Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream

Preparation time 40 minutes

Total time: 4 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

Place milk chocolate in a bowl.
In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Pour hot cream over chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes without stirring. Whisk until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or until cream has cooled completely.

Place rack in centre of oven. Preheat oven to 180 °C (350 °F). Grease the sides of two 20-cm (8-in.) springform pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, buttermilk, oil and vanilla.
In a small bowl, whisk together cocoa powder and water. Add to egg mixture. Add dry ingredients and stir until smooth. Pour batter into pans.
Bake for 45–50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cake comes out clean. Cool completely on a rack. Remove from pans.

Using an electric mixer, whip milk chocolate whipped cream until firm peaks form but it is still spreadable. Remove 375 mL (1 ½ cups) whipped cream and transfer to a pastry bag or a plastic freezer bag with a pastry tip inserted into a cut-off corner.
Cut and remove tops of cakes to make them flat. Using a spatula, spread whipped cream evenly over cake slices. Layer cake slices on top of each other and place on a serving plate.
Place stencil on cake. Sprinkle with cocoa powder. Carefully remove stencil to reveal design.
Decorate top edge of cake with dots of chocolate whipped cream. Refrigerate until ready to serve. The cake keeps for 3 days under a cake dome in the refrigerator.

If you don’t have buttermilk, add 7.5 mL (1 ½ tsp.) white vinegar or lemon juice to 125 mL (½ cup) milk. Let stand for 5–10 minutes and stir.