And now I am a fan of Swiss Meringue Butter Cream. Oh my, it is delicious.
I wanted to make a cake for my friend's daughter who was turning 17. I wanted the cake to be special so what do I do? I try something new. Now, I have known B for 2 years but I really didn't know her tastes. She loves chocolate, like her dad. However, she doesn't like the flourless choc cake...too dense. So, I quizzed her a bit and discovered she loves chocolate mocha. So, I went searching for a recipe for a chocolate mocha cake. I found one; something completely new. Link here:
http://livforcake.com/2015/08/mocha-chocolate-cake.htmlI made it...and it didn't turn out. I thought that the cake itself was boring and dry (I over cooked it...got distracted, but also the recipe called for far too long of a cooking time). I made the butter cream (and had never done a swiss meringue butter cream). I thought I had overbeat it, but in reality I underbeat it. I got pissy (and he was 'helping me...which actually doesn't help because I don't like help in the kitchen). So, I looked him in the eye, took the cake and scraped off the butter cream, and threw it in the mixer and beat away as I had nothing to lose. I tossed the cake itself in the garbage saying "Do not say a word". The frosting got denser so I put it in the refrigerator, poured a beer and we went and watched a movie.
The next morning, I got up early as we were celebrating the birthday at 1:30. I searched on Swiss Meringue Butter Cream frosting and figured out what I had done wrong...apparently, it is a common mistake. I then pulled out a new tried and true sour cream chocolate cake recipe and made it. It has a bit of coffee flavor in the icing, which was basically, dark chocolate whipped with sour cream and a bit of sugar. It was rich and not too sweet. The cake turned out well and the layers were fairly thin. So, I took the swiss meringue which was heavily coffee choc flavored and dense, but light and used it as a third layer in between the cake layers. Then, I put a thin layer on top and popped it in the refrigerator. Once hardened again, I frosted the entire cake with the choc sour cream frosting.
OMG, the cake was to die for. It was a complete success. The birthday party was wonderful. It all worked out.
Whew!
So, I recommend the Swiss Meringue Butter Cream frosting above, whip it until it is dense and packable and combine it with your own chocolate cake (not a box mix as those are too light and airy).
As an aside, my friend told me later "you know, it is not the end of the world that the cake didn't work out". I looked at him and said "It's a VERY good thing you didn't say that to me last week" (when I was making it) It was the very first cake I had made for B and I wanted it to be special.
Plus her mother can't cook...and for her brother's birthday, had made the same cake I had made, pumpkin cheesecake (which rocked). Bwahahaha!
