Directions

To Prepare the Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch-round pans.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

3. Add the eggs, oil, vanilla, water, and soy milk.

4. Beat by hand with a whisk or with a handheld or stand electric mixer on medium speed until combined, about 1 minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans.

5. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the cakes comes out clean.

6. When the cakes are baked, remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans and let cool completely on a rack

To Prepare the Syrup

1. Place the water and sugar in a small heavy pot over medium heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar and bring to a rolling boil.

2. Remove from heat. Let sit at room temperature until you are ready to use.

To Prepare the Ganache

1. Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt on the stovetop or in the microwave. When the chocolate is melted, whisk in the vanilla. Heat the soy milk until hot, not boiling. Add to the chocolate mixture a little at a time and whisk well after each addition. Add the margarine and whisk until very smooth.

2. Cover with plastic and place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Notes:

Letting the ganache rest in the fridge helps it thicken up.

To Assemble the Cake

1. When the cakes have cooled, take each cake and trim off the top to make the top of the cake flat and trim the sides to make them straight. Slice each cake across into three pieces so that you will have six layers.

2. Set aside one of the cake bottoms to use as the top of the cake. Place the other cake bottom, bottom-side down, on your serving plate and put some pieces of waxed paper under the cake to catch the drippings.

3. Take a pastry brush, dip into the sugar syrup and brush the top of the cake slice all around to moisten it. Scoop up about 3⁄4 cup of the ganache and, using a silicone spatula, spread evenly on that layer of cake; just use enough ganache to cover the layer.

4. Add the next piece of cake, moisten with syrup, and spread another 3⁄4 cup of ganache. Repeat with all slices until you get to the reserved cake bottom for the top.

5. Place on top, bottom-side up, but do not moisten it with the sugar syrup. Use a long metal spatula to spread ganache on the top and sides of the cake so that the layers are no longer visible. Try to reserve 1 to 2 tablespoons of ganache to use for decorating the cake.

6. Heat the blade of the metal spatula in very hot or boiling water and wipe lightly with a towel to dry and then immediately slide around the sides and top of the cake to make the ganache completely smooth; you may need to reheat the blade and repeat this step a few times.

7. Place any leftover ganache in a pastry bag to make any flowers, dots, or swirls on top of the cake. You can also scrape extra chocolate with a vegetable peeler on top of the cake.

8. Store in the refrigerator until serving.

Tips:

As you assemble the cake, try to make it even by looking at the cake from the side and gently pressing down to even out the cake if the cake is too tall on one side.

Recipe tags

Cakes Chocolate Holiday Layer cakes Rich Rosh Hashanna Shavuos Succos Sukkos Tasty

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Sarah

6 years ago

Total flop
Let me preface my review by noting that I am not a novice baker. I have been baking for 40 years and while not everything I make turns out good, I have few total flops. This was one of them, though.

This cake was a complete waste of time, money and effort.

The cake itself turned out gummy and doesn’t look very good. I haven’t tasted it yet, so maybe it tastes okay. Based on everything else, I don’t expect so.

The ganache was runny, not ganache-y and didn’t thicken, even though I refrigerated it for half and hour and then put it in the freezer for another half hour. I assume the recipe called for too much soy milk, because until I added the last 1/4 cup or so it looked fine. It also tastes like plain melted chocolate, which is not what one looks for in a ganache. Also, because the ganache was liquidy rather than creamy, there wasn’t enough of it for six layers and the top/sides of the cake.

The syrup was sugar water, not syrup – but maybe it was meant to be?

We ended up with a lopsided cake, dripping chocolate from all sides. As I said, a complete waste of time, effort and money. And now I need to find someone who’ll agree to eat it or else the whole thing will end up in the trash.

And BTW, I gave this recipe one star because there was no option for no stars.