Confusion Cook

I’m the BIRTHDAY GIRL So what if the post is 3 days late, even then I can enjoy being the birthday girl for 1 more week I baked the cake & cut it on the D-day only but haven’t been able to post it.

Checkerboard cake have been on my to bake list from the beginning. The first time I saw this I knew I had to make it soon & finally the occasion presented itself in the form of my b’day. I gave this cake option to V but he wanted to stick to known entity of a Black Forest Cake. I guess it’s his loss & my gain. This cake requires 2 or more colored cakes/ batter to produce the checkerboard effect upon slicing. I initially contemplated going in for girlie colors – pastels for the cake batter, but since the colors here are local versions & not as specific as Wilton, I chose to stick to chocolate & white. The trick for this cake lies not so much in baking as in assembling. If you have a special pan required for this cake then no challenge, but I wanted to make this simply to try my hands at assembling it without the special kit.

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I googled a lot on this cake without the special tin, almost everyone used the method of cutting 3 different size rings from each cake & interchanging them. Then placing one such prepared layer over the other & voila you have a checkerboard pattern when you slice it. There was one more method used by only few – which works if you bake the cakes in square pan. For this method, you cut strips of each type of cake & then assemble them alternatively first in 1 layer & then on top of the first layer. I chose to work with ring method for my first attempt.

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I baked Hershey’s Lavish Chocolate Cake & an Eggless Silver White Cake from Bakin’ Without Eggs by Rosemarie Emro. I doubled the Hershey’s recipe, replaced sugar with brown sugar. Also I had to change the timing as I baked the batter in 1 pan instead of 3 pans. I followed white cake recipe as such. A silver white cake is typically made from egg whites & almond extract but here we are with an eggless version with no egg whites Go figure! I refrigerated both the cakes for 24 hours & then thawed sliced layers for 4-10 hours before decorating. The purpose of refrigeration is to slicing the layers easily, which is the most of the battle won.

I used Chocolate Buttercream for filling & frosting. The filling should be minimal so that checkerboard pattern can be clearly seen.

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Eggless Checkerboard Cake –

Eggless Chocolate Cake – Hershey’s {Recipe follows} I doubled the recipe & baked the whole batter in one 8″ pan

Eggless Silver White Cake – from Bakin’ Without Eggs (refer book for recipe) For both Heavenly Chocolate Cake & Silver White Cake I had to increase the time by atleast 10-15 mins from the given time in the book.

1/4 Cup – Coke (for soaking)

Chocolate Buttercream – from Joy of Baking {Recipe follows}

Eggless Chocolate Cake -

Recipe Source – adapted from Hershey’s

Ingredients -

• 2 1/2 Cups – All Purpose Flour
• 2 tsp – Baking Soda
• 1 Cup – Butter
• 2 Cups – Milk
• 1 tsp – Vanilla Extract
• 2/3 Cup – Cocoa Powder
• 1/4 tsp – Salt
• 2 Cup – Brown Sugar
• 2 Tbsp – White Vinegar

Method -

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C. Line & grease an 8″ round pan.
2. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda & salt together.
3. Melt butter using a microwave. Don’t burn it. Stir in sugar.
4. Add milk, vinegar & vanilla to butter mixture & stir well.
5. Add dry ingredients & whisk till well blended.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan & bake for 60 mins or till inserted toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack & then transfer to a plate.
8. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap or cling film & refrigerate till required.
   

   Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Chocolate Buttercream -

Recipe Source – minimally adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients -

• 460 gms – Icing Sugar, sifted
• 226 gms – Unsalted Butter (226 gms)
• 1 tsp – Vanilla Extract (I used Almond as I had run out of Vanilla)
• 4 Tbsp – Milk
• 120 gms – Melted & Cooled Chocolate (I used Milk Compound which was leftover with me)

Method -

1. In a large bowl, beat butter till smooth & well blended using hand mixer.
2. Beat in vanilla extract.
3. On low speed slowly add sugar & continue beating. Scrape down sides if required.
4. Add the milk & beat to combine.
5. Add melted chocolate & beat.
6. On high speed beat the frosting till light & fluffy, about 5-6 mins.
7. Cover with plastic wrap when not using.

I felt that frosting was just enough to cover the cake & hardly any left to decorate on top or sides. So I suggest to increase the recipe by 1.5 times.

Assembling the Cake -

I’ve searched the net extensively for assembling this cake, most of them have tried to explain the 3 ring method as best as possible but few days ago I came across this illustration on Joy of Dessert which, she in turn has taken from flickr/avkelly. This is by far the best way to explain the assembling & hence I’m also posting it here along with due credit.

1. Slice both cakes into horizontal layers such that you have 2 layers of each cake & 4 total.
2. Cut out 2 rings each from all 4 layers. I placed 6″ dia removable bottom of tart pan & cut a circle around it & then I used a 4″ dia. lid & cut another circle within the 6″ circle.
3. Carefully remove the middle ring of all layers.
4. Using a spatula, lightly spread buttercream filling on the insides of the remaining rings. Lightly spread butter cream on outside of middle rings as well. This helps in sticking the rings together & not make a mess while cutting the cake. Then place the middle rings backs in alternating colors – place chocolate color ring in white cake & vice versa. Now you have 4 layers of cake with alternating colored rings.
5. Now place 1 prepared layer of cake on the base or cake table. Soak in coke. Lightly spread the filling & then place the 2nd layer such that the rings are stacked alternate to each other – chocolate color ring on top of white colored ring, then place the 3rd layer again alternating colors on top of each other & then the last layer similarly.
6. Keep the cake in freezer for 10 mins. This reduces the amount of crumbs to deal with while frosting.
7. Quickly do a crumb coat on the whole cake & then decorate as per your whim.
   

   Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Tips -

1. Refrigerating the cake 10-15 mins before slicing layers & rings will help in neater finish. It also gives lesser crumbs to mess while frosting.
2. It may help, if you first place the layer you want as base on the cake table & then exchange rings & place other rings on top & biding together with buttercream instead of making separate layers. The risk of layers falling apart in transfer are reduced then.

No amount of planning & tips helped me in assembling this cake as it is very difficult to maintain the rings & adjust them within each other. Almost all my rings broke into many pieces & had to be glued together with filling. I also felt that adding another smaller 2″ dia ring would have made the cake even more aesthetically appealing.

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

But the overall effect was wonderful as you can see. The cake cutting was full of oohhss & aaahhhsss. V was jealous & told me that why his birthday cake was not this nice. Difficult to please husbands! Sonny dear wanted only edible beads & no cake. Everybody wanted to know the technique of assembling it. I’m glad people liked my effort & effect though the making was quite eventful. Taste wise also the cake was wonderful with both variety of cakes complimenting each other. A great success!!!

Eggless Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

To top this, I had a pleasant surprise thrown in by V. He gifted me a Recipe Journal by Moleskine in which he suggests that I should put together best of recipes & pass on to my future daughter-in-law & Ved gave me a huge card Thank you to the men in my life

Birthday Gifts

Sending this cake to Kalyani’s 100 day Global Fest at Sizzling Tastebuds which is a part of My Mother’s Kitchen. Hop on to her blog to get some interesting global dishes