Super Three Layers Chocolate Cake

Today we had a (vegan) birthday in the "Club family". Hence, we though of a super cake to celebrate: by far our most daring cake project so far!

We truly liked the idea of a three layers chocolate cake with different fillings and so we decided to go that way. Using online resources and a variety of cookbooks, we finally came to this recipe (a bit improvised to be honest!): it seems VERY elaborated but it is not really. We managed to clean after ourselves and the final result was pretty worth the effort!


SUPER THREE LAYERS CHOCOLATE CAKE

INGREDIENTS

For the chocolate sponge layers:
(adapted from this recipe from Fat Free Vegan to be cooked in a microwave)
Biggest sponge:
-1 cup flour
-3/4 cup water
-one dash of salt
-2/3 cup sugar
-1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
-2 tablespoons cocoa
-2 teaspoons baking powder
Medium Sponge:
-1/2 cup flour
-3/8 cup water
-one dash of salt
-half a teaspoon natural vanilla extract
-1 tablespoon cocoa
-1 teaspoon baking powder
Smallest Sponge:
-1/4 cup flour
-1/4 cup water
-one dash of salt
-1/4 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
-1/2 tablespoon cocoa
-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

For the fruit fillings:
-one banana
-200 grams of cherries
-one and a half kiwis
-half a cup of soy milk
-150 grams of sugar
-agar agar flakes

For the chocolate filling and frosting:
-200 grams dark chocolate
-200 grams sugar
-half a cup of soy milk

For the pink icing:
-half a cup of icing sugar
-5 red cherries

Plus you will need three pyrex microwaveble deep dishes to cook the sponge cakes in.

PREPARATION
Start making the three spongy layers.
Start with the biggest one. Mix all ingredients and put in the largest pyrex deep dish, previously well oiled on the bottom and sides and generously dusted with cocoa powder (use a fine colinder for this operation, needed to take out the cake easily from the baking dish). Cook at 750 W for about 7 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. After the cake has rised and cooked, take it out of the pyrex using a lid or a plate (for us was enough to turn the cake upside down to make it come out easily). Put on a cooling rack and when the cake is at room temperature, slice it in two disks.
Do the same for the other two layers. The medium one should cook about 5.5 minutes, while the smallest one should cook for about 4 minutes.

While the layers cool, start preparing the fruit fillings, one for each sponge you made.
Start with the banana, which in our case went at the bottom. Put the banana in a blender and blend until it is a smooth cream. Add 75 grams of sugar, about 1 teaspoon of agar agar flakes and some soy milk to get a smooth, liquid cream. Put in a small pot and bring to boil. Boil until the cream starts to thicken. Spread on the bottom layer of the largest sponge cake. Cover with the other half.
Take the kernel out of the cherries and blend with 50 grams of sugar and 3/4 teaspoons of agar agar. Add soy milk as needed to get the same consistency of the banana cream. Put on the stove and boil until it thickens. Spread in between the two middle disks.
Do the same with the kiwi, adding the remaining sugar and just half a teaspoon of agar agar and place in between the two smallest disks.

Now, to 'glue' the three layers together, prepare a creamy and soft chocolate frosting.
Melt the dark chocolate with the sugar and the soy milk. Make sure all the sugar has dissolved. Spread a generious layer of cream on the top of the largest sponge and put the medium on it. Then coat the top of the medium layer with the same cream and put the smallest sponge in place.
Don't give up now! You are almost done!
Carefully fill all the holes with the chocolate cream and then proceed to cover with it the entire cake, proceeding from top to bottom. Make sure to put an even layer on the cake and to cover well all areas! Try to even the surface as much as you can.
Let the chocolate frosting set for at least one hours before doing anything else.

At this point squeeze in your hand the cherries (with a knife make some cuts on the cherry skin before, so to get out as much juice as you can), collecting the red juice in a small cup. Add in the icing sugar (enough to get a pretty solid consistency). This extremely simple procedure gave us a fantastically pink icing sugar (our celebrated one was a girlie!), just that shade of pink that screams 'artificial colourings!' Yet, it is totally natural! We were super happy of the result.

Put the icing sugar in a decorating pen (or a clean plastic glove with a small hole in one of the fingers) and decorate the three layers with the best design you can think of and let it set.

Wait for the candles to blow and slice your deliciously sinful three layers cake! Enjoy!
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We believe we got all the entries for the "Cooking with Quinoa contest" and we plan on opening the votes tomorrow. Any late comer?