Domo-kun cake

It was my friend Thuy Lam's Birthday and I had organised for a few of the girls to go eat at Kobe Jones where we paid for her dinner. But then there is always that issue of dessert. I wasn't sure on what to make but then while browsing online for cake ideas I came across Billy (from masterchef 2011) blog http://www.atablefortwo.com.au/, where he had published a recipe for domo-kun cake. And that is where the concept of this cake came from.

Instead of using the chocolate recipe that Billy used, I used a recipe called Thunder Cake. This recipe was found one day when my sister's boyfriend had a dream about a Thunder Cake, and with the luck of Google a great recipe was found. I know that the tomato puree may sound like a turn off but it makes the cake nice and light, yet dense.

THUNDER CAKE RECIPE
Ingredients

250g of softened butter
1 3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs, separated
1 cup cold water

1/3 cup tomato puree

2 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup dry cocoa
11/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. 

2. Using an electric beater or mixer, cream together butter and caster sugar until well combined. 
3. Continue mixing and slowly add 1 egg yolk at a time. Once combined stir in vanilla extract.
4. Add in water, and tomato puree.
5. Sift in plain flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt
6. Fold in all together. (For a smoother consistency use an electric beater or mixer for 2 minutes or until well combined)

7. In a seperate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks.

8. Fold into the mixture.

9. Grease desired baking tins and pour in mixture evenly.**HINT: Bang the trays on a hard flat surface to even the mixture**
10. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes. (time can vary depending on what type of tin is being used)
11. Leave to cool before icing or refrigerate.

**NOTE: This recipe is normally for 2 round 20 - 22 cm tins, I used this amount for 1 square 21cm and another one that was 20. This same amount of recipe can make 24 cupcakes, and 48 mini cupcakes.***


ENJOY!


CHOCOLATE GANACHE
I used atablefortwo's chocolate ganache recipe for the cake but slightly changing the quantity.

200g of good quality dark chocolate
100g of good quality milk chocolate
300ml of cup of thickened cream

***NOTE: I used Whittaker's normal block chocolate because I find it tastes better then cooking chocolate even though it may take longer to melt***

1. In saucepan heat up the cream until just boiled and add the chocolate.
2. Turn down the heat to medium to low and continually stir until all chocolate is melted and has a glossy appearance.
3. Pour into a bowl and leave aside to cool or cover and refrigerate.

I made both the cake and the ganache a night before so it was fully cooled to be able to cut into shape and cooled enough to do a crumb coat. I covered the cake with foil, and the ganache with cling wrap before refrigerating over night.

ASSEMBLY OF CAKE

Now here is where the fun begins!

First I had to cut the cakes so they were even and flat. I left the big cake for the main body and the smaller one for the legs and arm. The original plan was to do as Billy did, but since I used one tin that was smaller, it didn't quite work so I had to stick the corners back to the cake.

 Flat and evened cakes

To do the legs and arms cut the smaller cake into quarters. Leaving 2 quarters for the legs and 2 for the arms. For the 2 arms, cut each quarter in half diagonally and adjust to how wide you want the arm. Once it cut to size, use the first arm as template for the second arm so they are both the same.

Since the ganache was refrigerated overnight I microwaved it for a bit to melt and started the crumb coat of the cake with the help of my sister. Once the crumb coat was applied, the cake was refrigerated for 1 hour, and then the final coat of ganache was applied. We then started to fill in the gaps between the joints of the arm and legs with ganache and flattened the ganache. (using an offset and 30cm flat icing spatulas)

For the mouth, we rolled out white icing and red fondant into 2 rectangles of different sizes (white icing can be bought from most supermarket, and the red fondant was bought from a cooking specialty store in Penrith). To roll out fondant dust some icing sugar on a hard surface and knead and roll into desired size (similar to working with sough). The white icing the rectangle was cut in half and teeth were cut out using a pointed knife, we then used the first set of teeth as a cut out for the second. We then places the teeth onto the mouth  (trimmed off excess icing) with a bit of water and sprayed it with some canola so it was shiny. Then placed it on the cake.

For the eyes I used to dark chocolate melts (any circular melts are fine) and coated them with black writing icing.

With left over fondant I used letter cut outs to spell HAPPY BIRTHDAY THUY LAM.


 Good food, good times!