Prunes and chocolate are an amazing combination for dessert. No wonder such a cake is considered one of the most popular for the festive table. Although the confectionery is perfect for simple tea drinking. Prunes in Chocolate cake is not as easy to prepare as pie or sweets that do not require baking. Here you need to pay special attention to the filling, cooking cake and decorating the top. However, even an inexperienced housewife can cope with such a task if you carefully study the recipe and clearly follow the instructions presented. There are several options for making this unusually delicious cake. But in general, they all have similarities. All the intricacies of cooking will be discussed in this article.
Features of baking
The dessert is relatively difficult to prepare. Firstly, as for any other cake, it is necessary to separately prepare all the components: sponge cake, cream, impregnation, glaze, layer, and so on. Secondly, in connection with this, many different products are required, respectively, it turns out to be a financially expensive dish. Thirdly, it will be necessary to devote to him not half an hour and not even an hour. Estimated cooking time is at least one and a half hours, and maybe more. In addition, if you plan to bake a cake for some holiday, you need to devote time to decorating it. Other features of baking the cake “Prune in Chocolate” were not noted.
List of required ingredients and their quantity
A variety of products are necessary for the cake, as it is prepared using several components. But in the end, the dish turns out to be incredibly tasty, juicy, fragrant and tender. Let's move on to the list of necessary ingredients.
For sponge cake:
- 0.1 kg of flour;
- 120 g cane sugar;
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 3 eggs;
- 60 g of walnuts;
- 1.5 tablespoons of honey;
- 1 g of vanillin;
- 20 g of corn starch.
For cream:
- 7 tablespoons of powdered sugar;
- 0.6 l of 35 percent cream;
- 10 g of gelatin;
- 1 g vanilla;
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest;
- 250 g mascarpone.
To decorate the Prune in Chocolate cake, the ingredients you need are:
- 1 tablespoon of confectionery powder;
- 50 g of dark chocolate.
For the interlayer:
- 125 g of dark chocolate;
- 100 g of 35 percent cream;
- 250 g of prunes;
- 4 tablespoons of brandy or rum.
For chocolate glaze:
- 60 g of 35 percent cream;
- 4 g of gelatin;
- 30 g of cocoa (in powder);
- 60 g cane sugar;
- 50 g of water.
Step-by-step recipe for making the Prune in Chocolate cake: stage one - bake a biscuit
Confectionery production begins with baking cakes. It is necessary to get the ingredients for the biscuit in advance so that they manage to reach room temperature - this is important! First you need to beat the eggs with a mixer. This process is carried out until the initial volume increases 3 times. Then, without ceasing to beat them, introduce sugar into the egg mixture. You need to do this carefully, little by little. Together with sugar, eggs beat for at least 7 minutes, preferably longer. Next, walnuts are introduced into the mixture. They must be crushed into crumbs. You can use a blender or coffee grinder. Mix the egg mixture with nuts with a silicone spatula from the bottom of the dish to the top. Next you need to add honey. Mix the mixture again as described above.
Sift flour to avoid lumps and achieve a more airy consistency for the biscuit. Add baking powder and vanilla to it. Then the dry ingredients are gradually introduced into the egg mixture. In this case, it is necessary to continue stirring the mixture with a silicone spatula.
The next step in the recipe for Prunes in Chocolate cake is to pour the cake mixture into a mold. Its bottom should be covered with baking paper. The biscuit is baked for 35-40 minutes at a temperature of 160 ° C. Attention! Do not open the door while baking the cake, during all the time it is in the oven! The cold air that comes in at this point can make the biscuit fall. When time passes, open the door and check readiness with a match or a toothpick. Leave the cake to cool in the oven with the door open.
When a little time has passed, and the cake will no longer be so hot, get it out, carefully cut the sides and free from the form. Put in some dishes and leave for 5 hours at room temperature, without covering anything. Then cut the cake in half to make 2 round biscuits.
Step-by-step recipe: stage two - prepare the cream
When the cake is ready, you can start cooking the sweet ingredients of the Prune in Chocolate cake. The cream recipe is simple:
- Pour gelatin with cold water so that it completely covers the powder granules. Leave to swell.
- From the total amount of cream prepared for the cream, separate 4 tablespoons. The remainder is mixed with vanilla and icing sugar. Beat until firm soft peaks.
- Mix the mascarpone with lemon zest, then beat.
- Combine the resulting mass with previously whipped cream.
- Heat 4 tablespoons of the remaining cream. Squeeze the gelatin, strain through a sieve and put to them.
Step-by-step recipe: stage three - make a layer
The interlayer is done in advance. It is necessary in the evening of the previous day to cut the prune into small pieces and pour cognac. By the time you need to collect the “Prune in Chocolate” cake, the photo of which can be seen in the article, it will be well fed, it will acquire a unique aroma and taste.
Also, for the layer, you need to cook ganache. To do this, cut or break the chocolate into pieces, pour it with cream, heated to a temperature of 90 ° C. Leave for 2-3 minutes, and then add the prunes to the mass in rum or brandy. Stir to make a smooth, homogeneous mixture.
Step-by-step recipe: stage four - impregnation of cakes
In principle, this step can be skipped. Prunes in cognac or rum will be laid out on cakes, so they will become soft, tender and crumbly without special impregnation. However, sugar syrup, which is recommended in the original version of the recipe, can also be prepared for this purpose. Or buy in the store some other similar product for impregnation. With the products indicated in the recipe, caramel syrup or coffee impregnation, which is easy to prepare, will go well together:
- Pour 250 ml of boiling water into a cup.
- Pour 11 g of natural coffee and mix well.
- Add 55 g of sugar, stir again.
- Cool the liquid, add a teaspoon of rum or brandy. You can do without alcohol if it seems that their content in the dessert will be too high.
Step-by-step recipe: stage five - cake assembly
When almost all the components of the confectionery product are ready, you can start assembling. This is the next step in the recipe for the “Prune in Chocolate” cake, which is produced in this way:
- Place one cake in the ring. Between its edges and shape should remain a small gap.
- Slightly soak the cake with sugar syrup or something else.
- Take about 1/3 of the prepared cream and grease the cake with it so that the space between it and the ring is filled. Spread evenly over the entire surface of the biscuit.
- On the cake lay a frozen layer of prunes.
- Coat a ½ layer of the remaining cream. Distribute evenly, make sure that the empty space between the cake and the form is filled.
- Lay the second biscuit on top. Soak it in the same way as the first.
- Apply the rest of the cream. Evenly distribute and refrigerate for 4 hours.
Step-by-step recipe: stage six - preparation of a glossy
In this step-by-step recipe for the Prune in Chocolate cake, it remains to prepare the last component. Glazage is prepared as follows:
- Soak gelatin in cold water.
- Mix water, cocoa, sugar and cream together. Put the dishes on the stove and bring to a boil over low heat, constantly stirring the mixture. Then boil it for 3-4 minutes and remove.
- Squeeze the gelatin, strain and add to the hot mixture with cocoa and cream.
Next, the glaze must be filtered through a sieve and cooled to 30 ° C, stirring constantly. This will help to avoid lumps. The glazage is prepared after the cake is assembled and when it is left in the refrigerator for 4 hours, as it must be used immediately before it has frozen.
The final, seventh stage in the culinary recipe for the cake "Prunes in Chocolate" - decoration
After four hours, get an almost finished dessert from the refrigerator. To put a glazage on its surface, but not to smear. It is necessary to allow this layer to spread on the surface itself. You just need to take the cake in your hands and gently tilt it in different directions to simplify this process.
It is recommended to blow the sides of the hair dryer with hot air to make it easier to remove the confectionery from the mold. Take baking paper and cut the ribbon out of it, so that the width is equal to the height of the Prune in Chocolate cake, and the length to the volume. Melt the chocolate, pour it into a pastry syringe. Randomly draw lines, zigzags or other shapes on the ribbon. Give the chocolate time to solidify a little, then press it to the sides, wrapping the ribbon around the cake. Put in the refrigerator for 5-7 minutes. Then carefully remove the tape. The chocolate pattern will remain on the sides of the dessert.
The top of the cake can be decorated with special figures, prepared independently or bought in a store. Various loose products, pastry sprinkles, marzipan goodies, beautiful candies from the box and so on will do. Everything that can visually please and will be delicious. If dried plum still remains after making the Prune in Chocolate cake, you can fill it with ganache and decorate your product in this way. And on top - pastry topping.
You can make sweets yourself. Prunes need to be filled with small pieces of walnuts. Break the chocolate, melt in a saucepan with a small amount of cream, stirring constantly. In this liquid, dip the prunes “stuffed” with nuts and spread on foil. Put in the refrigerator to make the candy freeze.
A simplified version of the preparation of the cake
There is a simpler recipe. The preparation time of such a cake will be a little more than an hour, and this is significantly less than the previous version. Although the taste is not inferior to the full version. So, for a simplified recipe you will need:
- 2 tiles of dark chocolate;
- 0.2 kg of almonds and walnuts;
- 135 g soft butter;
- 150 g of prunes;
- 6 eggs;
- 120 g of sugar.
Before you cook the Prune in Chocolate cake with nuts, you need to turn on the oven to warm up. The temperature in it must be brought to 180 ° C.
Break the chocolate bars into large pieces, put in a blender, then send nuts and prunes to the bowl. Turn on at maximum power to grind thoroughly. However, you do not need to bring to a state of crumbs. It is desirable that larger pieces remain.
Squirrels need to be separated from the yolks. In a bowl, mix sugar and most of the butter (leave a little to grease the form). Grind to get a light cream. Enter the yolks into this mass one at a time, carefully stirring each. Then add previously chopped prunes with chocolate and nuts.
Beat the whites so that you get a thick foam. Carefully introduce them into the bulk. It is important to monitor the consistency - air bubbles should remain in the prepared mass.
For a simplified version of the Prune in Chocolate cake, a split mold is required. It must be greased with the remaining butter, and then put on the bottom of the base. Bake for about 35-45 minutes.
When the cake is ready, it can be decorated with the remains of nuts, chocolate and prunes as a whole or rubbed. Also, the baked mass can be crushed by hands and put together a slide. Then pour plenty of melted chocolate, sprinkle with slices of prunes and nuts. It will turn out an interesting “careless” dessert.
Video instructions for making a cake
Irina Khlebnikova is a well-known culinary specialist, many housewives listen to the advice of which and according to the recipes no less number of women like to cook. Still would! After all, what makes a famous culinary person turns out so appetizing. Cake "Prune in Chocolate" from Khlebnikova Irina is prepared in a slightly different way. And the dessert looks different.
This is a low-calorie prune mousse cake, the taste of which can be enjoyed even by those sweet-tooth who are currently on a diet. A great way to diversify your diet without harming the figure. Marina Khlebnikova talks about how to cook such goodies in detail in the video below.
In conclusion, it is worth saying that the large recipe described above can be simplified by modifying it as you wish. For example, to exclude some stages, without which, according to the hostess, you can do. In any case, the finished confectionery product will turn out to be extraordinary, it even seems to guests quite difficult to prepare. So “Prunes in Chocolate” is a great opportunity to show off your culinary knowledge and skills and impress your friends and family.