The Evolution of Wedding Cake

Anyone who says evolution is 'just a theory' clearly hasn't ever been in my kitchen. Or, you know, spent any time with a chimpanzee. After wedding cake attempt #1 I knew I was on the right track, but I didn't think I was quite there yet. SO I decided to make a new cake -- a chocolate cake modeled after Smitten Kitchen's double chocolate layer cake. I liked the sound of her raspberry glaze (at the bottom of that page), and, while I was there, Smitten Kitchen's swiss buttercream seemed like a great idea too. And then I planned to pit the two cakes against each other in an ultimate battle. A cake tasting in which only the most delicious of cake parts would survive to create the next generation of ultimate wedding cake.

This was, in theory, a genius idea. But I only had a couple of hours before my friends were coming for cake tasting in which to actually enact it. So I had to make the cake quickly. Very quickly. No problem though. I can bake a cake with my eyes closed, right?

Um. Then this happened.

Oops. Fortunately I had enough cake remaining in the cake pans that I could piece together a passable cake for the tasting.

Frosting is an amazing concealer of disaster.

So we ate cake. We ate cake and we skyped in Dennis, the bride. And we picked the elements we liked -- the Smitten Kitchen chocolate cake was moist and deeply chocolatey whereas the first cake was dryer and crumbly. The flavor of the raspberry glaze was better, but the fluffy texture of the mousse was preferred. And the frostings were both out. The first buttercream wasn't very delicious (it basically tasted of powdered sugar) but it was easy to work with, and the second Swiss buttercream was good, but not terribly conducive to decorations.

SO, I present to you the ultimate cake -- the smitten kitchen chocolate cake, the glaze, slightly modified and folded into whipped cream to create a mousse, and cream cheese frosting. Both delicious and easy to work with.

The following week, when this cake was presented for tasting it was the clear winner. In fact, I mailed bride Dennis samples (in jars!) of each cake and she agreed -- cake #3 is the winner.

So here it is -- only the best cake elements survived to create THE cake.

This recipe can also be used to just make a layer cake if, say, you want to make a birthday cake or a just-because-there-should-be-cake cake.

The Ultimate Wedding Cake

Chocolate Cake:
3 oz semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 c hot coffee
3 c sugar
2 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t baking soda
3/4 t baking powder
1 1/4 t salt
3 large eggs
3/4 c vegetable oil
1 1/2 c buttermilk
3/4 t vanilla

Raspberry Mousse:
20 oz frozen raspberries
1/2 c sugar
2 T cornstarch
1 pint of whipping cream, whipped 

Cream Cheese Frosting (enough for 3 layers plus decorating):
3 - 8 oz cream cheese, softened
3 sticks butter, softened
9 c confectioner's sugar, sifted
1 T vanilla

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and grease pans.

Chop the chocolate in a food processor. Then add the chocolate to the coffee, stirring occasionally until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Sift together the dry ingredients -- sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In the bowl of a standing mixer beat together eggs until they are thickened and lemony colored. Add oil, buttermilk, vanilla and coffee/chocolate mixture.

Add dry ingredients and beat on medium speed until just combined. Not too much!

Divide the batter between the pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. About 45 minutes for a 6" pan up to about an hour for the 10" pan.

Cool the layers for 10 minutes on a wire rack, then invert onto cooling racks.

For the mousse, puree the raspberries in a food processor (or blender if your food processor still has chocolate in it).

Push the puree through a strainer with the back of a spoon or your hands. It's gross, but way more efficient. This will remove the seeds so you have a smooth mousse. Sorry there are no pictures, my hands were covered in raspberries!

Combine the puree, sugar and cornstarch in a small pot and heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils. It should thicken up quickly upon boiling. Let it thicken up a bit and then let it cool.

Once your raspberry mixture has cooled fold it into the whipped cream to make a delicious raspberry cream.

Make the cream cheese frosting. Put the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a standing mixture and beat until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and vanilla. Beat on low to combine.

Now go see my instructions on the other wedding cake page about cake assembly. I'm too lazy to write it twice :) But I'll include a million pictures below so you can see what the process looked like.

Step 1: Torte your cakes (fancy for 'cut them in half') and add your mousse to the middle.

Step 2: Put the other half of your cake back on top.

Step 3: Repeat with all your layers

Step 4: Use an offset spatula or a butter knife to remove the excess mousse.

Step 5: Plop on a little cream cheese frosting.

Step 6: Make a crumb coat -- spread the frosting and don't worry about the looks quite yet.

Step 7: Freeze your cakes for a little bit to set the crumb coat, then remove and cover in another layer or two of frosting.

Step 7 Continued.

Step 8: Stack your cakes! Don't worry that they aren't pretty. They will be later.

Step 9: Work on your frosting. Add more where you need it, remove excess where it's too much.

Step 10: Start decorating!

Step 10 Continued.

Step 10 Some more!

I added a ribbon around the edges. It made things easy and looked pretty.