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Champagne Ganache Covered Cake
Author: Jackie
Ingredients
French Butter Sponge Cake
  • 1 cup cake flour
  • 7 large eggs , separated
  • 1 cup granulated sugar , separated
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or almond extract
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 ounces butter , melted then cooled
Chocolate Champagne Mousse
  • 8 ounces semisweet chocolate , broken into ½-ounce pieces
  • 2 ½ cups heavy cream , separated
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 3 tablespoons Champagne
Chocolate Ganache
  • 1 and ½ cups good quality chocolate , broken into small pieces
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
For assembly
  • ¼ cup champagne
  • gold leaf
Instructions
  1. To begin the process, start with the first part of the mousse, as this needs to chill for a few hours.
  2. In a small saucepan on medium low heat, heat 1 cup of heavy cream until it hot, but not boiling, about 160 degrees.
  3. Place chocolate chunks in a large bowl and pour hot cream over the chunks, and stir until smooth. Once smooth, stir in the champagne.
  4. Cover mixture and place in the fridge to cool.
  5. To make the cake, preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Spray three 7 inch round pans or two 9 inch round pans with nonstick cooking spray and line the bottoms with a parchment paper round.
  6. Melt butter, then set aside.
  7. Separate eggs. In the clean bowl of your mixer using your paddle attachment, beat egg yolks, ½ cup of sugar, and salt on medium high speed, until the have doubled in volume and are pale, about 5 minutes.
  8. Place egg yolk mixture into a large bowl and throughly clean and dry your mixing bowl.
  9. Stir vanilla or almond extract into egg yolk mixture.
  10. Place egg whites in clean mixing bowl with remaining ½ cup of sugar. Beat egg whites on high until soft peaks form (when you remove the whisk attachment, your peak should curl over slightly). Do not beat to stiff peaks.
  11. Measure out flour.
  12. Scoop about a quarter of the whites over the yolk mixture and fold together gently with a few broad strokes of a rubber spatula.
  13. Sift about a third of the cake flour over the mixture and scoop about a third of the remaining whites over the flour, folding together gently.
  14. Repeat process two more times, until all egg whites and flour have been combined.
  15. Fold cooled melted (should be room temperature to the touch) butter into the cake batter, folding together gently.
  16. Pour batter into pans and bake until sides are no longer touching the pan and tops have browned, about 35-40 minutes.
  17. Remove from oven and cool completely.
  18. Once cakes have cooled and chocolate custard (1st step) is cold, continue making the mousse.
  19. In a clean bowl, beat remaining 1 and ½ cup heavy whipping cream to stiff.
  20. Fold whipped cream into chocolate mixture.
  21. To assemble the cake, place 1st layer on the a cardboard cake round (preferably the same size as the cake). Brush with champagne.
  22. Spread a thick layer of mousse onto the 1st layer and stack with next layer. If making a 3-tiered cake, repeat process.
  23. Refrigerate cake while you make the ganache.
  24. To make the ganache, heat heavy whipping cream in a small sauce pan on medium low heat, until hot but not boiling.
  25. Place chocolate in a bowl and pour hot cream over chocolate. Stir until smooth.
  26. Place cake on a wire cooling rack with foil underneath the rack to catch excess ganache.
  27. Pour ganache over cake until it is completely covered.
  28. Allow cake to sit and cool, about 3 hours.
  29. Enjoy the within 2 days.