Gluten Free Triple Ganache Torta

Cakes. I like cake. I enjoy baking, building and decorating cakes. So, when I do a cake it's always a project. This cake was a two day, 6 to 8 hour project. So when people see a cake on the internet or some cooking show and ask, “Oh! Can you make this cake for this occasion or that occasion for $15.00” I just want to choke the living shit out of them. That's probably why people don't ask me to do it anymore. Ha!

The only issue I have with gluten free baking, is a textural component I don't much care for. For lack of a better description gluten free baked goods seem to have a “grit” to them. But, my gluten free wife wanted “something chocolate” she said, for her birthday. So armed with a bag of Bobs Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour and many, many chocolate cake recipes I started her birthday cake.

Day One

Make Dulce de leche

Make the soft ganache base.

Make and bake cake layers.

Dulce de leche

There are 2 ways to make Dulce de leche. One is more classic—cooking down milk and sugar—but it requires a fair amount of attention and stirring. The other uses sweetened condensed milk and a long, though mostly unattended, time in boiling water. I always go with the sweetened condensed version and because it stores in the can I always do 2 cans even though I'll only need 1for any particular project.

Ingredients

1 can sweetened condensed milk

enough water to cover can by an inch preferably two.

Directions

Put the can of sweetened condensed milk into a pot of water. Bring the water to a boil and maintain boil for 3 hours. Heat another pot or a tea pot of water to add to your boiling water as it evaporates. YOU MUST KEEP CAN COVERED WITH WATER AT ALL TIMES!

Remove can from liquid and allow to cool. Don't try to open the can while still hot. It'll be under pressure and It might spray hot sticky sugary liquid that will burn like hell.

This is what it looks like once the can is opened

Whipped Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

1# semisweet chocolate you can use chips but, I use Calabeaut Belgium chocolate. That's just how I roll.

1 quart of heavy cream.

Directions

In a large saucepan over medium high heat, heat cream to a boil. Pour over chocolate and let sit undisturbed for about 5 minutes. Then stir till all the chocolate is incorporated. A small wire whip comes in handy to get it nice and smooth.

Cover loosely with plastic leaving vents to avoid condensation and refrigerate several hours or overnight. Once mixture is cool, using an electric mixer, whip the living hell out of the chocolate mixture till it looks like a thick frosting.

The Cake

My favorite cake recipe is you're basic chocolate mayonnaise cake recipe. If you've never tried it you really should. It's moist, flavorful and best of all (in my opinion) is it doesn't dome. You end up with a nice, reasonably flat, level cake.

***The original Hellmanns recipe calls for only 1 1/3 cup of water.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup
1 2/3 cups water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and lightly flour two 9-inch round cake pans*; set aside.
In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder; set aside.
In large bowl, with electric mixer at high speed, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in Mayonnaise at low speed until blended. Alternately beat in flour mixture with water, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Pour into prepared pans.
Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. On wire racks, cool 10 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely. Frost, if desired, or sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

*Or, prepare cake mix as above in 13 x 9-inch baking pan and bake 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

**Or, I prepared 3 10in. Spring form pans with spray oil and baking parchment then sprayed the parchment as well. Divided the batter between the 3 pans and, baked for 18 minutes or till the cake started to separate from the side of the pan.

Glaze and Piping Ganache

Ingredients

1 pound chopped chocolate or chips

2 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Heat cream and butter over medium high heat till boil and pour over chocolate. Let it sit undisturbed for a few minutes and stir till all chocolate is incorporated and silky, shiny, smooth.

Assemblage

Your cooled whipping ganache will have an almost pudding consistency. Once whipped it's more like a thick frosting.

Another thing about gluten free baked goods. They don't have the strength and structure on a molecular level so you have to handle them with the utmost care

So, I started of course with the bottom layer.

Whipped my chocolate ganache and spread about a ¼ inch layer over the top of it.
Then using a pastry bag I piped a considerable amount of dulce de leche on top of that.

Second layer of cake

chocolate ganache spread about a ¼ inch layer over the top of it.
dulce de leche on top of that.

Third layer of cake

Once the third or top layer was on, I iced the entire cake with more whipped ganache.

Once the cake is all iced I prepared my glaze and piping ganache

I start with a pool of ganache in the center of the cake and using the ladle in a circular motion spread it towards the edges and down the side of the cake

Underneath is a sheet pan and cooling rack to allow the excess chocolate drip off and be caught. I scrape the chocolate off the pan and re-warm it if necessary for a cake but I usually just keep it to use for ice cream.

I don't usually play fast and loose when it comes to decorating cakes. But if it's for family or a close friend I'll try something like doing a wet on wet, trying to get an inlay effect. As you can see I got the i, and the r, a little to close to each other while the chocolate was still a little too warm and liquid.