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asked January 20th 2014

Chocolate cake height and put in fridge?

I have made Paul’s chocolate cake a few times now the first one I made was perfect but since then the tops always come out very hard and sunk. Once I have cut the tops off I don’t get a great height ( 2.5″ once ganached and covered with sugarpaste.) so the last couple of times I have made 2 cakes so then I get a good height. But as you can imagine this means double the ingredients and more cost! . I have tried a few different recipes and I get a better height but not as moist. Does Paul always use one cake for each of his cakes ?. Also in Paul’s tutorial he talks at the end about putting the cake in the fridge. How long can you leave it in the fridge for before cutting and filling and covering? When freezing the cake, would you then put in int he fridge once it has defrosted?

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I have made Paul’s chocolate cake a few times now the first one I made was perfect but since then the tops always come out very hard and sunk. Once I have cut the tops off I don’t get a great height ( 2.5″ once ganached and covered with sugarpaste.) so the last couple of times I have made 2 cakes so then I get a good height. But as you can imagine this means double the ingredients and more cost! . I have tried a few different recipes and I get a better height but not as moist. Does Paul always use one cake for each of his cakes ?. Also in Paul’s tutorial he talks at the end about putting the cake in the fridge. How long can you leave it in the fridge for before cutting and filling and covering? When freezing the cake, would you then put in int he fridge once it has defrosted?

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Hi t4ssy

Paul recommends to freeze the cake after cooling to allow the crust to soften. Remove from freezer the night before it is requires and trim the tops. I use all the soft trimmings in the centre of the cake to give extra height. It can be mixed in with a little ganache if too crumbly. My cake turns out about the same height as yours. After ganache and icing it stands a respectable 3 inches and nothing is wasted.
Paul uses one cake in the tutorials which he halves, fills with a deep layer of ganache. The ganache crumb coat, icing and decoration all add to the final height of the cake. In the tutorials crumb coated cakes are placed in the fridge after each application of ganache for setting purposes. It’s absolutely fine to do this. If you are not decorating a defrosted cake immediately, wrap it well in parchment paper and heavy duty freezer bag before refrigerating. This is to retain the moisture in cake, uncovered cakes lose moisture and become dry. After the final crumb coating and setting of ganache the cake is iced and decorated. Once iced, cakes should not be refrigerated and defrosted cakes must not be frozen again. Hope this helps.

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Hi Madeitwithlove

Thank you for replying and so quickly. Would you always recommend to freeze this cake? So make it in advance. I’m fairly new to cake baking seem to be learning something new everyday and I’m only making a cake a week so I have time to concentrate. So I tend to make the cakes wrap them well, give them time to settle overnight then start to fill, cover the next day and then decoatre the day after that. If I’m making the cake and using it in the same week what is best to do to soften the crust?

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I always freeze this cake, it helps to soften the crust and better for slicing in half. Making in advance is a good idea, it takes the stress out of doing everything all at once and it will also help soften the crust if the cake has been frozen for a few days. All you’ll need to do is take it out of the freezer as you need it. I usually slice mine while it’s still a little frozen because it handles better. By the time you get the filling in it will have defrosted all the way through ready for crumb coating. A cold cake also helps the crumb coat to set more quickly. Once all the ganaching is done let the cake sit at room temperature for a while so everything settles to a nice hard shell then ice, decorate and place in cake box in a cool place.
When you crumb coat follow all Paul’s tutorial steps, this way you will get the very best results, nice flat surface, no bulging and sharp edges especially if you’re doing a square cake. Because you’re still learning take your time, sometimes it’s tempting to rush things and the result ends up being less pleasing.
Keep referring back to the free/beginners section and of course keep posting if you need more help. If you put in the above search box ‘freezing chocolate cake’ you’ll see lots of answers which will help with successful freezing.

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Thank you I’ll be making some next week and freezing them!

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