20-layer chocolate cake

or more?

What an ambitious one. I know the thought of assembling a 20 layer cake seems scary (it is) but completely doable with a high success rate if you prepare correctly ;)

I will get straight into the recipe- but before, read through these important notes I learned (the hard way) during my recipe trials.

• Slice using a cake leveler. I don't recommend eyeballing because you have to do this 5 times and for a 20 layers cake especially, the charm is in those tall, neat, and even layers.. If you don't want to buy one, I’ve tried finding something 1 cm tall (preferably 1-2 mm less than 1 cm) and taping it on your knife. It works!!

• I prefer to make everything the night before & only assemble the next day. Chill the cake & ganache so both have time to firm up before slicing & assembling.

• When slicing the final product, chilled (but not rock hard) cake is best! Trace the top AND sides of your cake to slice evenly and not make this stupid mistake like i did.

  

  very very wonky slice. did not trace the sides. cake too cold. almost frozen. experimenting with a 1:0.5 chocolate to cream ganache ratio resulting in a too hard ganache.

• Due to the thin batter, I prefer a regular pan to springform pan to avoid leaking.

• If you don’t have 5 pans, have at least 3 so you can bake twice, but immediately remove and reuse the pans as soon as it cools down as the cake batter is best if baked immediately. Let the batter wait for an hour max at room temperature or let it sit in the fridge.

CAKE INGREDIENTS

Makes 5 16cm cake

Dry Ingredients

367 g all purpose flour

330 g granulated sugar

330 g light brown sugar

125 g cocoa powder

15 g baking soda

16 g table salt

Wet Ingredients (all measured in grams)

258 g neutral oil (i use canola)

188 g unsalted butter, melted

165 g eggs

13 g vanilla extract

382 g buttermilk (or substitute is fine- 371 g milk + 11 g vinegar)

195g boiling hot coffee (65 g espresso + 130 g hot water OR 4 g instant coffee + 191 g hot water)

GANACHE INGREDIENTS

1.050 g milk chocolate chips (i used 33% or 37%)

700 g heavy cream

If need more, make extra as needed with the same ratio of 1.5:1 chocolate to cream.

CAKE DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 175 C or 160 C (fan/convection)

2. Mix all dry ingredients until well incorporated.

3. Pour in oil & melted butter, mix well until the very well incorporated. Scrape the bottom and sides with a spatula.

4. Pour in eggs and vanilla extract, mix well.

5. Gradually pour in buttermilk while whisking until well incorporated.

6. Gradually pour in hot coffee while whisking until well incorporated.

7. Line the bottom of 5 16 cm pans with parchment paper. Grease & flour the sides.

8. Divide the batter evenly into the 5 pans.

9. Bake for 30-35 min or 25-30 min (fan/convection). Insert a toothpick and when it comes out dry, it’s done!

GANACHE DIRECTIONS

1. Place milk chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl.

2. Heat heavy cream over medium heat until just simmering. Watch closely, don’t let it boil and split.

3. As soon as it simmers, pour it ALL over the chocolate chips.

4. Let it sit for 5 minutes. You can also wrap the bowl or put a lid on it.

5. With a spatula, slowly stir until all the chocolate have melted and everything is well emulsified.

ASSEMBLING

1. Chill your cake (wrapped or in a completely covered container) and ganache for a couple hours up to overnight. If the ganache is too hard, let it sit out for a bit until spreadable.

2. Using a 1 cm cake leveler, slice 2 layers from each pan. It won’t be an even slice-in-half, as each cake will be over 2 cm tall including the dome. I made sure to leave space to accommodate a cleaner and flatter slice.

3. Put a little ganache on your cake board to glue the bottom cake.

4. For the next layer, add 100gr of ganache. Spread evenly with an offset spatula.

5. Repeat until you reach 10 layers of cake and 10 layers of ganache.

6. Crumb coat the sides. Chill as needed, frost again until you get a smooth cake.

   

SLICING

1. After frosting, chill the cake for a while before slicing. An hour is good enough as the ganache sets quick.

2. Trace the top of the cake. 8-10 slices is ideal to me.

3. Trace straight lines along the sides for each slice.

4. Slice!

   

   terrible drawing i know. trace it like this!!

   Good luck! You need it, we all do….