Of Sambal And Snow: Dinner party baking

Had a little dinner party last night with MIL, FIL and husband's grandparents in conjunction with the annual Jazz festival in Askersund. Not that I remembered the jazz festival due to my poor memory nowadays and the pissy weather we have been having. Anyway, I suggested to husband that we invite some people (ie. his family. Who else do I know in this GH town right?) over simply bcos I had the biggest urge to bake a whole cake and it would be crazy to bake one just for the 2 of us. I wanted to do the works for the cake...frosting, vanilla cream, fruits and berries..so I did! I love summertime cos that is when all the fresh fruits and berries come out. Woo hoo!

Apart from the main cake, I also wanted to try making what I call chocolate mini melts, which are basically very small bite sized pieces of sponge cake (they call it sockerkaka here or sugar cake) dipped in chocolate ganache and topped with a piece of fruit or berry. Warning: High calorie alert! These sweet wonders are not for the weak hearted.

Chocolate Mini Melts

I used a simple sponge cake recipe and just cut out the shapes I wanted using a small cookie cutter.

Then dipped them in the ganache and let it set for a minute or two before pouring a little more ganache over the top to get a shinier glaze on top.

Then chilled it in the fridge so that the ganache can set.

Chocolate Ganache:-
1 cup double cream (told you it was rich)
1 cup dark chocolate (can use any type of baking chocolate but this is not as sweet which I prefer)
2-3 tbsp butter (can use more. It makes the ganache shiny. Who doesn't like shiny, right?)
a few tbsp sugar (depending on how sweet you want the ganache to be)

Use a blender or food processor and blend chocolate and butter together.

Heat cream and sugar in a small saucepan until simmering but not boiling.
With the blender at low speed, pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate mixture and blend until the chocolate has melted (this would be really quick).
Do not over blend or over handle the chocolate as it would lose its shine.
If mixture is too thin for your purpose, chill it in the fridge until it is at the right consistency.

And on to my main event, the frosted cake!! Used the same sugar cake recipe for the cake base and my fluffy white frosting to seal the deal.

Stage 1: I sliced the cake in half so i could sneak in a layer of home made vanilla cream and berries in the middle. It just makes the cake all that juicier and tastier.

Doesn't it look good enough to eat already? Hai...cannot wait.

Stage 2: Placed the cake top on and with haphazard precision, smothered my white frosting on the top. At this point, I could not decide whether to just frost the top as is or frost the whole thing. It's already so pretty and ready to eat as is!! DILEMMA!