Chocolate Raspberry Genoise Cake

Yesterday was my older daughter’s birthday. It has  been already 20 years??! I still remember staring at her in awe, as she was born one early summer morning, at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto. My first taste of parenthood and realization how grateful I am to have her. Feels just like it was yesterday.

Any birthday is a special event and turning 20 is, lets call it, an extra special event. From my side, I was looking to make a cake that will rise to the occasion. I asked her what she wanted, and she simply said; a chocolate cake. That sounded too easy I thought, but then again, there are hundreds of ways to create a chocolate cake and as many recipes to go with. In the fridge, I had a flat of fresh raspberries that we picked ourselves, just few days ago. Raspberries and chocolate go great together, so now I just had to find a good recipe. After much research, I picked this recipe by Julia Child and Alice Medrich. I love Julia Child. I always found her interesting and inspiring but after reading her memoirs “My Life In France”  I totally fell in love with her. What a wonderful life with so much joy devoted to cooking, companionship and excitement for food. It was a good choice. All the guests proclaimed that this was the best chocolate cake they ever had, and I agree with them.

This cake takes a bit of time to make but, with no regrets, I am sure I will make it again. This is a 5 star recipe. Making it is a bit finicky but not too complicated. It is a sponge cake that is firm and sturdy. Along the way, the cake is moistened with white rum based syrup, enhancing its flavor. The cake does not use any leaveners like yeast or baking powder, instead, cake rising is derived solely from the air beaten in the whole eggs. Eggs and sugar are warmed up prior to beating to facilitate better aeration.  The filling is made with Creme Fraiche. This was my first time using it and I absolutely love it. When beaten, it becomes light and silky with a slight sourness to it. About 1 tbsp of sugar per cup of cream is added to adjust the taste.

Creme Fraiche is essentially fermented heavy cream. It is fairly expensive but is easy to make at home. Just mix heavy cream with buttermilk in a ratio of 2 tbsp of buttermilk per cup of cream, and leave it on the counter for 24-36 hours.

I used Baker’s Premium  70% Dark Chocolate and it was fantastic. The cake was to die for.

You will notice that in all my recipes, the ingredient units of measurement are all metric. The only compromise I make is by using tbsp (15 ml equivalent) and tsp (5 ml equivalent) for volumetric measurements. The reasoning behind is twofold: 1. It is easy to scale up or down recipe if you baking a different cake size; 2. It is an accurate and consistent method of measuring.

UPDATE May 20, 2019: All ingredient measurements were converted from 8″ to 9″ round baking pan. Ingredient measurements are combination of volumetric and mass measurements, for easier use.

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Chocolate Raspberry Genoise Cake

The best chocolate cake you ever had.

Course

Dessert

Cuisine

French

Prep Time

2 hours

Cook Time

40 minutes

Passive Time

4 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

Cake

• 60 g clarified unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 75 g all purpose non bleached flour sifted
• 57 g unsweetened cocoa powder sifted
• 5 eggs large
• 183 g granulated sugar

Syrup

• 1/3 cup + 1tbsp ml water
• 1/3 cup + 1tbsp g granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup + 1tbsp ml white rum

Filling

• 950 ml Creme Fraiche
• 2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 50 g granulated sugar
• 190 g bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
• 4 tbsp boiling water
• 380 g fresh raspberries

Cake chocolate wrap

• 130 g bittersweet chocolate finely chopped

Course Dessert Cuisine French Prep Time 2 hours Cook Time 40 minutes Passive Time 4 hours Servings people Ingredients Cake 60 g clarified unsalted butter 1 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract 75 g all purpose non bleached flour sifted 57 g unsweetened cocoa powder sifted 5 eggs large 183 g granulated sugar Syrup 1/3 cup + 1tbsp ml water 1/3 cup + 1tbsp g granulated sugar 1/3 cup + 1tbsp ml white rum Filling 950 ml Creme Fraiche 2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract 50 g granulated sugar 190 g bittersweet chocolate finely chopped 4 tbsp boiling water 380 g fresh raspberries Cake chocolate wrap 130 g bittersweet chocolate finely chopped

Instructions

Preliminary Work

1. Position a rack in lower third of the oven and preheat at 177 °C (350 °F).
2. Fit the bottom of 9" baking pan with parchment paper.

The Cake

1. Pour clarified butter into a small sauce pan and stir in 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, set aside.
2. Sift flour and cocoa powder together three times. Set aside. You will sift it once again later when adding it to the mix.
3. Add eggs and sugar to the medium size saucepan, whisk as you add the sugar to avoid forming lumps. Keep whisking and warm up the mixture over medium heat to about 37°C (100 °F).
4. Pour the egg mixture into the mixing bowl and beat on high speed until the volume is about tripled. The egg mix should hold a ribbon when the whisk is lifted up.
5. Sift in about 1/2 of flour/cocoa mix into the egg mixture and fold in gently with the biggest rubber spatula you have. Be careful not to deflate the mix.
6. When color of the batter is fairly uniform, sift the rest of the flour/cocoa mix and fold in until fully incorporated.
7. Transfer about 250 ml (1 cup) of batter into the bowl with hot clarified butter. Fold together until is well blended. This will put the butter in suspension and allow it to be easier incorporated to the rest of the batter. Transfer into the rest of the batter and fold in gently until fully blended.
8. Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake about 30 minutes, conventional oven. The cake is done when the top springs back when pressed lightly or when a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Transfer the baking pan to a cooling rack and let it cool completely.
10. When completely cool, run a plastic knife around the pan circumference to release and unmold the cake. Remove the parchment paper from the cake bottom and turn the cake right side up onto new parchment paper.

The Filling

1. Add ~630 g of Creme Fraiche and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla to the mixing bowl and beat until soft peaks form.
2. Add 30g sugar and beat until the mix thickens to form soft peaks. Taste and add more sugar if required. Cover the bowl and refrigerate.

   

The Syrup

1. Bring water and sugar to boil in a small sauce pan and let it simmer for couple of minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool completely.
2. Stir in white rum. Taste the syrup and adjust flavor if desired.

Assembling the Cake

1. Cut cooled cake into 3 even layers.
2. Place spring-form pan ring onto the cake serving plate. This ring will be used as a mold to assemble the cake.
3. Fit one cake layer on the bottom of spring-form ring and brush with syrup, moistening the top of the layer.

   
4. Put finely chopped chocolate into the bowl with 4 tbsp of boiling water and mix until is fully melted and smooth.
5. Using rubber spatula fold in about 1/4 cup of Creme Fraiche to the chocolate, mix until unified, fold in another 2/3 cup of Creme Fraiche.
6. Quickly spread evenly chocolate Creme Fraiche over the first cake layer in the mold. Work fast before the chocolate starts hardening up.

   
7. Moisten the second layer of the cake with the syrup and place it in the mold, moist side down. Press lightly to level it.
8. Moisten the top of the second layer with the syrup.
9. Top it with the even layer of fresh raspberries.

   
10. Beat the remaining 1.5-2 cups of chilled Creme Fraiche from soft to stiff peaks, spoon on top of the raspberries and carefully smooth the creme over and between the raspberries, pushing gently down.
11. Moisten the third layer of the cake with the syrup and place it in the mold, moist side down. Press lightly to level it.
12. Moisten the top of the third layer with the syrup. Cover the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2-3 hours, and the best is to leave it overnight.
13. Run the plastic knife around the side of the spring form and remove the form.
14. Using freezer paper or wax paper, cut a strip 28" long and about 3/8" wider than the top of the finished cake. It will be approximately 3" wide. Place this strip on top of a larger piece of the same wax paper to keep the chocolate off of the counter.
15. Melt finely chopped chocolate over a double boiler to approximately 46 °C (115 °F), until melted and smooth. Pour the chocolate over the center by entire length of the strip and spread it across the whole strip, with the offset spatula. Lift the strip, holding both ends and wrap it around the cake neatly, chocolate side against the cake. Press one end of strip against the cake side and the other strip end will end up overlapping it slightly, after strip is wrapped around the cake. Insert a small wax paper spacer at the overlap, keeping two strip ends separated. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or until chocolate hardens.
16. Beat remaining 320 ml of Creme Fraiche with 1 tsp of vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Add 20 g sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
17. Spread the Creme Fraiche over the top of the cake.
18. Decorate the top of the cake with fresh raspberries and chocolate shavings. Put the cake in the fridge for about 30 minutes or until firm.
19. Carefully peel off the wax paper. At the chocolate wrap overlap, put a dollop of melted chocolate and join them together. You can touch up and correct any chocolate wrap imperfections. If the wax paper sticks, put the cake back in the refrigerator and after cooled off, try again.

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