My very Own Combination- Chocolate Nougatine Cake

Last time I made the ''as beautiful as my mum'' cake (wow, that's a long....name). It's actually my first try on baking without recipe. It came out...well, beautifully. If you love the combination of cream and cake, you'll love it. But, if you're a cake lover, but not a very big fan of cream IN the cake, then you won't like it very much. Anyhow.......... This cake came out great. It's CHOCOLATE with PEANUT! Perfect combination.... Essentially, it suppose to be chocolate with hazelnut praline. BUT....You know.......~.~ Hazelnuts are very very expensive. I really can't afford it. It's TRIPLE the price of peanut. Think twice....trice.........Peanut is a good friend with chocolate too.... So, in this case, Chocolate and peanut got married. I didn't know there is something called ''Praline''~~ Oww, what a beautiful name. Back to old times, my mum bought me a cake similar to this one , almost every year as my birthday cake. In fact, That cake gave me this inspiration. I once asked my mum the name of this cake .(since I've eaten it so many years...=_= hehe ) Do you know what did she say? ''BALI LOSAK'' ??? what the...? '' Bali losak?'' ''are you sure this is it's name? it doesn't sound as delicious as it is...'' '' I don't know, my friends told me that. We all call it like that.'' Therefore, we called it ' bali losa'. Can you imagine? '' Ma, I want ' bali losa ' for my birthday next year. '' ''Hey that cake's delicious! what's its name?'' '' Bali losa. '' After so many years of ''Bali Losa'', I finally found out it's real name. '' Pralinosa '' Do you see how beautiful it's name is? Pralinosa. It's like that combination of 'Praline' and 'Rosa'. (I think it means rose...I THINK....) And we all called it bali losa. Oh my lord. I've taste the cake for so many years. Over and over again. (once a year of course) I remember this perfect taste. But I can't bake one just like it. It's hard. I can't find out how can the cake has a Oreo biscuit base? How did they do that? With all the question marks.... I still baked this baby.

Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake
adapted by Hershey's

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa (I used the dark cocoa this time)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (I used regular milk)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.

Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans, and flip over onto wire racks. Cool completely. 10 to 12 servings.

After it's cooled, cut both cakes into half, that makes 4 layers of cake.

for the praline cream

crushed peanut praline

whipped cream

-Fold both ingredients in together.

To make the Peanut praline: combine 200 grams of toasted peanut and 200 grams of icing sugar in a saucepan. At low heat, heat up the peanuts and sugar. stirring continuously.Until the sugar is melted and turning brown, (the mixture is probably bubbling) Remove from heat and spread them evenly on a parchment paper. When it's completely cooled, it should be in hard candy form.

Process them in a prossesor just till they are look like rice crisps. And that's enough already, you don't want peanut butter.

To make the Whipped cream: whip up 150 ml of whipping cream with 1 tablespoon of icing sugar.

For the Chocolate Ganache:

300ml heavy cream

300g dark chocolate

-Heat up the cream in a saucepan with low heat. Meanwhile, place the chocolate in a large bowl. Pour the hot cream into the bowl. Don't stir, wait for the cream to melt the chocolate. About 50 seconds to 1 minute later, stir the ganache until it's well mixed. It's a bit thick-liquid like at this point, but after you refrigerate it, it will thicken. (just like truffles)

To assemble: Place the first cake layer on a cake board. Pipe the truffle-like ganache over the edge of the cake to prevent the praline cream filling peak out from the edge. Repeat this step until the forth layer is place on top of the cake. Frost the whole cake with Ganache frosting. Last, the fun part, Decorate it.



Although I didn't have a high megapixel camera, digital camera , even good photo-shooting skill. But, like everyone, I want my art A.K.A my cake to have it's very own splendid moment.