A cake for my Mother - A cake with 3 Cs!

It was my mother's birthday yesterday and we all congregated at my parent's house for dinner. I had decided to make her a cake and originally planned on making Chocolate Brownies. However, I realised that I still had an opened jumbo pack of Sponge Fingers. I also had a lot of cream leftover that needed to be used quickly. So... I decided I would whip up a dessert instead and pass if off as a cake!




I thought long and hard (not that long really and neither that hard!) and I came up with a plan. I would make a layer of Coffee whipped Cream and another layer of whipped Chocolate Ganache. I'd then layer these creams over sponge fingers which would be soaked in some sort of alcohol - Cointreau maybe? Sounded like a plan indeed. I would also need to be able to unmould the whole thing.

This is what I did for this Original, First-Time, Chocolate-Coffee-Cointreau Cake or the 3Cs Cake.

Ingredients
for the sponge layers
2 packets sponge fingers
1/2 cup Cointreau
1/2 cup water

for the coffee cream
1 tbsp instantcoffee
350 ml cream
2 tbsp liquid glucose
1 tbsp Icing Sugar

for the whipped chocolate ganache
200g good quality dark chocolate
300ml Cream
1 tbsp liquid glucose

Method
Line a square pyrex or other dish with plastic wrap all the way to the top.
Make the coffee cream by dissolving the coffee in a little heated cream. Add this back to the rest of the cream and whip with the liquid glucose and icing sugar till stiff. Set aside in fridge

Make the Whipped Chocolate Ganace by heating the cream to boiling and then pouring over the chocolate. Mix well till smooth and then add in the liquid glucose. Allow to cool before whipping up till stiff. Set aside.

Make a Cointreau syrup by mixing the cointreau with water. Set aside

Assemble the cake by spreading a little Coffee Cream on the bottom of the pyrex dish(which is lined with plastic wrap). Arrange one layer of sponge fingers on top of the cream and using half the Cointreau Syrup, soak the fingers. Cover with the rest of the Coffee Cream. Place another layer of sponge fingers over the coffee cream and soak with the remaining syrup. Cover with the Whipped Chocolate Ganache. Chill overnight or for at least 4 hours.

When ready to unmould, lift the plastic wrap to loosen the dessert and then place a large plate over the pyrex bowl and then overturn it. Remove the plastic wrap carefully. Garnish with strawberries or almonds or whatever you like!




I must admit I was particularly pleased with how this turned out. The best part was that the dessert went down really well with everybody and my Mom in particular enjoyed it immensely.

Mom cutting her cake. Since there are only two candles on the cake, it shows she's still a young 20!!


Happy Birthday Amma!