A few days ago, I was invited to a housewarming party of a former colleague. Since I've been self-employed, I haven't had the chance to solve the world's problems over coffee anymore, so it made me really happy to see my old crew again. Apparently they miss me, but I suspect it's more due to the lack of cakes I used to bring every week rather than my sparkling personality! In any case, I wanted to bring them a good seasonal cake, so I opted for a chocolate and butternut squash layer cake.
I came across the recipe from the Chapeau Melon blog by chance while looking for inspiration. I'm increasingly trying to stick to seasonal ingredients, so this recipe was perfect. I had been able to see this cake live since Soraya had prepared this recipe for the Telethon where I was also invited last year. It had already caught my eye at the time, which is why I jumped at the chance to test this recipe.
I make fairly few layer cakes; it's not a type of cake that's very popular in my family where we prefer traditional cakes. But with about twenty guests at this housewarming, I needed something to feed all my sweet-toothed friends. Before it wasn't really my thing (especially with the assembly, it never ended up very straight like it was the case with my lemon meringue layer cake) but I'm starting to get the hang of it.
Several specialists recommended molly cake to me for making layer cakes, and it's true that this recipe is pretty good. The butternut squash version was great and the contrast with the chocolate was nice both visually and taste-wise. Maybe next time I'll soak the cakes in syrup to make them a bit softer when tasting. Apart from that, it was perfect. I adjusted the mascarpone frosting a bit because I didn't find it sweet enough, and in the end the slightly tangy taste of the cheese goes well with the sweet side of the cake.
I'm a little less happy with my chocolate frosting on top, which I find too thick; that's a point to revisit next time. I'll correct the recipe for you with a tried and tested method (I wanted to use mixing two recipes myself and add some gelatin to my ganache but that wasn't a great idea).
For the assembly, nothing but very classic. We bake the cakes separately, slice them into regular layers, and reconstruct the cake by incorporating the ganache between each layer. Here it's intended to put ganache in the center of the ganache and vanilla frosting around the edge. This prevents the chocolate ganache from staining the overall frosting of the cake.
Once all the tiers are assembled, we then cover it with frosting to finish the whole thing. We start by making a very thin first layer of frosting to capture the crumbs. We put it in the fridge for at least 10 minutes to let it set and then we frost completely this time.
Use a 20 cm diameter mold properly; with mine which is 15 cm, I was able to make another mini cake on the side (if you have a 15 cm mold, I suggest you reduce the quantities by a third).
Don't forget to incorporate the crushed hazelnuts between each layer; they bring a nice crunchy side! Don't hesitate to test this chocolate and butternut squash layer cake at the next opportunity; it was a real treat!
