Chocolate Gateaux Recipes

RICH FRENCH CHOCOLATE GâTEAU RECIPE

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly butter a 9-inch springform pan and set aside.
• In a medium saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter over the lowest heat, do not rush this process, melting the chocolate too quickly will cause it to "shock" into a hard lump.
• Mix in the cocoa powder and espresso powders until smooth and set aside for a few minutes to cool.
• While the chocolate is cooling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and flour until they are completely combined and foamy.
• Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate until the color is uniform and pour the batter into the prepared pan.
• Place into the center of the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick pulls out moist crumbs when inserted near the center of the torte. If the pick is sticky, then cook for a little longer.
• Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife or inverted spatula along the edges of the gâteau and loosen the sides of the pan. Cool for 5 minutes and remove the sides of the pan. Invert the cake onto a cake platter and cool completely before serving decorated as you wish.

FUDGY CHOCOLATE & ORANGE GATEAU

Steps:

• Making the sponges: Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. You'll need to make 3 rectangular chocolate sponges, a pair of round chocolate sponges, and 3 rectangular orange sponges to assemble this cake, so get everything organised first. Take a look at our Guide and the additional tips, in the Tip box below.
• For every rectangular sponge, you'll need to line the base of a 21 x 31cm tin (see Guide in the Tips below and Related guides box, right) neatly with baking parchment and grease the sides with a little flavourless oil.
• Start with the chocolate sponges. Put the butter in a small saucepan and heat gently until melted. Whisk together the egg yolks, milk and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Stir the flour and cocoa into the melted butter to make a paste. Transfer this butter-flour mixture to a big mixing bowl and whisk in the egg mixture a little at a time - this takes elbow grease to get it smooth, but keep going!
• Put the egg whites in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until stiff. Add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is glossy and thick. Whisk a third of the meringue mixture into the chocolate mixture to loosen, then use a big metal spoon to gently fold the remaining meringue into the batter until just incorporated. Spread the batter evenly in the tin. Bake for 12 mins.
• Turn the cake out of the tin onto baking parchment very lightly dusted with icing sugar. Peel off the cake lining parchment and cover with a clean tea towel.
• Repeat steps 2 to 5 twice more. When the third rectangular sponge is baked, turn out as before but very loosely roll up the sponge like a Swiss roll, starting from one of the shortest sides, rolling up the tea towel inside.
• Make a final, fourth batch of the chocolate sponge recipe, but this time divide it between 2 x 20cm round, shallow sandwich tins. Bake for 10 mins, then turn out as instructed in step 5.
• Now make the orange sponges. Follow steps 3 to 6 again, but instead of milk, measure 75ml of the juice from the orange you've zested. If you don't have enough, make up the difference with milk. Whisk in the zest.
• Cool all the sponges.
• Making the frosting and icing: For the orange frosting, beat together the butter, icing sugar, orange zest and juice. Beat until just combined - the acidity of the orange may start to split the mixture if overbeaten. If it looks a little split though, don't worry - just stop mixing, it'll still taste lovely. Can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days, but will need bringing back to room temp to use.
• When you are about to start assembling, put all the chocolate icing ingredients in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Gently melt together, stirring occasionally, until smooth and shiny.
• Assembling the cake: Cut each rectangular sponge into 2 long strips 7cm wide - trimming the long edges off will give you a neater finish (see step A in the Guide). It's important to be really accurate, so use a ruler. Trim the short edges to neaten. When you prepare the rolled-up sponges, just gently unroll first - don't worry if they crack a bit.
• Spread a thin layer of orange frosting over every strip, right to the edges. Gently peel the strips away from their paper - they will have stuck a bit. Start with 1 chocolate and 1 orange strip that was rolled up to cool, and lay one on top of the other - but don't line up the ends. Sit the second sponge about an inch down from one of the ends of the bottom sponge (it doesn't matter which is chocolate and which is orange). Start to roll up from this end - the bottom sponge should roll up and over neatly on top of the second, so the middle of the roll is nice and tight (see step A in the Guide).
• Keep adding extra sponges and rolling up to make a giant Swiss roll but as you roll, the ends of each different-coloured layer won't finish together (and this difference increases as the roll gets bigger). So you'll need to add chocolate and orange sponges individually from now on, rather than sandwiching together first, then adding to the rolled cake. Where each strip ends, you'll stick on a matching sponge - so a chocolate strip always continues with another chocolate, and the same with orange (see steps C & D in the Guide). This is the fiddly bit, as you'll find you'll need to partly stick on 1 coloured strip, then snuggle in the other coloured strip partway through. (This sounds more complicated than it is. When you start to do it, this will all make sense.) If you have a spare pair of hands in the house, this is the time to use them.
• It's up to you whether you find it easier to work as a roll (see step E in the Guide), or to turn the roll on one of its flat ends to work with (see step F in the Guide). I started rolling, and just as it got towards the ends and was getting quite heavy and bulky, I flipped it to continue. Have the round sponges to hand as you near the end, to check whether you've reached a roll of 20cm diameter plus. As soon as you do, stop - you may have 1 strip of 1 colour left over.
• Sit the rolled cake on one of its flat ends if you haven't already. Spread a good layer of orange frosting over the top, then press on 1 of the round chocolate sponges (see step G in the Guide) - line it up to the middle of the roll, rather than one of the edges of the roll. This means you'll have to take a sharp knife and trim the roll all around, until it is perfectly flush with the round sponge top. Flip the cake upside down onto your serving plate. Spread some more orange frosting over the new top, and add the second round sponge.
• Gradually spoon on, and spread over, the chocolate icing with a big palette knife. If should still be runny enough to gently run down the sides, giving you a shiny finish (see step H in the Guide).

BLACK FOREST GATEAU

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base of 3 x 20cm cake tins. Boil the kettle. Put the butter and 75g chocolate broken into chunks in a small pan and gently heat, stirring, until completely melted.
• Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda with a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk the eggs and buttermilk or yogurt together. Scrape the melted chocolate mixture and egg mixture into the dry ingredients, add 100ml boiling water and whizz briefly with an electric whisk until the cake batter is lump free.
• Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 25 mins, swapping the tins round after 20 mins if they're on different shelves. To test they're done, push in a skewer and check that it comes out clean.
• Prick the cakes a few times with a skewer. Mix together the 2 tbsp reserved cherry juice and the kirsch (or more juice) and drizzle over the cakes. Cool the cakes.
• Mix together the remaining drained cherries and jam. Tip 200ml of the cream into a small pan and heat until just below simmering point. Chop the remaining chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl, pour over the hot cream and stir until melted. Set aside until spreadable.
• When the cakes are cool whisk the remaining cream and the icing sugar together until softly whipped. Spread over two of the cakes, then spoon over the jammy cherries. Stack the cakes together. Spread the chocolate cream over the third cake and sit on top of the other cakes. Pile the fresh cherries in and around the cake and serve

CHOCOLATE GATEAUX

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line fourteen 1/2-cup muffin cups with foil baking cups and lightly spray foil with cooking spray.
• Make cakes:
• Chop chocolate. In a double boiler or in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat. In a deep narrow bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thick, pale, and doubled in volume (10 to 15 minutes with a hand-held mixer and about 5 minutes with a standing electric mixer). Fold eggs into chocolate gently but thoroughly. In another bowl with cleaned beaters beat cream until it forms soft peaks and beat in Amaretto until just combined. Fold cream mixture into chocolate mixture until just combined.
• Fill each baking cup with batter. Put muffin cups in 2 large baking pans and add enough hot water to pans to reach halfway up sides of muffin cups. Bake cakes in upper and lower thirds of oven 15 minutes, or until they are risen and just firm (do not overbake). Remove pans from oven and cool cakes in muffin cups in water baths. Remove muffin cups from baths. Chill cakes in muffin cups 30 minutes and freeze, covered, 1 hour.
• Make topping while freezing cakes:
• Chop chocolate. In a small saucepan bring cream to a boil. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and ganache is smooth.
• Set a large rack over a shallow baking pan. Carefully remove cakes from muffin cups and peel foil from frozen cakes, arranging cakes upside down on rack. Spoon ganache over cakes, letting excess drip down sides. If necessary, pour excess ganache in baking pan back into saucepan and continue to spoon it over cakes. Chill cakes, uncovered, until firm.
• Serve cakes with ice cream and/or coulis.