Baking Truffle Cakes: Common Mistakes And Fixes

Baking truffle cakes can be a tricky task when you don’t have much experience with baking. Common mistakes can happen which can ruin your cake and make all the efforts you put in go to waste. To mitigate the common mistakes and to bake a perfect truffle cake with hazelnuts and Silk center, follow these useful tips and become a pro at baking chocolate cake at the comfort of your kitchen.

Mistake 1: Overbaking

If you are a beginner or not too experienced with using a microwave oven and baking cake at home, overbaking would be a frequently occurring challenge for you. When this happens, the cake turns dry and loses its rich and fudgy texture and it turns into a brick in the worst cases. To fix this, start checking the doneness of the cake 5-10 minutes before the original cook time. To do this, insert a toothpick into the middle of the cake and if it comes out with a few moist crumbs then the cake has achieved the desired texture.

For even baking, bake at a lower temperature like 160°C/325°F.

Mistake 2: Using Cold Ingredients

When you use butter, eggs, and cream straight out of the fridge, the batter doesn’t emulsify properly and result in an uneven texture. To fix this, always use room temperature eggs, butter, and cream, and if you have kept them in the fridge, let them sit out for 30 minutes before using in the recipe. This will help in even mixing and create a homogenous texture.

Mistake 3: Using Low-Quality Chocolate

Low-quality chocolate can bring the worst impact on flavor and texture of the cake. When chocolate is not authentic and made with the use of artificial flavors and additives, the taste is not as wholesome as you were expecting. Low-quality chocolate brings a weak flavor, melts poorly and even ruins the texture of batter, and leaves a gritty finish after the cake is baked. To fix this, always use real chocolate like Dairy Milk Silk chocolate or Bournville Dark chocolate with 60–70% cocoa for intense flavor. Avoid compound chocolate and go for couverture or high-quality baking chocolate.

Mistake 4: Skipping the Cooling Time

Cake is coated with ganache which needs to be set in the fridge to hold shape and stay on the surface. If the ganache is not set properly, the cake can crumble and ganache can slide off. To avoid this, let the cake cool completely before adding the ganache frosting so it doesn't crumble, and after you add ganache, chill it again for 20–30 minutes before slicing it to serve.

Mistake 5: Ganache Too Thin or Too Thick

Ganache is the most important part of the cake. It becomes the frosting as well as the layering of the cake. To enhance the pleasure, ganache needs to be perfectly thick to give you the utmost pleasure. When it is too thick, it doesn't stay on the cake’s surface and runs off. When it is too thick, it becomes hard to spread and may create uneven texture. To make a pourable ganache, use 1:1 ratio of chocolate to cream and to get a thicker truffle consistency, use chocolate and cream in 2:1 ratio.

Mistake 6: Overmixing the Batter

Batter needs to be mixed only enough so that the ingredients are combined homogeneously and perfectly airy so that the cake turns spongy and moist. When the batter is overmixed, the cake can become dense or rubbery. To avoid this, the batter should be mixed until the ingredients are just combined, especially after adding the flour. Fold the batter gently to preserve air and not deflate it.

Mistake 7: Not Prepping the Pan Properly

Cake can stick to the pan and break apart when you don’t line the pan properly. To make it easier to remove the cake from the pan, always grease and line your pan with parchment paper. Some might also dust it with flour for better removal but when you are making a chocolate cake, always dust it with cocoa powder.

Conclusion:

With these tips and tricks, you can make a flawless truffle cake with hazelnuts and Silk center at home anytime the moment calls. Head to the recipe available on the website and make sure to try it yourself.