A few months ago my mom gave me several baking cookbooks by Gesine Bullock-Prado. These books are works of art and the baked goods in them are just stunningly beautiful. For Mother's Day I decided to make a Chocolate Pyramid cake from the
Bake it Like You Mean It book.
Before I got down to the nitty gritty of baking I sat down and read the recipe and saw there was a discrepancy in the ingredients and the instructions. So what did I do? I sent a tweet to the author asking her for HELP! She was kind and replied and sent me the link where the recipe was correct. There was a mistake in the printing.
Shopping for the ingredients was pretty easy, nothing too crazy you cannot get at your neighborhood supermarket, except one thing. Vanilla Bean Paste. I had never heard of it until I started reading her books. Thankfully for me a few weeks ago I stopped by a cupcake/baking store in Redlands and they had it there and I knew I would be using it someday so I had to have it.
Saturday was my baking day because there are so many steps to this recipe and time between steps when things are in the freezer or the refrigerator.
This is what the batter looks like after you have folded in the eggs whites, cake flour and cocoa powder.
Spread the batter on a parchment lined half-sheet pan. You do not use butter or any non-stick spray since you want the batter to climb the edge of the pan.
Use an angled spatula to spread the batter out evenly on the half-sheet pan.
This is what the cake looks like after 10 minutes in the oven. It should spring back when touched. After it has cooled a bit cover the top of the cake with another sheet of parchment paper and place another sheet pan on top and weigh it down with heavy books. Doing this the cake levels out and becomes even since it may rise more in areas on the cake during baking.
Melt chocolate in a double boiler for the buttercream frosting and allow to cool before you add it to the butter, sugar, and egg mixture.
After the cake has cooled and you have removed the pan and the top layer of parchment paper and allowed the simple syrup to soak in, cut the cake into 4 equal slices and then begin layering the cake and the buttercream until you get to the 4th layer. Here you will cut the cake in half and cover the top of one half with more buttercream and add the other half.
Here is the cake in 8 layers. Here you will wrap the cake in plastic wrap and place in freezer for about one hour. When the hour is up you will then remove the cake from the freezer you will trim the 4 sides of the cake and then cut the cake in half at a 45° angle. You will then flip the cake and frost the inside of the half triangle you have now made.
This is what the cake should look like once you place the two sides together. Now you will take the cake and place it on a cooling rack over a pan where you will now cover the top with the ganache and sprinkle with cocoa powder.
This is my finished result. In hind site I should have trimmed the sides a little better before I put it on the platter. It's not a perfect cake but not bad for my first try. I did send the picture of this cake to the author and she responded, "You matched up the layers. That's rare thing for a first timer. You've got "the touch". I was speechless in receiving such a compliment from someone who does such incredible work.
As for the taste of this creation it is a chocolate lovers dream. It is rich and wonderful. Go ahead give it a try, you might surprise yourself in what you can do.
Thank you Gesine for the help and tips in making this cake. For those interested in trying out this cake go to for the recipe.
