Flourless Chocolate Mocha Mud Torte

It was Mothering Sunday here in the UK yesterday, which meant all the family gathered together to enjoy some family time and Mum appreciation. We spent the day together including a traditional Sunday afternoon walk through nearby woodland followed by a full blown Sunday roast cooked by dad and me. Of course, no family gathering would be complete without something sweet and tasty for afternoon tea or dessert and on this occasion it turned out to be this wickedly indulgent chocolate torte.

This torte originally started out life destined to be something else, but things didn’t go according to plan (always check you have all the necessary ingredients in stock!) and I had to improvise. I’d made a chocolate ganache base that I’d flavoured with coffee to enhance the chocolatiness but then I got stuck. I decided to try and turn the ganache into a flourless chocolate cake. I separated some eggs, made the whites into meringue, folded everything together, put it in the oven and hoped for the best.

It puffed up and rose spectacularly in the oven before sinking down into a gooey fudgy chocolate cake once taken out. However, this is how most flourless chocolate cakes turn out so I wasn’t disappointed. The taste of this cake is about as far from disappointment as you could get – it’s fantastic!

We ate a taster slice a few hours after it was first baked, when it was only just cool. The texture was like a softly set mousse, very light but incredibly chocolaty. The coffee comes through later, not overpowering the chocolate, only adding to its rich dark flavour.

After the torte has rested for a few hours the top surface developed a slightly crisp, fragile crust while the underneath became sticky and fudgy, like the best sort of brownie you can imagine. Mmmm it was divine. Far better than my original plan for the ganache.

There is very little added sugar and no flour, nuts or grain of any kind, meaning the chocolate can really be the star of the show. You want to use a good quality high percentage dark chocolate to really get that coco hit.

Small slice are all that’s needed for an instant chocolate high and a mood enhancing boost.

Flourless Chocolate Mocha Mud Torte

Ingredients
250g dark chocolate 65-70% cocoa solids
300ml double cream
3 tsp instant coffee granules
1 tbsp milk
30g golden syrup
2 eggs
50g caster sugar
Cocoa powder for dusting

Method
Line an 8inch deep springform tin with a sheet of silicone paper. Preheat the oven to 180C.
Heat the milk and coffee granules together in the microwave until the coffee has dissolved. Break the chocolate into small chunks and place into a saucepan along with the dissolved coffee, double cream and golden syrup.
Heat gently, stirring often, until the chocolate has completely dissolved into the cream. Do not allow to boil.
Remove from the heat, and stir to make sure everything is well combined. Set aside to cool slightly.
Separate the egg yolks from the whites and place into separate bowls. Beat the egg whites until fluffy, opaque and just starting to hold a soft peak. While still whisking, add the caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time until you achieve a thick glossy meringue.
Beat the egg yolks into the melted chocolate mixture, mixing quickly.
Add a third of the meringue to the chocolate mix, and fold in use a large spoon or spatula, making sure to reach right to the bottom of the pan.
Add the rest of the meringue, and fold in gently until just combined. Don’t over mix.
Pour the chocolate batter into the prepared pan and place in the oven to bake for 40-45 minutes.
The mix will puff up and rise to the top of the tin and crack during baking. This is normal. When the top has formed a crust and is darker around the edges, remove the cake from the oven.
Allow to cool completely (it will collapse and sink – this is fine) before running a knife around the edge and removing from the pan.
Dust with cocoa powder and serve.
Serve slightly warm for a soft mousse texture, or leave to rest for a few hours to achieve more of a truffle-brownie texture.

Chocolate Cheesecake Cheese-Fake GF & DF

A few weeks back I was set a challenge – could I make a gluten and dairy free cheesecake? Ermm yikes! Gluten free wasn’t going to be a problem as you can now buy gluten free digestive style biscuits in most supermarkets, but dairy free? Take the cheese and cream out a cheesecake and you’re left with a few biscuit crumbs and some eggs.

After my initial moment of panic, I remembered the delicious cheeseless cheesecake I made a few months back using yoghurt. Yoghurt obviously still contains dairy, but I knew that dairy free soya yoghurt was now readily available and it got me wondering if this would also work baked into a cheesecake. Only one way to find out!

I used sunflower spread with the crushed gluten free biscuit crumbs to form the base for my cheesecake which worked well. Just make sure your biscuits are also dairy free, as some I found weren’t. I decided to make the cheesecake a chocolate cheesecake as pretty much everything chocolaty tastes good, and I thought it would also mask any potentially odd flavours that might arise from the soya yoghurt.

The batter for the cheesecake was a little runny, but apart from that, came together well without splitting or curdling. It baked perfectly, with a smooth, slightly glossy surface and after a dusting of cocoa powder it was unrecognisable from the real thing, at least by appearances sake.

On slicing, it cut very cleanly, too cleanly really, as there was no thick creaminess to stick the mixture to the knife, but this can’t really be viewed as a negative. It was lightly speckled with flecks of chocolate where I obviously hadn’t mixed it sufficiently, but this added to its appeal.

Now came the vital bit – the taste! It was….ok, good, but not great. It ate well and had a good chocolate flavour but it just seemed to be lacking something. After several bites I decided what it was lacking was the creamy mouthfeel, essentially the dairy that helps give a cheesecake its thick sticky creaminess in the mouth.

The flavour of the cheesecake was great while you were eating, but seemed to dissolve into nothing the minute you swallowed. There was no lingering flavour or creaminess coating your mouth. It just sort of went. The friend who’d given me the challenge loved it – so I suppose it was good considering it was gluten and dairy free, but I don’t think things should be judged ‘good considering they’re…’ I think they should taste good to everyone, gluten/dairy free or not.

So my experiment has revealed that yes it is possible to produce a gluten and dairy free cheesecake, but without further experiments I’m not sure it was worth it. Maybe it was the soya or just the complete lack of dairy? Anyone got any ideas how to improve the creaminess without adding dairy?

Chocolate Cheesecake Cheese-Fake GF & DF

Ingredients – Biscuit Base
125g gluten & dairy free digestive style biscuits
50g Pure dairy free margarine

Cheesecake
500g Alpro soya yoghurt
50g caster sugar
75g dark dairy free chocolate
20g cocoa powder
2 eggs
2 tbsp cornflour

Method
Line a 6-6.5inch round springform tin with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 160C.
Place the biscuits into a strong plastic bag and beat it with a rolling pin until the biscuits are broken in crumbs.
Melt the margarine in a large bowl, add the biscuits crumbs and stir well to mix. Spread the buttery crumbs into the base of the tin and press down firmly to form a even layer. Place in the fridge to chill while you make the topping.
In a large bowl, mix the sugar, cornflour and cocoa powder together until well combined.
Pour in the yoghurt and beat to combine, followed by the eggs.
Melt the chocolate and whip into the yoghurt mixture.
Pour the mix over the chilled biscuit base and bake for 1hour – 1hour 10 minutes until slightly puffed and set around the edges, but still wobbly in the centre.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 1½ hours before chilling in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
When ready to serve, run a hot sharp knife around the rim of the tin to help release it from the sides.
Dust with a little extra cocoa powder and serve.

The Cake Slice March 2011: Chocolate Cream Pound Cake

The posting date for The Cake Slice bakers certainly seems to roll round quickly! This month the winning cake was a Chocolate Cream Pound Cake made using double cream and butter for richness and copious amounts of cocoa powder for a deep rich chocolate flavour.

When it came to baking the cake, I wasn’t in need of a large cake so decided to only make a third of the batter – easiest way to split the 3 eggs called for in the recipe – and to bake them in 4 mini loaf tins. I bought these a while ago and hadn’t ever got round to using them, so this was the perfect excuse.

I loved the shape and size this gave my mini pound cakes. I think they look so cute, I never can resist mini sized things, plus, this way you get to eat a whole mini cake yourself without feeling greedy!

I used brown teff flour in place of the wheat flour to make it gluten free. However, I think I should have done a mix of flour or added some xanthan gum to help improve the texture of the flour as my little loaf cakes sunk in the middle – while still in the oven – so I don’t think the flours structure was strong enough to support the cake. Oh well, lesson learned.

The problem of the dip in the middle was easily solved by serving the little cakes upside down. I think this actually gave them a better shape due to being mini and meant no one was any the wiser when it came to eating them. Shhhh.

Topped off with a little drizzle of coffee glaze and the cakes were good to go. The crumb inside was very dark and rich due to all the cocoa powder. This gave them a rich chocolate flavour and a slightly fudgy, almost brownie like consistency.

They were delicious on the day they were baked, but I found them a little dry the following day, so I’m not sure I’d bake them again if I knew they wouldn’t all be eaten straight away. Overall I found this cake tasty, but nothing outstanding.

Click to see The Cake Slice blogroll

Chocolate Cream Pound Cake
(Recipe adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)

Ingredients
60g cocoa powder
55ml double cream
150g plain flour (I used GF brown teff flour)
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
100g unsalted butter, softened
335g caster sugar (I reduced this to 225g)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method
Heat the oven to 160C. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and dust with flour.
Sift the cocoa powder into a heatproof bowl. Place the cream in a microwavable bowl and heat for 30-60 seconds until just boiling. Pour the hot cream over the cocoa and stir and mash with a spoon to make a thick paste. Set aside to cool.
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bow once or twice as necessary. Beat in the cocoa powder paste until well combined (it will look grainy but this is fine).
With the mixer on medium-low speed add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Stir in the vanilla (the batter should now be smooth and glossy).
Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture, a third at a time, scraping down the sides after each addition. Add the last addition, mix for 30 seconds on medium speed.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake until it is firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Invert it onto a wire rack and then turn it right side up on the rack to cool completely. Slice and serve.
Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Makes one 9x5 inch loaf cake

To Make Mini’s
Use only one-third of the ingredients (easiest way to scale down the 3 eggs in the original recipe) and bake in 4 mini loaf tins that have been lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out to cool. Serve upside down, drizzled with the glaze of your choice.

Egg-cellent Easter Eggs from Hotel Chocolat & A Giveaway!

Easter is just a few weeks away and this year my birthday happens to fall on Easter Sunday. So when Hotel Chocolat asked if I’d like to review one of their Easter eggs I was more than happy to accept – a yummy early Easter/birthday present combined!

They offered me their Milk Chocolate Giant Ostrich Egg – which comes with two egg-xtra thick shells of milk chocolate, studded with cookie pieces, crispies and white chocolate chunks, all accompanied by a selection of their chocolates, a rocky road and caramel slab and a cute chocolate bunny lolly. Sounds egg-tremely divine yes? Unfortunately for me, I had to turn them down as the cookie studded egg and some of the chocolates contained gluten.

After explaining why, they immediately said they would send me their chocolate mini egg selection box known as The Sleekster. 30 chocolates eggs in 10 assorted flavours in a selection of white, milk and dark chocolate – all gluten free! Ohhh yes please!

However, I think there was a bit of confusion somewhere as they first delivered me the Giant Ostrich Egg originally planned, before sending me The Sleekster egg selection!! All my family and friends were egg-ceptionally quick to volunteer their services as taste testers for the Ostrich cookie egg so rest assured, they were very much appreciated.

Everyone was amazed at how thick the shell of the ostrich egg was and commented that the crispie bits and white chocolate chunks were great at making each bite fun and different, although, some said this made it far too easy to eat! It was described as rich and milky. The chocolates were fought over with the Feuilletine Frenzy (hazelnut praline) and Macadamia Crunch (macadamia praline) being particular favourites.

From the first impression of The Sleekster egg selection I knew I was going to be in for a special treat. The box itself is dark, glossy and stylish and the dainty rows of perfect chocolate eggs inside, in varying shades of creamy white to dark mahogany brown only heightened my expectations.

Unlike some chocolates, these stunningly streaked eggs more than lived up to their attractive appearance in both quality and flavour. The chocolate is rich, smooth and creamy, and melts in the mouth, flooding your senses with intense chocolate flavour that lingers on for several minutes even after you have finished it. Pure chocolate indulgence.

The Sleekster eggs are filled with an assortment of pralines, truffles, caramels and ganaches, encased in thick white, 40-50% milk, milk caramel or 70% dark chocolate shells.

With so much choice it was hard to know where to start. I first selected the Blueberry Egg. A thick white chocolate shell filled with a blueberry infused white chocolate ganache. The blueberry ganache was amazing and so intensly flavoured, that there was no mistaking the blueberry. It was creamy and sweet, but not at all sickly.

Next I tried the Vanilla Custard Egg. This was a vanilla ganche inside a creamy milk chocolate shell. Simple flavours, but well matched. Delicious.

My surprise favourite of the range was the Caramel Egg. I’m not normally a caramel fan, often finding it too sweet, but this little egg was amazing. A 50% dark milk shell with a thick liquid caramel centre. I’m sure the caramel contained sea salt too, as it had a lingering saltiness that offset the sweetness and balanced perfectly with the darker milk chocolate. Wow. It danced with my taste buds – sweet, salty, smooth, creamy, bitter. Divine.

I’ll let you in on a secret, I’m normally a dark chocolate or nothing kind of girl. I have often treated myself to some of Hotel Chocolat’s dark chocolates in the past, but They’ve now changed my whole perspective to all chocolate types. These were some seriously good chocolates. The white chocolate is smooth and creamy rather than sweet and sickly and the milks are creamy with a rich chocolate flavour and you can actually taste the difference between the varying cocoa contents. The darker milks and 70% dark chocolate are rich intense chocolate flavour, lingering on the right side of smoky bitterness.

Now for the egg-cellent news – Hotel Chocolat have allowed me to offer one lucky person the chance to win a box of The Sleekster Egg Box Selection themselves! They’re gluten free and the range of white, milk and dark chocolates means there is bound to be something to please everyone. (Two do contain alcohol)

Plus, I’m running my own small giveaway. Seeing as I was lucky enough to also receive the Ostrich Egg I am personally going to send one other winner the Caramel Road Slab and Chocolate Bunny lolly (I’m afraid the rest of the egg got munched by the willing taste testers rather quickly!)

As it’s also my birthday over Easter, to win, simply visit Hotel Chocolat’s site and tell me which of their yummy chocolate selections would be your ideal birthday gift and leave a comment below. Open to UK residents only. Please put (UK) in brackets with your comment and some way of contacting you. Competition open until midnight Monday 21^st March. The two lucky winners will be chosen at random and contacted soon after for their addresses.

Chocolate, Whole Orange & Almond Cake (GF & DF)

I am a member of my local coeliac group and last weekend, they were having a meeting which included a cookery demo followed by an afternoon tea, with all the cakes and goodies being baked by group members. Anyone fond of baking is encouraged to bring something along. This results in two tables groaning under the weight of all the cakes, biscuits and tarts provided, all of which are of course gluten free. For 50p you get an empty plate which you are allowed to fill with as much food as you like. If there is one thing I am fast learning about other coeliacs it’s that they all love a good afternoon tea. Being presented with an entire tableful of gluten free treats is quite a rare experience for us coeliacs with the result that you end up feeling like a child in a sweet shop, giddy with all the choice – although that could be partly due to the sugar rush from eating too much cake! Everyone piles their plates high with a selection of the cakes with second and third helpings often being the norm.

There is never any ‘packet stuff’ with everything being baked by coeliacs for coeliacs meaning it also tastes delicious. It’s a great way to pick up some new recipes. Knowing the high standard of baking on offer, I was determined to take something equally delicious and stumbled across this recipe by Nigella which seemed to fill the bill perfectly.

It’s a chocolate cake made with ground almonds and flavoured with orange. However, this cake is a little different to your usual orange cake, as it uses the WHOLE ENTIRE ORANGE, pith, skin, pulp and all pureed in the mix.

Of course I had to make a trial version of the cake before taking it to the meeting, for quality taste testing purposes obviously. I didn’t want a whole large cake, so I scaled the recipe down and baked it in a small Bundt mould instead. You’re meant to boil the orange in a saucepan of water for a couple of hours but I’ve since discovered that a 10 minute blast in the microwave in a water bath does the same trick, great for when you’re short of time.

The cake turned out far better than I’d hoped. Using a whole orange may sound a little shocking at first but it produces a very moist, slightly dense cake with a fabulous intense orange flavour, similar to marmalade, and not the least bit bitter. Paired against the rich cocoa flavour it gives it a very indulgent decadent flavour. I loved how the slices were speckled with slivers of the orange peel, giving a hint at what’s inside. It really is unbelievably delicious.

We ate the last slice 3 days later, and it was still just as moist as on the day it was made. It only occurred to me later that it’s not only gluten free, but dairy free too! I’m pleased to say it went very well at the meeting with a few people asking for the recipe – hurrah!

Chocolate, Whole Orange & Almond Cake
(Recipe adapted from Feast by Nigella Lawson)

Ingredients
1 medium sized orange – 170-200g weight
3 large eggs
¾ tsp gluten free baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g ground almonds
125g caster sugar
25g cocoa powder

Method
Grease a 6-6½inch spring form tin and line the base with greaseproof paper OR lightly oil a small 6-7inch Bundt pan.
In a small saucepan, place the orange and cover with water. Bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer and cook for 1 hour until the orange is soft and tender.
(I’ve found that placing the orange in a microwavable bowl, covering with water and loosely covering the top with clingfilm before microwaving on high for 10 minutes, produces the same results. Great when short of time)
Remove the orange from the water, cut in half and remove any pips. Leave to cool for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Place the entire oranges (peel and all), in a food processor and whizz to a pulp. With the mixer running, add the eggs, one at a time, to help break down the orange peel.
Then add the baking powder, bicarb, almonds, sugar and cocoa powder. Whiz together until a smooth batter is formed. There will still be bits of few bits of puréed orange in the batter, which is fine.
Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 35-45 minutes. It should be slightly risen and springy to the touch. A skewer should come out fairly clean, with just a few sticky crumbs attached.
Allow the cake to cool completely in the tin, before releasing from the tin and serving. Gets a shiny sticky top surface the longer it’s stored. Dust with icing sugar or drizzle with a little glace icing if desired.

Daring Bakers January 2011 Challenge: Joconde Imprime. Chocolate and Hazelnut Gateaux with Raspberry Cream & Dark Chocolate Ganache (GF)

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

I was so excited by this challenge. I have often seen beautifully designed, striped or swirled, sponge desserts in bakery windows and dreamed of creating similar things myself, but I never knew how they were made. Well, now and I know and…I’ll let you in on a secret… it’s not difficult either!

Your simply pipe your design of choice onto a baking tray, place it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm up (so that the rest of the sponge mixture doesn’t ruin the design), cover with a joconde sponge, bake, turn it out and ta-da! Beautifully decorated sponge, ready for adding that wow factor to the outside of desserts, gateau’s and mousses etc. Magic!

Joconde sponge is a special flexible sponge which allows you to wrap it around cakes and desserts without it cracking or breaking. This is thanks to its use of very little flour and butter, with ground nuts and eggs making up the majority of the ingredients. This also means it’s fantastically easy to convert to being gluten free – hurrah!

I already knew I wanted to use my joconde sponge to create a chocolate and raspberry gateau to act as my sister’s birthday cake. I decided to use hazelnuts in place of the almonds as I think they taste delicious when paired with chocolate and raspberries. With this in mind I dyed some of my batter with cocoa powder and a little with pink food dye to tied in the chocolate and raspberry colours. I had great fun creating little swirly circles and dots with a piping bag and I love how the finished sponge turned out.

After baking I used the joconde to line a large ring mould which I layered with discs of gluten free chocolate cake, dark chocolate ganache, more cake, raspberry cream, another layer of cake and then a final layer of ganache! How wickedly indulgent! I then dusted it with some edible gold glitter to give it some birthday sparkle.

I didn’t let my sister see the design of the cake until it was time to remove the ring mould. Everyone loved seeing the swirly dotty design of the outer sponge. It really added some wow factor. Cutting into the cake revealed the truly indulgent layers of cake, dark chocolate ganache and raspberry cream. All in all it was a fabulous cake and so delicious that no one would ever know it was gluten free. I’ll definitely be making one again in the future, the decoration possibilities are endless!

Joconde Imprime (GF)

Ingredients
85g ground almonds (I used freshly ground hazelnuts)
75g icing sugar
25g Doves gluten free flour
3 large eggs
3 large egg whites
10g caster sugar
30g unsalted butter, melted

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C and line a large 13x18 inch swiss roll tin with silicone paper.
In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later.
Sift together the ground almonds (hazelnuts), icing sugar and flour. (This can be done into your dirty egg white bowl)
On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light.
Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to nut mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.
Fold in melted butter.
Take one or two scoops of batter and place into small bowls. Set the rest of the batter aside to use later. Colour or dye the small amounts of batter using cocoa powder or food dye so that it provides a contrasting colour to the original batter.
Here is where you can be creative. Fill piping bags with the coloured batter and pipe a design onto a baking tray that has been covered in silicone paper. Make lines, swirls, words, anything that takes your fancy.
Place the decorated tray in the freezer for 15 minutes to firm up.
Then, remove the tray from the freezer and quickly pour the Joconde batter over the design. Spread evenly to completely cover the pattern.
Bake at 200C until the joconde bounces back when slightly pressed, around 12 minutes.
Once baked, cover the surface with a sheet of greaseproof and a damp tea towel and leave until cool.
Once cool, turn out onto a flat surface and carefully remove the silicone paper. Your design should now show up against the pale base of the Joconde batter.
Trim the edges off the sponge and then cut into strips and use to line the inside rim of a large or small individual ring moulds, with the design facing outwards. Press the edges together so they will stay together once removed from the moulds. Fill the moulds as you wish and chill for an hour before unmoulding.
I chose to turn my dessert into a chocolate gateau for my sister’s birthday. I layered the inside with discs of chocolate cake layered with dark chocolate ganache and raspberry cream.

Chocolate and Hazelnut Gateaux with Raspberry Cream & Dark Chocolate Ganache (GF)

1 x Hazelnut Joconde (recipe above)
1 x 8inch chocolate cake (see below)
Dark chocolate ganache (see below)
Raspberry cream (see below)


Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

180g Doves white self raising flour
2 tsp gluten free baking powder
180g caster sugar
180g butter
3 eggs
30g cocoa powder
40g sour cream

Method
Preheat the oven to 170C and line two 8inch round cake tins with greaseproof paper.
Simply place all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk together until smooth and well combined.
Divide the batter between the two tins, making one tin have slightly more batter in than the other, about 40 to 60% ratio.
Bake for 22-25 minutes until risen and springy to the touch.
Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire wrack and leaving to cool.

Dark chocolate Ganache

200ml double cream
200g dark chocolate
20g butter

Method
Heat the cream gently in a small saucepan until it just comes to a simmer. Meanwhile, break the chocolate into small pieces and place into a bowl.
Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and leave to sit for 3 minutes without touching it. Then gently fold/mix the cream into the melting chocolate to create a thick glossy ganache.
Cut the butter into small cubes and stir into the ganache.
Use quickly.

Raspberry Cream

150g raspberries
20g icing sugar
100ml double cream

Method
Crush the raspberries with the sugar until broken down.
Lightly whip the double cream until it is just starting to form soft peaks.
Add the raspberries, juice and all, and stir to combine. Don’t worry f it looks a little soft as it thickens up in the fridge once assembled.
Use fairly quickly.

Assembling the Gateau

Place your ring mould, lined with the joncode sponge onto a serving plate.
Trim your chocolate sponge layers so that they fit snugly inside the ring mould. (I used the base of a 7inch tin as a guide).
Place the thin cake layer into the mould to form the base of the gateaux. Cut the thicker sponge layer in half, horizontally, to form two thinner layers. Set to one side.
Pour half the chocolate ganache over the base layer sponge and top with one of your cut layers of chocolate cake.
Spread over the raspberry cream and top with the final layer of chocolate cake. It should reach to the top of your ring mould now.
Spread the remaining half of the chocolate ganache over the top, completely covering the cake and top of the joncode sponge.
Decorate as your wish – I dusted the top with edible gold glitter. Refrigerate for an hour before running a hot knife around the top rim of the metal ring mould and removing, leaving the finished gateaux in place.