Hey there , im planning on baking a cake with the following combinaton
german chocolate cake base with 3 layers of filling
1) Chocolate praline buttercream
2) Raspberry/strawberry mousseline
3) Some sort of crispy chocolatey element
Prolly frosted with ganache

Does this sound ok or like overkill? Im also confused abt the chocolate cake, i love the chocolate butter cake and the german chocolate ( the only 2 i ve made so far =D ) BUT the last time i made the chocolate butter cake i had a problem with the bottom crust sticking ot the pan , i got the cake out in a piece but i had a fine moss like bottom crust stuck to the parchment in the pan..

I think that either the fruit or the praline would be lovely, but I’m not sure about putting them together, especially the caramel and raspberry.  I think it may be hard to put those two flavors together, with chocolate, without bringing out the bitterness in them. 

Perhaps if you go that route, it might be safest to do a test run?  You could bake a little ramekin or cupcake sized cake along with the larger ones, then layer with the fillings before you confirm the makeup of the larger cake.

re: the sticking chocolate butter cake, did you use shortening to grease the pan, then put down the parchment and grease again over the parchment and finally dust with flour?  Did you allow the cake to cool in the pan longer than 10 minutes?

The thought of the fruit with the other flavors does not sound appealing to me.  And, isn’t the praline buttercream a crunchy element?  Basically, I think it is too much going on! 

I just love the cake in the german chocolate cake.  I am making it tonight.

The German Chocolate Cake base is awesome!  I have to agree with others that the flavour combination would be confusing together.  The chocolate praline buttercream and a crispy chocolate element together would be nice, but I don’t think the fruit would work so well with those flavours.  Similarly, the Raspberry ganache (because it also contains white chocolate) can work well as a filling and then the white chocolate mouselline makes a nice frosting.  I think it really boils down to not having too much going on and harmonizing the flavours and still being able to taste/appreciate the individual components.  I made a wedding cake with the chocolate praline buttercream and found it was quite difficult to pair with a chocolate cake that didn’t overpower the subtle flavours of buttercream.  Good luck and let us know what you try!

thank you for all your inputs ! I personally love the pairing of the german chocolate cake and praline chocolate buttercream , it is not crunchy for me cause i use the valrhona praline paste which isnt crunchy, a little lumpy but gets broken up nicely on stirring! I suppose i could just go with two layers of chocolate praline buttercream and one layer of crispy ferrero filling and then frost with ganache. Just thought of raspberry mousseline cause i ve seen so many raspberry/chocolate combinations going around i figured a thin layer of it would provide a nice fruity contrast… i def want to ganache the outside as im planning on trying out fondant for this particular cake and way i hear, ganache provides a nice firm base for the fondant to stay on sharp !

chocoholic - 09 March 2013 09:31 AM

thank you for all your inputs ! I personally love the pairing of the german chocolate cake and praline chocolate buttercream , it is not crunchy for me cause i use the valrhona praline paste which isnt crunchy, a little lumpy but gets broken up nicely on stirring! I suppose i could just go with two layers of chocolate praline buttercream and one layer of crispy ferrero filling and then frost with ganache.

Ooooo, sounds great!