Chocolate Cake With Parisian Cream

This chocolate cake recipe is part of my family heritage. During my childhood this cake was the classic birthday cake with a rich Parisian cream filling this cake is definitely for chocoholics. You can use these basic recipes of the sponge and the cream for plenty of desserts.

This time I've prepared this cake for a birthday. A bit earlier than the actual date but on workdays, I would not be able to manage what I've planned for this occasion so it will be a real surprise I guess!

During our hiking holiday in Wales, I've got a message from Zsófi, a Hungarian expat, living in London. She started her own business while setting up her own online shop, called Delicious Choice (https://www.deliciouschoice.uk), and invited me to do some collaboration.

She is selling cake decoration products of a Hungarian manufacturer, here in the UK, and contacted me in the right time because I was able to try some of their fondants and decoration items on the 'Beard' edition (you will see soon).

Now let's see how to make the sponge and the cream filling.

Ingredients

Normal sponge

4 eggs
6 tbsp sugar
7 tbsp flour, sifted
2 tbsp water
1 tsp baking powder

Chocolate sponge

4 eggs
6 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp flour, sifted
3 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
2 tbsp water
1 tsp baking powder

Parisian cream

200 ml single cream
200 g sugar
250 g unsalted butter
100 g cocoa powder, sifted

Instructions

Sponge

Separate the eggs, and mix the yolks with the sugar by a hand mixer till it will be pale in colour, then mix it with the water.
Whip the egg whites till you get a stable foam.
Incorporate the flour (or the flour plus cocoa if you are baking the chocolate sponge) and the baking powder into the egg yolk mixture.
Fold the egg white foam gently into the mixture.
Pour the batter into a lined medium size (diameter: 18-20 cm) cake tin.
Bake the sponge at 180 °C till it will pass the toothpick test.
Let the crust chill till room temperature before filling.

Parisian cream filling

Boil the cream and the sugar at a high temperature for 7 minutes.
Add the butter and boil it at a high temperature for 5 minutes.
Take off the pot from the stove and incorporate the cocoa powder into the hot, but not boiling mixture till you get a smooth, silky texture.
When it's at room temperature, put it in the fridge till it will be solid like butter. It takes a while, so don't forget it when you schedule the preparation.
When the filling has a firm, butter texture whip it till you get a spreadable, smooth chocolate cream.
Now your cream filling is ready to fill in between the crust layers and/or cover the cake with it.

Chocolate Cake With Parisian Cream - Photo by © Reka Csulak

Chocolate Cake With Parisian Cream Halloween Edition With Meringue Ghosts - Photo by © Reka Csulak

For the 'Beard' edition, I've built up a cake according to the recipe below (with a triple chocolate sponge and double filling quantities), and let the cake chill in the fridge overnight. On the following day, I covered the firm Parisian cream with piping gel, rolled the fondants, and covered the cake with them while gently removed the air bubbles from under the fondant. I've created the beard from stiff consistency buttercream and used a Wilton grass tip no. 233. I've painted the text with edible food colouring directly on the fondant. I think I got the result I imagined, so I hope it will be a great Birthday Cake!