Today I have a small three-tiered chocolate wedding cake for 10-12 people for you. This is a chocolate cake, which is filled with blackberry cream and frosted with a delicious chocolate frosting. I decorated it with fresh blackberries (duh), figs, and rosemary sprigs. I wanted to do three tiers even though there were few guests because I find it looks prettier than one plain cake. As the wedding took place at the end of September, I wanted to make sure to use seasonal ingredients and for it to taste like fall. Other than the wedding cake with chocolate drip, this one would remain plain, the main feature it being a chocolate wedding cake. I knew I was going to decorate it with fresh fruit and herbs of the season.
Keep in mind that this was still a small cake even though it has three tiers. The dimensions were bottom tier 15cm, middle one 11cm and top one 7cm. In height it was only 25cm total. The bottom tier being slightly taller with 9cm, followed by the second and third tier of around 8cm. Imagine for the top tier to be slightly taller and wider than a muffin and you get the idea. I decided to make only one filling and have the same base throughout. So this is a pretty chocolaty cake. I brushed it with some syrup containing rum and used the blackberry cream as a nice counterpart to all the chocolate. I believe this is a perfect cake for chocolate lovers. The bride actually asked for a lot of chocolate, so she did get chocolate. Since this was a wedding taking place in fall, I knew that I would pair it with blackberry.
What I learned while making this cake:
- It never is a good idea to try completely new recipes for a wedding cake if you don’t do a trial run. Yes, it was for a few people, but still, I shouldn’t have risked it.
- The blackberry filling I had chosen was not working. Originally it called for agar agar, a vegetarian gelling agent, but it simply didn’t thicken. So I gave it double the amount, still not working. Then I tried another thickener with cornstarch, but still, it was a soupy mess. I finally gave in a tried gelatine and then it became the right consistency.
- For that reason I switched out the recipe for the filling below. I used my beloved recipe for raspberry filling, which has served me well and it very sturdy. I swapped the raspberries for the blackberries and also reduced the sugar a bit.
- If a filling needs four times more gelling agents than what the original recipe calls for, you need to have a plan B. I am so relieved this only happened with this small wedding cake I made. I probably would have gone insane if this had happened during the wedding cake I made for 100 people. You will get a lot of tips on what to think of when making a large wedding cake in this blog post.
- Another take-away for me was that a three-tiered wedding cake alwas requires more work than two tiers. Even if you go for the same filling and same cake base. This simply has to do with the fact that three tiers means frosting three cakes, not two, so keep this in mind.
- I made the cake base and the syrup on Friday, on Saturday I made the filling and frostin and I assembled the cakes. On Sunday I stacked and decorated them. Saturday was the main day and I had enough time to solve all the issues with the blackberry filling. Sunday was already more relaxed because it probably took about half an hour to stack and decorate the cake. You will find a lot of tips on how to plan and schedule a good timeframe for making a wedding cake in this blog post.
Credit: Chocolate cake and chocolate cream from Sally’s Blog (in German)
This three-tired chocolate wedding cake with blackberry filling contains chocolate cake layers, a raspberry filling and is then frosted with a chocolate frosting. I decorated the exterior with fresh figs, blackberries and rosemary. For the cake layers line the bottom of two 15cm, 11cm, and 7cm (these were dessert rings for me) with parchment paper and preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Melt the butter. In a large bowl whisk together eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract. Then add the buttermilk and yoghurt to the butter to cool it off and then transfer this mix to the bowl. Whisk together. Now add the remaining ingredients, only whisk until you see no lumps, do not overmix. Pour into prepared baking pans. You want the 15cm and 11 cm to be the tallest, you will cut the 15cm and 11cm in half and will have four layers each. For the smallest I only had three layers at the end. Divide batter accordingly. Bake for about 40min or an inserted toothpick comes out clean, you may need to take out the smallest a bit earlier. The cake layers can be prepared one to two days in advance if wrapped tightly and chilled. For the sugar syrup bring water and sugar to a boil until the sugar dissolved. Add the alcohol, stir and set aside. You can also prepare the syrup a few days in advance if kept in a sterilized bottle. For the blackberry cream bring blackberries and sugar to a boil, reduce heat a bit and simmer until the fruit has softened, puree once, then return back to the heat. Meanwhile prepare cornstarch in a mug with a bit of water, stir until you see no lumps. Stir in the cornstarch into the hot blackberries and cook for at least a minute until the mixture has thickened. Set aside and let cool. Beat the butter for 5-10 minutes and slowly add the cooled-off blackberry mix by the spoonful. Only add the cream cheese at the end and mix until everything has combined. For the chocolate frosting heat heavy cream in a pot until it almost boils. Then add the chopped up chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted and you have a homogeneous mixture. Set aside, do not chill in the fridge but keep at room temperature. Now beat the butter with the icing sugar for 5-10 minutes, add all the remaining ingredients and beat until you have a nice smooth cream. I recommend chilling the cream for about 20minutes so that the butter hardenes a little and you are sure it is sturdy enough when you are going to pipe onto the cake. Now we are going to assemble the cake. First cut the 15cm and 11cm cake layers in half so that you have 4 per cake. For the 7cm I only cut it in 3 layers. Now we will soak each cake layer with the syrup, pipe a chocolate ring all around the edges and fill the center with blackberry cream. Once done with the first layer, stack the second on top, repeat, and do the same with the third layer. Be sure to place the fourth layer upside down so that you have a very straight edge. Once you have assembled all cakes, frost each one thinnly with the chocolate frosting. I chilled mine overnight prepared like this. Even though this is a smaller cake, I still used thick straws as pillars in the bottom and second cake layer. I also use cakeboards in between. I used some of the chocolate cream as a "glue" between each tier and also used it to smooth out the edges. Shortly before serving I decorated with fresh blackberries, figs and rosemary sprigs (see pictures).Three-Tired Chocolate Wedding Cake with Blackberry Filling
Ingredients
Instructions
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