party cake making 1: chocolate mud cake & chocolate ganache

our dinner party is coming up in sept... we'll need a cake for the occasion... do we really have to spend several hundred dollars or would it be possible to DIY?
in the spirit of saving a few bucks & spending money on learning than buying, i got a hold of this book...

a really well set out book with easy instructions... lets hope the "making of" would be easy as well... first up - chocolate mud cake (which can keep for 3 weeks in a tight container in the fridge), as opposed to the other cakes (white mud cake, orange almond cae, carrot cake etc - also in the book) which can only last 1 week in the fridge... freezing will increase their lifespan though...
the ingredients were easy to get enough... but now i realise why spending $21 purchasing a tiny tiny mud cake (diameter 10cm) last weekend was justified... the chocolate required for the cake and ganache amounted to 6 packs of 250g!!! That's 1.5 kg of chocolate! if i was to buy valrhona courveture... i would go broke! lucky there was the supermarket brands to experiment with for now...

i also found "ready to roll fondant" in the supermarket! i was about to buy glycerine, gelatine etc to make my own...

first, i melted butter 220g, dark chocolate 220g, coffee granules 25g , water 160mL in a saucepan with low heat & set aside
remembering, " don't burn the chocolate" ... i kept stirring...

then it was time for the dry stuff - plain flour 125g, SR flour 125g, cocoa 50g, bi carb 1/2 tsp - all sifted twice together...

480g of castor sugar was mixed in... the homogenous colour was a good sign for an even mix...

a well was made in the middle to receive...

a mixture of 4 eggs, oil 7 tsp (grapeseed i used), buttermilk 100mL...
the now cooled down chocolate mix was added too...
i didn't mix to vigourously as recommended by the book - too much movement = many air bubbles & gluten development...
a 22cm round springform cake tin was oiled and lined with baking paper... the sides must stick up from the edge by at lease several cms to catch the rising cake...
i tried v hard to knock the cake tin to even the surface out and get rid of bubbles... but was not v successful...
so it went into the 160 celcius oven (initially fan-forced) for 1hr 40min...
while the cake was rising in the oven... it was time to get on with the ganache...
just checking...
the amount of chocolate was frightening! 1.2kg! broken up into pieces... the smaller the better...

600mL of single cream was heated to boiling point and poured over the chocolate pieces...
the heat melting the chocolate gradually... persistence in stirring was essential (my arm / wrist = quite sore now)

same thing as b4 - i didn't stir too hard! bubbles were not invited in the ganache
1hr 40min later the cake came out and passed the skewer test...

it was a tade wrinkly and crunchy on top... i should have stopped the "fan-forced" business at the beginning...

mud cake and ganache are now sitting on the kitchen bench... resting for the night. they could be kept in the fridge too - but must be brought back to room temp b4 the next stage...

*to be continued*