Chocolate sponge:
Grease 3, 6" cake pans. Heat the oven to 350F.
In a mixing bowl put:
2C all purpose flour
2t baking powder
2t baking soda
1t salt
Sift these ingredients.
In a saucepan put:
3/4C sugar
3/4C dark brown sugar
and 2C water. Heat till the sugar has been dissolved, then pour this in to a large mixing bowl. In this bowl add:
4oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2oz soft butter, chopped
1/4C oil
Stir well, then mix in 2 eggs, mix well and add the dry until combined.
Fill 2 of the pans 3/4 full, the 3rd one fill the rest, should be a little under half full.
Bake for about 25 minutes. Test with a wooden skewer, they are done when it comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then turn the cake pans upside-down on to a cooling rack. Cool thoroughly.
Cut the 2 full cakes in to 2, and leave the half one as is, now you should have 5 cake layers the same thickness. Separate them with parchment paper so they don't stick together.
Chocolate buttercream:
In a saucepan pour:
2 2/3C heavy cream,
1C sugar
1C dark brown sugar
Let this heat up, just under boiling, but all the sugar should be dissolved, and warm enough to melt the chocolate.
As this heats, in a large bowl put:
12oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped with
3t vanilla extract
2T Kahlua and
1t salt. Pour the cream mixture in to the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth.
Cut 2 sticks of cool unsalted butter in to small pieces, and as you mix with a hand mixer/stand mixer gradually add the butter in a few tablespoons at a time, repeat until the butter is gone, and continue mixing until the buttercream is thick and glossy, buttercream consistency. Once it is ready is tends to harden quickly, so use it fast. The mixing will take about 10 minutes.
Now in another bowl pour
1C heavy cream,
1t vanilla extract
1T powdered sugar, whisk until medium stiff. Put just under half of the buttercream, and fold in to the whipped cream until smooth. This will be for filling the layers of the cake, the buttercream is for the outside of the cake, and decorating.
Divide the chocolate-cream filling by 4, it will be about over 1/2C per layer.
Kahlua-dark rum simple syrup (for soaking the layers as you build the cake):
This can be made ahead of time, but it is very fast, and the cake soaks up more when the syrup is warm.
In a small saucepan put:
1/2C sugar,
1/2C water. Boil fully. Pour in to a glass, then in to a 1/3C pour half kahlua, and half dark rum, add more if desired. Stir.
Have a 7" cake circle ready, and place it on your turntable.
Now build your cake.
On your cake circle place the first layer of cake. Soak the cake with a pastry brush with the syrup, then with a small offset spatula smooth out the chocolate-cream filling. Place another cake layer over that, make sure it's straight, soak etc until finished. Then with a serrated knife even out all the layers so that the cake is straight, and easier to put the icing on. It should look like this: (also soak the top layer with the syrup).
Now put on the buttercream around the edges first with a large offset spatula, it doesn't have to pretty at first, put it on generously to avoid crumbs mixing in from the cake. Then smooth out the rest on top. Now with a bench scraper hold it straight against the cake and scrape off the excess buttercream to make a smooth surface, do this all round the cake, you want about 1/4" icing around the cake, not too much. Now with a small offset spatula smooth out the top edges. You can choose if you want to leave your sides smooth, or then decide to give it a swirl effect, you just need to smooth it out first to make sure your cake is straight. Add a pretty ribbon, about 1/4" from the bottom, to leave room for the piping decoration. Secure the ribbon with 3 pearl pins. Pipe the bottom to cover the cake circle and pipe the top, and serve with whipped cream and strawberries, or plain. Enjoy.. we know you will.
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