency up when utilized to the chilled cake). Serve immediately or refrigerate.

Can I Make 24-Layer Chocolate Cake in Advance?

Sure, you may make parts of 24-Layer Chocolate Cake prematurely so it would take much less time to assemble.

• Make the cake layers prematurely:
  • Wrap the baked truffles properly and retailer them within the fridge for as much as 4 days.
  • For extra prolonged storage, place the well-wrapped truffles in a freezer bag and retailer them within the freezer for 3 months.
• Make the ganache prematurely:
  • To retailer within the fridge:
    • Place a chunk of plastic wrap immediately over the floor of the very heat ganache to cease it from forming a tough pores and skin.
    • After the ganache has cooled utterly, place it in an hermetic container and retailer it within the fridge for as much as seven days.
    • When prepared to make use of the ganache, gently reheat it by placing the ganache in a heatproof bowl and putting the bowl in sizzling water. Stir till spreadable.
  • I don’t advocate freezing ganache because the consistency wouldn’t be the identical as soon as thawed.

How one can Retailer 24-Layer Chocolate Cake

• Retailer leftover cake within the fridge for as much as two days.
• Depart the cake out at room temperature for half-hour earlier than serving.

FAQs

• How do I make a 24-Layer Chocolate Cake with out a big capability mixer?

  • Since that is such a big cake batter, you will want a massive capability mannequin if you wish to use a mixer.
  • For those who don’t have a large-capacity mixer or 4 cake pans, you possibly can divide this cake recipe in half and make it in two batches.
  • To do that with out making errors, it’s best to print out the recipe, go by weight, and use a calculator to half the entire quantities. Make notes in your recipe earlier than measuring the whole lot, and use a kitchen scale for accuracy.
  • For those who don’t have a stand mixer, you can even combine every batch with a hand-held electrical mixer or combine it by hand.

• How do I make certain my ganache doesn’t cut up?

  • Make sure to not overheat the cream. It’s greatest to make use of a heavy backside saucepan and heat the cream on LOW warmth simply till it begins to simmer–search for tiny bubbles across the edges.
  • Use finely chopped chocolate bars as an alternative of chips. Chocolate chips have added elements to maintain them from shedding form, so it’s laborious to soften them utterly. Overmixing will separate fats from chocolate to interrupt the ganache.
  • Don’t overheat the chocolate. Let the heated cream sit with the chocolate, and don’t stir for 5 minutes. This course of will soften chocolate evenly with out inflicting it to grab.
  • SLOWLY stir chocolate and cream collectively from the middle till it’s good and clean. Swirling the bowl will assist the chocolate to soften with out overmixing. Because it cools, it would thicken up extra.
  • To repair damaged ganache, heat the combination in a bowl over a pot of simmering water whereas whisking vigorously utilizing an immersion blender. If that doesn’t work, add in a small quantity of room-temperature milk whereas persevering with whisking. Don’t use cream to revive your ganache as a result of the combination already comprises an excessive amount of fats to come back collectively.

• How do I maintain my cake layers from breaking once I lower and stack them?

  • Making cake layers that received’t crack and that stack properly begins whenever you combine your batter. Keep away from overmixing, as that may incorporate an excessive amount of air and create massive air bubbles within the cake, making the layers difficult to chop and stack.
  • Reducing a baked cake into thinner layers is known as torting. Chill the baked truffles for a minimum of 4 hours, and ideally in a single day, earlier than torting. Heat cake is simply too fragile to chop.
  • For those who’re a little bit nervous about torting, you possibly can put the cake on the adorning stand, view it at eye stage, and rating it or mark with toothpicks earlier than you chop.
  • When chopping the cake with a serrated knife, calmly put a hand on the highest of the cake (don’t use an excessive amount of stress), and use a mild sawing movement to chop.
  • Think about using an additional cake board to maneuver every layer to attenuate the possibility of breakage.

Gemma’s Professional Chef Suggestions

• In case your oven doesn’t have a fan, observe to place cake pans on totally different racks and rotate them midway via. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for round 30-35 minutes or till a cake tester or toothpick comes out clear.
• The cake layers must be chilled earlier than splitting and meeting, or they are going to be too tender to deal with.
• A rotating cake adorning stand is preferable for adorning this cake as a result of it’s important that the layers are even. There are a lot of layers, and in the event that they begin to tilt, the entire cake could fall over as a result of top. As you place the layers, you possibly can rotate the stand to see the cake from all sides. After all, you possibly can fill and frost this cake and not using a adorning stand, however be sure you have a look at the cake from all sides after every layer of cake and filling.
• The cake board is a spherical piece of cardboard you could construct your cake on. Since that is such a big cake, it’s simpler to fill and frost it on a board so it may be lifted from the adorning stand to the fridge and to your serving plate.
• The layers of pastry cream will appear very skinny, however that is to make sure the structural integrity of the cake. If the pastry cream layers are too thick, they will slip.
• An offset spatula is one of the best software to unfold the pastry cream and ganache evenly.
• As a result of this cake is crammed with pastry cream, it should keep refrigerated. Most truffles style higher at room temperature, however as a result of that is an oil-based cake, it stays mushy and moist even when chilly. The ganache has sufficient cream that it’s going to additionally keep mushy whereas chilly.
• Serve this cake with a beneficiant dollop of Freshly Whipped Cream, Chocolate Whipped Cream, or Two-Ingredient Vanilla Ice Cream!

Extra Chocolate Cake Recipes

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