This pull-out-all-the-stops cake for special occasions may be prepared in steps in advance and glazes on the day it is to be served.
Ingredients
For génoise
For syrup
For ganache
For glaze
Make génoise:
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter an 9-inch round cake pan (about 2 inches deep) and line bottom with a round of parchment paper or foil.
Step 2
In a small bowl whisk together cocoa powder, flour, cornstarch, and baking soda.
Step 3
In a metal bowl whisk together whole eggs, yolk, sugar, and salt until combined. Set mixture over a saucepan of simmering water and continue to whisk until lukewarm. Remove bowl from heat and with an electric mixer beat mixture at high speed until it has cooled and doubled in volume.
Step 4
Sift one third cocoa mixture over egg mixture and fold in. Sift and fold in remaining cocoa mixture, half at a time, in same manner. Pour batter into pan and smooth top. Bake génoise in middle of oven for 30 minutes, or until it is firm to the touch and pulls away slightly from side of pan. Invert génoise onto a rack and immediately invert onto another rack to cool right side up. Génoise may be wrapped in plastic wrap and chilled 1 week or frozen 1 month. Thaw génoise before assembling cake.
Make syrup:
Step 5
In a small saucepan bring water and sugar to a boil over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved. Cool syrup and stir in liqueur. Syrup may be made 1 week ahead and chilled, covered.
Make ganache:
Step 6
In a saucepan bring cream, butter, and corn syrup to a boil over moderate heat and remove pan from heat. Add chocolate, swirling pan to submerge chocolate in hot mixture, and let stand 3 minutes. Whisk ganache until smooth and transfer to a bowl. Chill ganache, covered, at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.
Assemble cake:
Step 7
Let ganache stand at room temperature until slightly softened and pliable but still cool. With a whisk or electric mixer beat ganache just until light and fluffy.
Step 8
Remove parchment paper from génoise and with a long serrated knife cut cake horizontally into 3 rounds.
Step 9
Invert top layer of génoise onto a springform pan base or a 9-inch cardboard round and brush with one third syrup. Spread layer with half of jam and spread one third ganache over jam. Top ganache with middle layer of génoise and repeat layering of syrup, jam, and ganache. Top with third layer of génoise, smooth-side up, and brush with remaining syrup. Spread top and side of cake with remaining ganache. Chill cake until ganache is set, about 30 minutes. Cake may be assembled ahead, wrapped in plastic wrap, and chilled 5 days or frozen 1 month. Thaw cake before proceeding.
Make glaze:
Step 10
In a saucepan bring cream to a boil and remove pan from heat. Add chocolate, swirling pan to submerge chocolate in hot cream, and let stand 2 minutes. Whisk glaze until smooth and pour through a sieve set over a bowl. Cool glaze to room temperature.
Step 11
With cake on a rack set over a pan (to catch drips) pour glaze through sieve onto center of cake. Quickly spread glaze evenly over top and sides of cake with a long, narrow, metal spatula. Let cake stand until glaze is set, about 5 minutes.
Step 12
Garnish cake with raspberries and keep at cool room temperature until ready to serve.
Leave a Review
Reviews (42)
Back to Top不要使用这个配方的蛋糕。海绵蛋糕will never raise with these ingredients. It is too thick. It will make one layer top, unless you want a ganache tart. It is not spongy at all. I prefer a simple ganache with only chocolate and cream. Butter and syrup are not really needed, and make the ganache harder to work with. And do not use the proportions of this recipe, it is too much! One cup of cream and 8 oz of frosting will give you enough ganache to glaze the cake. Same with the topping, make half. Try a double frosting: one layer of ganache, and one layer of heavy whipped cream before the topping. In summary, the syrup proportions are OK.
susanameow
12/29/2014
I always make things harder than they should be. I made this cake for my Daughters 40th birthday. There were to be 20 some people at the party and I didn't think a 10" cake was big enough. I went to the cake accessory store and bought a 12"x2" round cake pan. I looked on the internet for a way to convert the amounts in this recipe to a 12" pan. Couldn't find any conversion charts that even recognized a 12" pan. So I just doubled it. It turns out that was perfect the Genoise puffed right up in instead of 30 minutes it took 35 minutes. It was so pretty. I did "beat the crap" out of the eggs as suggested. The ganache, the next day, when I took it out of the fridge was way too hard so I put it in a double boiler and softened it a bit. The cake cut easily into three layers and the finished cake is about 4 1/2 inches high. It looked so good. The assembly went smoothly, I had doubled the ganache, raspberry, chambord syrup and glaze as well. No problems with the syrup making the cake soggy. Covered the top with fresh rasberries. Perfect, I will make this again. One thing that really helped me was the rotating cake stand and the cardboard cake rounds.
DGFALL
Reston VA
8/27/2011
This cake is so rewarding! But time consuming. This will be the second time I make this cake for my husband's b-day and I have decided to make it in steps over a few days. The cake does taste better if it has time to rest after assembly. A solid recipe, and I had no problems. Just YUM! for serious chocolate lovers.
jetsetchef
Oceanside, CA
2/21/2010
I made this one for Mother's day and wasn't all that impressed for the amount of work I put it UNTIL the next day. I've never really gotten the whole, "it's better the next day" but this one is amazing. I had sent some home with my Mom and she thought the same thing. I'll definitely make it again but a day or so ahead of time. Worth the effort!
SoccrBarbi
San Francisco to Sydney
4/6/2009
这个蛋糕很好,然而,有一些issues with it that other people may not have encountered or may know how to fix. I had no problem getting the genoise to rise sufficiently since I did follow people's advice about beating the eggs for a long time. However, I would definitely use a cake pan that is 2 inches deep next time; the one I used this time was 1 1/2 inches deep and the genoise went a bit over on the rim. I think with a deeper pan the genoise would have risen more, which means more substantial layers of genoise in the final cake, which is very important as the ganache part of this cake is quite rich and intense and you don't want it overtaking the whole thing. Somebody told me that if you flour the pan on top of buttering it too, it will give the cake something to grab onto and thus, it will rise more. Of course,you can always use less ganache like some people suggested to get a more even ganache-genoise flavor. Secondly, I would put less syrup on the layer that will be on the bottom of the cake. I am saying that because the bottom layer of my cake nearly disappeared and I assume that happened because of the weight of all the stuff on top of it that pushed it to absorb more of the syrup. Thirdly, I would not chill the ganache as much as it says to do here. I don't know why you're supposed to chill it and then leave it at room temp before using it. In my case as well, the fridge was too cold and I think it froze the ganache: the butter had separated from it and I had to put it in a double boiler and whisk it again...it worked but I am not sure it was the best thing for it. Lastly, the genoise cake was too eggy...if anyone knows a way to make it less so and still keep it risable, please let me know.
elsalisa
Chicago, IL
10/7/2008
I have a warm spot in my heart for this recipe. My daughter (then 13) saw it in Gourmet in 1997 and insisted I make it for her birthday. I have been making it every year since. It is a time consuming labor of love and I have had some of the problems others describe but if you follow the recipe exactly it is quite beautiful and rich.
Anonymous
Hermsoa Beach CA
3/20/2008
I thought it was just ok for the amount of work. For the genoise, definitely beat the crap out of it in a mixer until it's almost white and as fluffy as possible. It also becomes the consistency of a sponge cake, but the fragileness of a souffle. First time I tried it and opened the oven to check on it by poking w/ a toothpick, it totally collapsed (picture a crater w/ the sides 3" high but the middle 1/2" high). The air bubbles are what makes it somewhat high enough. I then followed the advice of one of the reviewers and just left it in the oven for an hour to cool and that worked. I should have kept the crater and used it for a layer because the 2nd attempt still cratered by 1/2" so the bottom wasn't even. The cake itself is fairly dry except for the very bottom of it. I'd recommend doubling the syrup to moisten it. The cake seems to act like the lady fingers in tiramisu, so you're trying to soak it w/ the syrup. The ganache on wax paper trick mostly worked, but if you chill it too long, it becomes fragile instead of flexible; the ganache will also be too crumbly if you eat the cake chilled. The glaze makes the cake look better but probably isn't needed. If you're going to spend this much time working on a cake, I'd suggest the "My Favorite Birthday Cake" recipe instead. It tastes better IMHO and looks even better...
kenyee
Boston, MA
2/26/2007
Good, not great. A lot of work even though it can be spread over a few days. Problems: 1 )The cake was really not tall enough or dense enough to be cut into 3 layers ... 2) By chilling the ganache it made it impossible to spread... even bringing it back to room temp was not enough.. I had to rewarm it over simmering water in order to make it loose enough to spread.
danact
CT
2/15/2007
The guests at my party couldn't believe I baked this at home. It was very beautiful and delicious! I followed the recipe exactly. I made the ganache and syrup two days before and assembled the cake without the glaze one day before. It was all very easy. Next time I will distribute the ganache more evenly so the top of the cake doesn't end up with such a thick layer of chocolate. This is a perfect cake for people who love chocolate and raspberry!
Anonymous
Santa Clara, CA
10/16/2006
This is a lovely recipe. Yes, it's time consuming, but for a special occasion it's worth it. And it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Be sure and use an electric mixer (I used a hand-held one) to FULLY beat the heated eggs and sugar. I actually more than doubled mine, being sure to beat the mixture until it was completely cool. This, I think, made for a high cake, thick enough to easily be torted into three layers. I didn't use all the syrup for my cake; it would've been too much, too soggy. With this cake there is as much ganache as there is actual cake, so be forewarned: it is RICH. It's not a very tall cake -- really, it's a torte, and mine was about 2-1/2" to 3" tall. I will definitely add this one to my make-often list. I've never seen a prettier cake anywhere.
patressaks
Luray, Virginia
4/26/2006
This cake is decadent and worth my efforts from the reactions I got from guests! Doing all steps except assembly ahead of time made this low stress (Cake spent three days in the fridge and wasn't stale). I had to make the genoise twice because I didn't let the egg mixture double--the baked cake was flat and rubbery. My second attempt (lots more whisking) was perfect.
Anonymous
Morristown, NJ
7/21/2005
Very rich and chocolately...exactly what I was looking for. Not a difficult recipe to make, but it does take time. Take advantage of the make-ahead steps. I used a mixer to whisk the ganache and it worked better than doing it by hand. Give the ganache plenty of time to return to room temperature. A different review referenced spreading the ganache on wax paper first, and then transferring to the cake...very good idea, and saved some frustration.
Sarah
Sun Prairie, WI
6/6/2005
I made this for a picnic my boss had, and it was a great hit! Instead of the Chambord, I used Bacardi Razz raspberry flavored rum. It was fantastic. I found the genoise to be a bit dry, but I just made sure I used plenty of the syrup. I can't wait to make it again.
Anonymous
chicago
7/28/2004
Well, it is time consuming. But......the rewards are priceless. Rave reviews from my family. I made this for Mother's Day and Mom is still talking about it. Very rich, very heavy, very good. I had to make make two genoises because the first one was a little thin for needing to cut into three layers. I didn't have Chambord liquer so I used Blackberry Brandy. It worked well I thought. Otherwise, I followed recipe to a tee until I was placing glaze on. I left assembled cake very cool and it helped the glaze stick on faster instead of dripping off so much.
Anonymous
Ryan from Iowa
6/17/2004
I made this cake when it first came out for my first Valentine's Day with the man who became my husband. We used the recipe as his groom's cake and somehow it got lost in the shuffle. I am so happy to find it again! Time-consuming but well worth it!
Anonymous
Tallahassee, FL
2/26/2004
