In a book I bought I found a recipe for this type of cake. However, the recipe, as with several others in the book, was not complete,and it didn’t properly explain the construction of the cake, not to mention the fact that the phots revealed only half the number of layers that the recipe indicated.
So I decided to try it, but putting my own spin on the recipe, to see if I could do a better job of explaining how to make it.
The result is really quite pleasing, so I am quite happy about it. But it did take some working out to get to the end result. I must confess that it doesn’t look quite as neat, with the chocolate filling, as I would have liked, but you cant undo what you have done.
Almond Sponge and Chocolate Pyramid
Sliced – Almond Sponge and Chocolate Pyramid
Ingredients:
- 40g Plain Flour
- 140g Ground Almonds
- 140g Icing Sugar
- 4 Eggs
- 4 Egg whites
- 1tsp Vanilla extract
- 50g Caster sugar
- 30g Melted Butter
- 300 ml Double Cream
- 300 g Dark Chocolate, chopped into small pieces
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 220c/200c Fan. Grease and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour and place in a bowl, with the ground almonds icing sugar and vanilla extract.
- Mix them together and then add the eggs, one at a time and beat until combined and of a ribbony texture.
- It a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with the caster sugar until they form medium peaks.
- Add one third of the egg white mixture to the batter and mix to combine.
- Add the remaining egg white mixture to the batter and gently fold in until combined, As it is just about combined add the melted butter as well.
- Pour the batter into the baking tray, spreading it to cover the entire tray.
- Place in the oven and cook for 6 to 8 minutes until slightly brown on top and springy to the touch.
- Remove from the oven and slide on to a wire rack, to cool, still with the parchment paper attached.
- Heat the cream until it is boiling.
- Place the chocolate into a heat proof bowl.
- Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir gently until the chocolate has melted and fully combined with the cream. Set aside to cool.
- Remove the paper from the sponge.
- Position the sponge, long side facing you.
- Cut the sponge into six strips of equal widths, NOTE the long side should be divided into the six strips, so each strip is the length of the short side.
- Take some chocolate mixture and spread over one strip of sponge. Make sure that the chocolate is an even thickness as possible.
- Repeat the process with each of the remaining strips.
- Place the strips one upon the other, so you have sponge,choc, sponge,choc, etc in six layer of each.
- Place in the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to firm up. The sponge will firm up too, that is good for the next steps.
- When it has firmed up remove the cake from the fridge. Turn onto its’ side, so that the layers are pointing upwards.
- The length of the cake is probably too long to make a decent pyramid, so cut it in half, to make two shorter lengths.
- Take one half of the cake, laying on its’ side still, and cut in two, diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner.
- You now have two triangles. Stand one up and the take the other and stand it against the first one, so the long sides are together. Now you have the pyramid. Repeat the process with the other half of the cake.
- You now have two pyramids. You can either coat each of these in chocolate, leaving the layered ends exposed, or you can put both cakes together to make a longer one, sandwiching them together with chocolate before applying the coating.
- Use a fork to create wavy lines on the chocolate.
- Allow to firm up.