This chocolate chiffon cake is definitely designed for chocolate lovers. Not only that it’s covered with chocolate whipped cream, it’s top with homemade chocolate truffles, chocolate ganache, and chocolate bark garnish!
There are many components for this cake. You can take it as far as I did, or just simply make the chocolate chiffon cake with chocolate whipped cream!
Let’s get started!
We’ll start with the chocolate whipped cream because the cream base has to be prepared a day before.
Put 1/3 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips into a heat-proof bowl. Pour a little bit of cream over the chocolate chips. Just enough to coat them. Make sure it’s HEAVY WHIPPING CREAM.
Put this in the microwave for 40 seconds. Once it’s out, let it stands for a few seconds. Then using a spatula, stir them well to make sure all chocolate chips are melted.
Pour the remaining cream in to a pot and warm it over medium heat. Stir the cream every once in a while, using a wooden spoon or spatula.
When you start to see tiny bubbles foaming, just when it begins to boil, remove it from heat.
Pour it over the melted chocolate chips. Pour it a little bit at a time, while keep stirring the mixture.
After it’s mixed well, cover it with a piece of plastic wrap. Make sure the plastic wrap is touching the top of the mixture.
Put this in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. Now let’s make the cake. These are the ingredients:
First, mix the oil and flour.
First combining the oil and flour won’t develop gluten. You can stir it any way you want and you don’t have to sift the flour neither.
Now sift the cocoa powder in there and mix well.
The cocoa powder will absorb the moisture quickly that’s why I didn’t mix it with the flour earlier. If not it will be harder to stir.
Next add the milk and egg yolks. Stir until all well-combined.
Now let’s whip the egg whites. Add cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat on high speed.
Cream of tartar can stabilize the meringue. If you don’t have it, you can add a small teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar instead. You can also use a hand mixer for this, both methods will work just fine. When you see big bubbles forming, add a third of the sugar. Continue to beat on high speed.
When the foam becomes finer and silkier, you can add another third of the sugar. Continue to beat on high speed.
The foam will continue to get silkier, and you will start to see some texture lines/trails. At this point you can add the remaining sugar and beat on medium-high speed.
Continue beating until you see some stiff peaks. After lifting the whisk, the meringue is stable and firm, and the peak will not drip.
Scoop about one-third of the egg whites to the batter and fold it in gently. This is to lighten the batter initially and prepare it for the rest of the egg whites.
The motion is like first draw a circle around the edge, then draw a straight line in the middle.
Once it’s mixed well, change to a spatula and pour it into the egg whites.
Continue to fold gently until it’s all combined. Same motion: first draw a circle around the edge, then draw a straight line in the middle.
Repeat this movement until the batter is homogeneous. Don’t overdo it.
Transfer the batter to the pan immediately. Shake it, tap it a couple of times to get rid of the big bubbles, and draw a few circles with a toothpick to flatten the surface.
Place in the preheated oven and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 50 minutes. Personally, I prefer to bake it at 300°F (150°C) for 40 minutes, then increase the temperature to 320°F (160°C) for 5 minutes. This is after a few testings with my oven as oven temperature varies.
If I just bake it at 300°F (150°C) for 50 minutes, even though it’s perfectly baked, the top of the cake will be a bit sticky after it’s cooled. So if you have the same problem, you can do the same switch.
Once it’s out of the oven, tap it on the table once, then cool it upside down. It will take 2-3 (or longer) hours to cool completely.
After the cake is cool, remove it from the pan carefully, then slice it into 3 layers.
Let’s whip the chocolate whipped cream frosting. Take the chocolate mixture we prepared the day before out from the fridge.
Whip it with a wire whisk on high speed until it thickens.
You can also use a stand mixer.
This is good.
Apply a little bit of cream at the bottom to secure the cake to the cake board.
Apply a layer of chocolate whipped cream frosting.
Now add some chocolate balls for a different type of texture.
Repeat these steps for the second layer.
The top layer is usually the bottom of the cake. This is because it is the flattest part and will be easier to frost. Cover the entire cake with the whipped cream.
For this cake, I want it to have a “rustic” top edge. So, after I covered the entire cake with whipped cream, I’m going to smooth out the cream on the side and top once right now. Doesn’t have to be perfect.
Then add more cream around it and scrape it down again. When scraping down the side, it will push some of the cream to the top of the edge.
This time I’m not going to smooth out the top. And this is what I want to keep, this is what I mean about a “rustic” top edge.
Put this in the fridge to chill. Now I’m going to make some chocolate ganache. Combine ½ cup of chocolate chips and ¼ cup of heavy cream in a bowl.
Melt it in the microwave for 45 seconds.
Put this in the fridge to chill for a little bit, about 15-20 minutes.
I want it to thicken up slightly and cool off to around 85°F（29°C）.
Transfer this into a piping bag. Take the cake out from the fridge and pipe this on top of the cake.
You can just scoop this on the cake. I’m using a piping bag just because it’s easier to control. Use a spatula to smooth it out slightly, keeping the “texture line” left by the spatula.
Now put this back to the fridge again to chill for about 10 minutes.
Let’s finish this up! I’m going to put the truffles I made the day before on top of the cake. I’ll provide a link to that recipe in description below.
Next, add the chocolate bark pieces on the side of the cake. I’ll provide a link to that recipe in description below. Break the pieces into different heights so they don’t look too uniform.
And this is now completed!
Ingredients:
Cake – Egg Yolk Batter:
- 3 Egg yolks
- 40g Veg. oil
- 50g Milk
- 50g Cake flour
- 15g Cocoa powder
Cake – Meringue:
- 3 Egg whites
- 45g Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Cream of tartar or lemon juice
Chocolate Ganache:
- ½ cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¼ cup Heavy whipping cream
Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting:
- 1/3 cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1-1/3 cup Heavy whipping cream
Chocolate Truffle Recipe: Click Here
Chocolate Bark Garnish Recipe: Click Here
Chocolate Chiffon Cake Tutorial Video: