妈妈我爱你 ~ 皇庭巧克力蛋糕 Imperial Chocolate Cake

Lucius最近很爱哼唱daddy I love you。。。 mummy I love you。。。虽然不确定他是否了解love的意思，但是听着听着都听到我心坎里去了。

我已经不记得最后一次跟妈妈说我爱是在什么时候了，应该是很小很小的时候，但记得小时候母亲节我总会做些小卡片什么的送给妈妈。

你最后一次跟妈妈说我爱你又是什么时候呢？

母亲节来临前让D给我买了芒果想做mango shortcake，但还是问了妈妈意见。

我：“麻，母亲节你想吃芒果蛋糕还是巧克力蛋糕？”
妈妈：“芒果蛋糕，巧克力蛋糕都可以，巧克力蛋糕也可以啦。”

。。。。。所以，我做了巧克力蛋糕。明白妈妈答案里的绝妙吗？妈妈很少直接表达自己的喜好，几乎所有东西都是顺从老公孩子的意见。

选了一个我bookmark了很久的巧克力蛋糕食谱。这蛋糕有一个很好听的名字，叫做皇庭巧克力蛋糕，其实就是chocolate fudge cake。Chocolate fudge部分的做法我还是第一次尝试这么做，是用牛奶，蛋黄粉加可可粉煮成的，做法非常简单，涂抹也很容易，唯独可可的味道不够浓，即使我是用Valrhona。

蛋糕整体吃起来还是挺不错的，chocolate fudge的部分和巧克力海绵蛋糕融为一体。这个蛋糕吃起来不会让你有太多的罪恶感，爸妈不大喜欢太chocolaty的蛋糕（其实我也是），所以这个蛋糕还蛮合我们家的口味的，或许chocolate fudge的部分下次我可以加多点可可粉。

This is quite a unique chocolate fudge cake to me as the chocolate fudge is cooked using mainly milk, custard powder and cocoa powder. It is not very chocolaty but blend in well with the chocolate sponge cake. It is creamy and kind of melt-in-the-mouth. You can have second or third serving of this cake without feeling guilty. Skip this if you want something very chocolaty.

Imperial Chocolate Cake

Prepare one 23cm or 20cm round chocolate sponge.

You can use any chocolate sponge cake recipe. I didn’t follow the sponge cake recipe from the same book. For 23cm round cake just use 5 eggs and increase the amount of the rest of ingredients proportionately.

Chocolate Sponge Cake

Ingredients: (make one 20cm round cake)
4 large eggs (60g each without shell)
90g castor sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract (optional)
95g plain flour/cake flour } sifted together twice
15g cocoa powder (I use Valrhona) }
70g melted butter, keep warm

Method:
1) Using an electronic mixer, whip eggs and sugar until light and fluffy (ribbon stage). Add vanilla extract.
2) Fold in flour/cocoa powder mixture with a hand whisk till well blended (no trace of flour).
3) Add warm melted butter and mix well.
4) Pour batter into a greased and lined 8” round pan. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 25 mins (I lowered to 170C after 10 mins). Remove it from mould and cool on wire rack when done.

Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients:
(A)
45g custard powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder (I use Valrhona)
165g milk
(B)
300g milk
100g sugar (I use 75g and find it still a bit too sweet)
½ tsp instant coffee powder
A pinch of salt
(C)
10g butter

Method:
1) Sift custard powder and cocoa powder in (A) into a saucepan, then mix well with milk in (A).
2) Cook (B) over medium heat and bring to a boil. Pour it slowly into (A) from step 1, stir with a hand whisk until well blended. Cook the mixture over medium low heat, stir from time to time until it thickens.
3) Remove from heat, add (C), mix well.

Assembly

1) Cut sponge cake into 3 layers (original recipe cut into 4 layers but I think the chocolate fudge may not be sufficient). Sandwich the cake layers with chocolate fudge and level it. Frost the whole cake with remaining chocolate fudge.
2) Coat the side with chocolate rice (optional) and decorate as desired. Set aside to cool and chill. Take out the cake 3-5 mins from the fridge before serving.

Kitchen note and tips:
1) The chocolate fudge will be thickened (which make it difficult to spread) once it cools down. Give it a quick stir each time before spreading help to make it become runny again and hence easier to spread.
2) The chocolate fudge will kind of set after frosting, so need to work on it fast. Do not attempt to smoothen it after it is set, this won’t help. Instead, the surface will become more uneven.
3) The sponge cake was made on 10th May, I tasted the cake this morning, and it was still soft and moist.

(Chocolate fudge recipe adapted from Alex Goh’s Baking Code, redrafted by Angel of Cook.Bake.Love)