With These Hands: Happy Friday and 200 viewer! (Dobash Cake)

Happy Friday! last night I got my 200th viewer! as I write this I have 220 views! Woot!! Woot!! I started posting on Jan 26, 2011 and less then a month I have 220 viewer! I know its not 220 different people.. surely my friends can account for at least 100 of it but I am very happy and also very thrilled to see people from other countries, well not surprise about Japan since that's my very good friend who visit me here often! but like Greece, Poland, Iceland, Puerto Rico, UK, Germany, etc so great to have you all here! well enough of the chit chat! on with the sweets!

I started thinking about my favorite sweets that screams celebration, I though and thought and remembered about when I lived in Hawaii and one of my favorite cake was Dobash cake, I am not a big cake person but this cake I do adore because its just sooooo good unlike American mixed box cakes its more light and fluffy it is very rich! So today I will share Dobash Cake recipe. If you live in Hawaii I suppose there is no need to make your own because you can just run down to your favorite bakery like Lenard's, Napoleon's, Dee-lite bakeries to name a few! they all have great Dobash cake but those of us who has no choice but to bake our own here it is.. What? you don't know what Dobash cake is? its a chocolate chiffon cake with Chocolate filling and frosting which is more like custard/pudding consistency instead of the traditional chocolate cream or butter cream frosting its plate full of chocolate goodness! Sooooo much better then the butter cream or the tub stuff yeek... some time later I will share my other recipes of the cakes I LOVE (Chantilly and Guava chiffon). Hope you give it a try its not that complicated!

***I think baking cake is like a science project and you want to be as exact as possible to get a good result so I use a food scale and weight the dry ingredients and use a good measuring cup for liquid. always scrape the top of spoons with a flat edged items like flat part of your butter knife to get a accurate measurement of the dry ingredients. I wrote down apx in cups if you don't own a food scale. You should get fairly good result but its not guaranteed. ***

Cake:
3 eggs separated,
1/2 tbsp water
3/8 tsp cream of tarter
300 gm sugar (apx 1-1/2cups)
180 gm cake flour (apx 1-1/2cups)
3/4tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
30gm cocoa powder (apx1/3 cups)
1/3 cup canola oil (any vegetable oil is ok)
1 cup milk

tip: when you separate the eggs, separate one at a time making sure you don't get any yolk mixed in with the white.. no oil or any fat in the white or it will not get stiff!!

Oil and flour 2- 8" pans I use cake release by Wilton just because it has not failed me yet!

in a large bowl add the egg white, water, and cream of tarter, if you have a electric stand mixer whip away and add 1/2cup of sugar when its starts frothing, whip until stiff peaks.

In a separate bowl, sift, cake flower, 1 cup sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and mix well. make a well in the center add oil and 1/2 cup of the milk. beat until smooth. add rest of the milk and yolk one at a time beat until sooth.

add a little of the stiff white eggs into the chocolate batter, mix then add the choco mix to the whites folding in gently. I use the balloon whisk but you can use what ever you feel comfortable with.

see how much bigger a balloon whisk is to a traditional whisk?

this video shows how I "fold"

once folded pour into 2 prepared 8inch pans, bake 350F for 30-35mins. cool cake!

while the cake is cooling we'll make the frosting.

1-1/2cup water
200gm sugar (apx 1cup)
1/4tsp salt
60gm unsalted butter (apx 1/4 cup)

45gm cocoa powder (apx 1/2 cup)
45 gm corn starch (apx 1/3cup)
1/2 cup water

in a saucepan combine 1-1/2 cup water, sugar, salt and butter on stove to bring to a boil, while the liquid is heating up, combine and sift cocoa and corn starch. Then add 1/2 cup water and mix to make a paste. Once the water/butter mixture comes to a boil, turn the heat off and add a little liquid to the chocolate paste, mix, add a little more liquid, mix, repeat this until the mixture is combined and lump free. return the chocolate liquid to saucepan on med heat and mix with a whisk until it come to a boil. Turn off heat, transfer to a different container to cool. if you find lumps you can pour it into a sieve while its hot or use a stick blender with the immersion blade to get the lumps out. cover with plastic wrap and wait for it to cool. (plastic wrap is put directly on the frosting to keep a skin from forming just like custards) mix well before frosting the cake with it.