Also known as the Sebastian Cake, this four-layer heavyweight was brought into existence for the birthday of a good friend and coworker of mine. All the guys from work were going to be over at the apartment that weekend for a retreat, so clearly cake needed to be involved (fall 2010… I’m still catching up!) I wanted this to be a special surprise and thus cunningly- if I do say so myself- asked Seb his cake preferences, and got to work.
As seems to be traditionally the case with my making layer cakes, the first two layers weren’t thick enough, so I baked an additional one- which rose to the occasion (far more than expected)- resulting in a taller cake than initially intended, but hey, who’s going to complain about having more cake?
This cake follows a roadmap of fudge brownie bottom, followed by moist white-chocolate vanilla cake encased between white chocolate ganache, vanilla buttercream, chocolate ganache, and double-chocolate cake. The whole thing is then encased in a thick layer of hardened dark chocolate ganache, liberally hosed with runny white chocolate ganache, and topped with Callebeaut bittersweet shavings. Yes, it’s a doozy. So, naturally, you’d like a piece, right? :)
Tuxedo Layer Cake
Note: For the ingredients and process for baking each cake layer, as these closely resemble cakes already posted on Fruippe, please use the ingredients listed here and the process described on that recipe’s page, altering as needed to take into account the slightly-modified ingredients list.
Ingredients (Brownie Layer):
- 2 cups semi-sweet or milk chocolate (chips, baker’s chocolate, you pick!)
- 1/2 cup soy butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons organic canola oil
- 3 teaspoons 2x vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs (cage-free!)
- 1 & 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1.5 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup (slightly heaping) AP flour (preferably organic)
- 2-3 tablespoons cold water (based on your texture preference)
Ingredients (Chocolate Cake Layer):
- 2 whole eggs (brown, organic, cage-free)
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup canola oil (make sure it’s fresh!)
- 1 tblspn vanilla extract (feel free to be liberal with this one)
- 1 cup light sour cream
- scant 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips, melted
- 1/4 cup skim milk
- 1.5 cups self-rising flour
Ingredients (White Chocolate Cake Layer):
- 1 & 1/3 cups King Arthur organic cake flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup white chocolate chips, melted
- 3/4 tsp sea salt
- 3 large cage-free eggs
- 1 cup plain low-fat Stonyfield organic yogurt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup organic canola oil
Ingredients (Chocolate & White Chocolate Ganaches): For the ganache portion, the below ingredients correspond to the chocolate ganache; repeat and switch out the chocolate chips for white chocolate chips and voila, you have the white chocolate ganache :)
- 1/2 cup (one stick) salted butter (I’m so sorry, I know it’s a lot…)
- 1 bag (usually 12 oz) bittersweet chocolate chips (suggestion: ghirardelli or guittard)
- 4 tblspn skim milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Ingredients (Vanilla Buttercream):
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened to room temp (I know, I know, so much butter, I’m sorry!)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- approx. 2 lb confectioner’s sugar
Process:
- Assemble in the following order:
- Take out a heavyweight plate or cakestand and begin assembling. First, place the fudge brownie layer on the bottom- then coat with a light layer of ganache followed by a thicker layer of the vanilla buttercream.
- Now add on the first vanilla cake layer, and top that with a good layer of the vanilla buttercream followed by some of the chocolate ganache.
- Add on the chocolate cake layer, and top that one with a thick layer of the white chocolate ganache.
- Now add on the final vanilla cake layer and top that one with some of the buttercream and white chocolate ganache. Use all of the buttercream that’s left- or store the leftovers in the fridge for when you’ll feel guilty at midnight because you should have been working but really just want frosting.
- Spread on a thick layer of the chcolate ganache so that it coats the entire cake. Let it harden a bit, then drizzle the remaining white chocolate ganache on top and shave the callebeaut (or whatever block chocolate you desire) on before it hardens so it can settle into the ganache a bit.
…you probably were better off not knowing what went into it, but it’s too late now. If you’re looking for a showy cake that can feed an army of young men, then this is the cake for you! It’s a sugary overload and very intense, but… well… it was fun :)
