Join us on. This gorgeous creation is a chocolate raspberry ruffle cake. There are the ruffles and there is the raspberry. Inside is a chocolate genoise cake, and there are raspberries and then theres a creme fralche chocolate filling and you can make this right at home. And alice medrichs going to show us how to do it. And were going to do it. Let me move this. Well move that out of the way. When i start this cake at home i like to prepare for the ruffles first and that means whenever were doing chocolate we start with chopping chocolate because to melt it properly it needs to be in small pieces to avoid burning. And what i try to remember is that were trying to melt it not cook it. And this is very good chocolate that you would buy at a gourmet store. Yes, you want some very good chocolate for this both because it handles well and because, of course, it tastes delicious. Oh. Im going to scrape this right into a clean, dry bowl because chocolate and small quantities of water are enemies so we try to keep drips and wet spoons and wet bowls away from chocolate. Does it kind of seize it up or something . It does, it seizes it up and were going to put it right here in the water bath. Now, the trick here is that as the chocolate melts in the bottom of the bowl, we turn it and let the warm chocolate melt the chocolate that isnt melted and we dont need to go to a precise temperature but we do need to keep the chocolate from burning and i aim for about 115 or 120 degrees. Were not concerned with a very precise temperature so i can kind of tell with my finger and were just about up to temperature and as soon as i dont see any more unmelted bits in there were going to proceed. How much chocolate do we have here . We have about 15 ounces and thats. Doesnt have to be very precise. Looks beautiful to me. All right, that looks about right. Lets turn off the heat and just let this sit here and that will stay at temperature. Mmhmm. The next step is to turn on a burner and warm the back of the pan. The pan were using is not a specially coated pan; it doesnt have any nonstick coatings because that would get in our way. Its clean. We arrive eventually at a nice warm pan you want to feel . Very warm . No, you can still touch it. But not too hot to touch. And well move over here. And taking the bowl out of the water always important when youve been in a water bath to wipe the bowl so we dont drip water on the work surface. Mmhmm. And then im going to push out you know, a third of a cup, maybe and then with a good offset spatula. Yes, those are awfully useful. Terribly useful were going to spread a thin layer. The warm pan enables me to spread a real thin layer without the chocolate starting to harden too early. And youre sure that the pan is thoroughly washed and dry and not greasy. Absolutely, and then probably the hardest thing here is finding room in the refrigerator for four of these. So this goes off into the fridge. All right, ill put it in, okay. Now, heres our sheet of chocolate thats been well chilled and i like to chill it well beyond the temperature that it needs to be before we work on it and then let it warm up gradually at Room Temperature. Aha when its pliable, it makes a gorgeous ruffle. Oh, thats perfect, there it was. Which i pull off in a kind of sweeping arc. Now, lets do that slowly. Lets see if we can go slow. It gathers up around my fingers it makes a great mess of your manicure. Lets do another one. As though youre trying to slide underneath uhhuh. And sweep in a kind of a fanshaped arc and let it gather up. How many are you going to make for this cake . Well, were going to make, maybe, you know however many we can get out of three pans and you can do as many as. You can go up to 30 or you could get away with about 15. Thats wonderful. Its very satisfying once this clicks into place. I should think, yeah. And i think well finish now. And then what do you cover them with . Refrigerate until theyre hard and these can be made in advance so you dont have to do them right before the party. So, when theyre really hard then you can cover them with. You can cut. When theyre hard, you can layer waxed paper. So well go ahead and put these on ice. Ill give those to the fridge. Now you are going to make the cake. This is are going a chocolate genoise. This is a chocolate genoise, very classic. Whats the difference between this and another cake . Its an unleavened cake, so everything. Although its very simple everything depends on technique. Egg power. Egg power, a nice foam folding technique, lots of finesse. Good. Its one of the great cakes. It is one of the great cakes. For wedding cakes and everything. And its one of the great satisfying things to master. Were going to start out by triple sifting. First, i have a third of a cup plus a tablespoon im sorry about that. both laugh a sifted flour, allpurpose flour in the strainer. Is this allpurpose flour . And the same measure of sifted cocoa. Now, its very possible to use any kind of cocoa but i prefer the dutch process for flavor. Mmhmm, mmhmm. Im going to sift this. Now, the common things that happen to genoise in my experience, are little flour balls in the cake and the triple sifting takes care of that problem right away. Mmhmm. Deflating is another problem that happens with this cake from overfolding and believe it or not the triple sifting takes care of that, too. Oh, really . Because it makes the flour so much easier to incorporate. Uhhuh, mmhmm. So we get less deflating, and im going to actually. It seems. There are Little Things in that. Yeah, so were going to leave that behind because theyre a little gritty and granular. You dont want to push it too. No, we dont want to push. Okay, and im going to finish up by putting the flour and cocoa back. Of course, the other thing that sifting does is it mixes the flour and cocoa very nicely. Mmhmm. Back into the strainer and itll get sifted yet again when we add it. Now, thats good preparation. I didnt realize sifting was that important. Sifting can be so important. Mmhmm. Were then going to go to four eggs doesnt matter if theyre Room Temperature because were going to go ahead and warm them anyway. Yep. Oops, tough shell. And these are u. S. Graded large eggs. Farmfresh eggs, large eggs most recipes are written for large eggs. Now, im going to add twothirds of a cup of sugar to the eggs and i learned this the hard way once you add sugar to eggs, you must whisk them before you take a call or answer the door. Oh. If we leave dry sugar on eggs, they kind of precook the eggs and we get these little hard lumps that are very annoying. Were going to move over to the stove. We warm the eggs and sugar and this dissolves the sugar a little bit gives a stabler foam. Some people do it over a water bath; im kind of a speedy character i do it directly over a gas heat if i have a bowl like this. How warm is it going to be . This is. Not too, you know, 110 degrees, 105 degrees like a babys milk. Do they beat up faster if you do this . I think they do, and more stably and that means that when you fold ingredients into it it will be more stable. How about it, do you want to touch that . Thats about right, or even a little bit warmer but i think thats just fine. Were going to move over to the mixer and attach this. If you have a choice on your mixer, you use the whisk rather than the paddle because we want volume and air. Yeah. mixer whirring in a mixer with this kind of power this only takes about a minute. Mmhmm. If youre using a handheld mixer or a mixer that doesnt have power, it takes longer. So the important thing is to watch the consistency not the clock, and go until its about triple in volume and kind of fluffy like yellow whipped cream. Mmhmm. mixer whirs down the proper consistency is fluffy like this you see that ribbon that sits on the surface there. Mmhmm. Im going to sift in about half of the flour andcocoa mixture and fold with the biggest rubber spatula i have and folding really is cutting through the center of the batter and lifting and letting that batter drop over. Rotate the bowl. Definitely reach down into the bottom and get that white batter up. Then as soon as the color is fairly uniform im going to sift in the rest. Folding is certainly one of the most important things in both cake and. Very important, very important. What im trying not to do is deflate this batter. Now, when thats folded together, we go to the butter. Add three tablespoons of clarified butter kept nice and hot. Rather than add it directly to the batter this is a great trick i learned from a marvelous school in france. Some of the. The batter is first folded into the butter and this puts the butter in suspension in a small amount of batter. You certainly dont want the butter to sink down. Oh, to sink to the bottom, this is the worst. This takes care of that problem quite nicely. You can make a genoise without butter, i guess. You can, and, you know, theres not much butter in a genoise and this just gives it a little bit of extra finesse, i think. That little something, je ne sais quoi. Je ne sais quoi. This, then, goes in, and then with very few folds now well have the butter in the batter. The pan, very simply prepared eightinch pan, no butter, no flour just the parchment paper in the bottom. Mmhmm. Turn the cake batter into the pan and, you know, this may sit a little bit low because the size of eggs vary and everything varies every day. Is that about a twoinch. Its two inches tall. Mmhmm. Then lets go to the oven with this. Then we have the. Whats the oven. The oven is at 350 and the rack is either in the lower third or just below the center so that the cake is in the center. And how long does it go . About 30 minutes, give or take five. Okay. So, after about 30 minutes, we check for doneness. Its not the time thats important but whats happening with the cake. I dont test with a toothpick, i just wait till it springs back and i dont hear a lot of moisture under the surface. A little earlier when i peeked, it was domed up a little bit. When it gets done, it shrinks down just a bit and levels. Mmhmm. So im going to call this done. I like the way it looks, i like the way it smells and i like the way it feels. Heres our cooled cake and youll notice i left it in the pan. I didnt try to get it out while it was hot. I set it on a rack and i dont work on it until its completely cool. A slim little spatula or this. Even this little plastic thing, and i just push it in the side and i try to hug the side of the pan so i dont make a ragged edge. Well, thats good because thats flexible. Its flexible. Even if i do make a ragged edge, no big deal. Flip it out, remember theres parchment on the bottom so we never worry about the bottom. Oh, that came out perfectly. And that looks nice to me. It smells chocolaty, indeed. And im going to flip it over on its face. Mmhmm. And get rid of the rack. All right, ill get rid of it for you. And put it on a piece of parchment paper for now. Slicing the cake in three is really simpler than it seems mmhmm. There are a couple of tricks, and one is a good serrated knife a raggededge knife, not a straight one. Im going to start about a third of the way down from the top of the cake and im not going to try to get all the way through but im just going to cut a little score or a track and now once ive got it scored all the way around im kind of home free until i meet in the middle and that gives me an even layer. Very good. For the second layer im going to do the same thing. Im going to go halfway down the remaining distance here. Mmhmm. And again, im going to rotate. The paper makes it much easier. So now we have three layers. Lets set the layers aside for a moment and go to the simple syrup. Ive cooked in advance a third of a cup of sugar with a third of a cup of water simmered for a couple of minutes just to reduce a little bit and dissolve the sugar. Mmhmm. To this, were going to add this wonderful framboise liqueur which smells like a garden. This is a judgment call. And costs a fortune. And costs the earth but worth it. This is a judgment call. I say about a third of a cup, but i usually add a little less then taste it and then i give in and add the rest so well pour this in and you can give a taste and tell me whether more is merrier or its just right as it is. Now, some people like it sweeter and some people like it boozier. Good and boozy, i would say, just right. Good and boozy, okay. Filling is made with creme fralche. Okay, were going to beat this lovely cream like whipped cream but first, im going to add two teaspoons of vanilla. So well go ahead and beat this and were not going to beat it maximum stiff. Just yet. This isnt quite as stiff as i want it but lets add a bit of that sugar. Again, sugar is to taste because the creme fralche is always a little different when you make it. Okay, now, once the cream is beaten and its a soft beat, you can see its not too stiff, and thats just what i want. Now, were not going to wait very long but if we did, wed put it either on ice or in the refrigerator. So ill do that now, to get it out of the way. Good to get us used to doing that. So, lets go back to the assembly step. Heres our cake nicely cut in three. And were going to layer this cake, actually, in a pan. A springform is good you know, with a spring on the side or this, my favorite, which is a loosebottom pan oh, i see, thats. So they can be unmolded. These are available, so this is my preferred pan. This first layer gets flipped up. Our syrup and, uh. Framboise, were going to moisten that first layer. And this is all done in the pan. Its a very wonderful way of layering a cake, and. Now, this is a very french thing of putting a liqueur syrup. I notice a lot of american cakes dont do it. I always miss it. Although it seems like the wrong time to do this were going to break away and make the chocolate filling because the chocolate filling, once its made, cannot wait. This is done by taking five ounces, again of my good bittersweet or semisweet. Mmhmm. And this is a little unusual were going to add boiling water to it. Oh. Mostly, were told not to keep water and chocolate together but if theres enough water, its a safe thing to do. Three tablespoons hot water, and. Its melting immediately. And if ive been good about cutting the chocolate at just the right size. By the time the chocolates melted this mixture will be just under lukewarm which is perfect for folding in the cream. Now, believe it or not usually we test the temperature ah, perfect on our upper lip which gives us a chance to lick it off. This is perfect heres our creme fralche. I recommend measuring for this task but ive done it so many times that i can tell you that this is about a quarter of a cup. Correct . Mmhmm. Just a first folding in of a quarter of a cup. You want to move here because you dont want to let the cream and the chocolate set. Mmhmm, which, of course, they would. And then, finally, another half does this look like a half a cup . I think so. Exactly. About exactly, right . But measure it the first time, so you. Yeah. And you can see that the little bit of color change and it begins to look like chocolate silk. Beautiful color change. As soon as i know that this is all mixed in and without letting it sit any longer it all goes on that first layer. Uhhuh. All of it, and thats why i went ahead and put that first layer in there and moistened it right away. Mmhmm. So there would be no waiting. And spread. With your favorite spatula. Now, we dont have to worry about ultimate smoothness because were going to have another layer on there. Now we can go back to the Proper Assembly part of this. Were going to moisten the next layer. This is going to get moistened on both sides mmhmm. That should be kept in mind yeah. So we dont soak it silly so to speak, this first goaround. So were going to flip this over put it moist side down into the pan and do some nice pressing to level. And well soak again. Okay, and now here comes the loose. What we call the loose layer of raspberries which means lots of raspberries but a little space in between for the cream to seep down. Thats an awfully good idea. Well, you couldnt keep this around very long with the fresh berries, could you . No, i would assemble it up to a day in advance. Mmhmm. But i think the best would be assemble it in the morning to eat at night. Because the berries are like Fresh Flowers they go so quickly. Thats about right plenty, but not too crowded. Now, at this point, i want to whip this cream a little stiffer so it will hold up. I liked it soft for the chocolate and a little bit stiffer for the rest. Its very useful for people to know when whipping cream. How do we know when its enough . Well, you know, id like it to stand up a little but i know that when i spread it, itll stiffen more. That holds its shape in the. Yes, it does, its nice, its nice. So, you know, this much, a cup and a half to two cups. I spread it and push it because id like it to get down in there. Mmhmm. Between the raspberries. And if i need to put more on, i will. Thats a beautiful consistency, isnt it . Creme fralche makes an extraluxurious consistency when its whipped. Some people who might not care for the creme fralche taste could do this whole dessert with whipped cream. This is the third layer; its getting its little moistening. Flip it up, and again, its moist side down. Well, if you. And a fair amount of pressing. If you had people who didnt want alcohol i suppose you could make the sugar syrup with vanilla, couldnt you . Yes, you could, and dilute it a little bit more so its not so syrupy sweet or nothing, you know nothing would be fine. So, once its soaked we refrigerate it for a couple of hours or up till tomorrow. Good. Well, heres our cake several hours later or maybe up to 24 hours later well chilled. Well chilled, and assembled. But not more, because youve got them raspberries. No, weve got those raspberries. We dont want them to die. Now, unmolding the cake is simple. We need to elevate it in order to get the pan off. And so, we need these a canister, a can of peas, or Something Like that. A very. Heavy one. A heavy one so you dont knock over after all that work and all that framboise. And just slide it off. And, you see, the advantage to having assembled it in the pan means everything is straight and beautiful. Mmhmm, it looks beautiful. So lets get rid of the can of peas. Get rid of. And get rid of this. And ill just put this right back on the turntable because its so useful. Were about to make a sheet of chocolate to wrap around. We can do it on this freezer wrap. You know, this is the stuff the butcher puts around the meat yeah. And you can buy it. Its got a slick side and a paper side. We would spread on the slick side. On the slick side, yeah. What ive found useful and reusable is this piece of plastic matting. You buy it in the Housewares Department of the hardware store. Whats it for . It comes on a long roll and its for draining your glassware. Oh. It has a ridged side and a slick side and were going to use the slick side. Mmhmm. Im going to put it first on a big piece of waxed paper. This is going to save the mess on the counter. Make sure in advance that your cake is just a little shorter than the width of this. This is three inches. We didnt use all of our chocolate for the ruffle making and heres the leftovers rewarmed to about 115 or 120. And here im just going to pour. And it takes about three ounces bu