Tri-Chocolate Sponge Cake

This is by far the best sponge cake I've baked. However, this cake nearly cannot make it, and almost landed into the trash.

Firstly, the beating of chocolate sponge cake batter goes quite well, until after i put the batter into the oven to bake that i realised that i have mis-read 30g cocoa powder to 20g. Think my eyes were playing tricks on me *@@*.

Next was the chocolate mousse. The recipe and steps look simple, and i almost follow to the T, except when i separate the egg white & yolk, i was too quick and everything when into the batter. The problem is, that was the last 2 eggs in my fridge. So i'm left with only 1 egg white, which apparently is too little to create a proper mousse. The mixture doesn't like mousse at all, and was very runny.

Followed by the chocolate ganache, which i use it as the top coat for the cake. The previous time i did a ganache (for cocoa puff cream cake), i mentioned to reduce the milk or butter. But after looking at a few ganache recipes, the ratio seems to be the same for all, so i tried it again. It was still very runny by the time i wanted to use it. So i 'cleverly' prepared gelatine to be added to the 2 runny mixture - mousse and ganache. It did solidify a litte bit, and i started to spread the mousse in the centre of cake. The mousse didn't stay and kept flowing to the side of the cake. Anxious to get things done because we are going out, i quickly put another layer of cake on top of the mousse, and started spreading the ganache over the cake. This time it got worse, its even more runny than the mousse. Things just flow like volcano lava. "What a heck", i just kept pouring the ganache and left it to flow in the baking tray. I told T "this is going to be another failure!", but whatever it is, i just put the cake into the fridge, hoping to save it, if possible.

I'm left with half a portion of chocolate ganache and mousse, and since i thought they are not what they are supposed to be, i threw them away.

To my surprise, after about half an hour, i check out the cake in the fridge, the chocolate ganache has solidified >*yippy*<>

Ingredients:

Chocolate Sponge Cake

(a) Egg Yolk Mixture
3 egg yolks
50g sugar
120g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
50g olive oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

(b) Cocoa Mixture
30g cocoa powder
120g warm water

(c) Egg White Mixture
3 egg whites
1/4tsp cream of tartar
60g sugar

1. Preheat oven to 175 deg. Lined the cake tin.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Mix (a).
4. Mis (b) in another bowl, and stir till smooth.
5. Add cocoa mixture into egg yolk mixture, and stir till smooth.
6. Beat egg white with cream of tartar for 1 min, then add in sugar gradually till egg white become fluffy and reach soft peak stage.
7. Fold in egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture gently.
8. Bake for 40-45 mins.
9. Leave cake to cool.

Chocolate Mousse
2 eggs, separated
50g cocoa powder
4 tbsp warm water
1 tin Nestle cream (170g)
2 tbsp sugar

1. Mix the cocoa and sugar with water to make a paste.
2. Add the egg yolks, beat mixture until creamy and then add Nestle cream.
3. In another bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff then fold into chocolate mixture gently.
4. Cool and spread onto cake.

Chocolate Ganache
200g chocolate
100g whipped cream
10g butter

1. Cut chocolate into pieces.
2. Put all ingredients into bowl, and melt using double-boil method.
3. Cool and spread onto cake.