24-Layer Chocolate Cake Recipe + FREE Gift (10th Anniversary Episode)

Bold Bakers, it is our 10 year anniversary of Bigger Bolder Baking. Can you even believe it? And I thought what better way to celebrate than with a ginormous 24 layer chocolate cake. This thing is going to blow your mind and the perfect recipe to celebrate this monumental occasion. Also, I want you to stay tuned to the end of this video and I'm going to show you how you can get your very own free digital cookbook with our top 10 recipes from Bigger Bolder Baking over the years. You are not going to want to miss it. Let's start out by making our cake. So into the bowl of my stand mixer, I'm going to add in my dry ingredients, some flour. We have sugar. Now I know this looks like a lot of sugar and it is, but we are making a cake, I would say for 30 people. It is going to be ginormous. Here I have some Dutch processed cocoa powder. Now for my cocoa powder, I love to use Rodel cocoa powder. It's organic and sustainably sourced. So this is my favorite and it's such good quality. So in there, and I like to sift it beforehand so there's no lumps. Dutch processed gives you a less acidic cocoa flavor and it has a richer flavor. It's also this beautiful brown color. I absolutely love it. Now into this we're going to add in some instant espresso powder. Now this is instant powder so it's going to dissolve in the cake when we add in our liquid. And we want espresso powder because unlike just regular coffee granules, it's like way stronger. It packs much more of a coffee punch. So we want espresso powder in there. Espresso powder, I use a lot in baking. I find it just like the concentrated flavor is just really great. Baking powder in there, baking soda, and our salt. I'm just going to turn on my mixer and let those ingredients combine until they're mixed well together. Once it's nice and combined, kind of on a lowish speed, add in your eggs. We add in oil. This is just a flavorless oil. I like to use vegetable oil. The oil keeps this cake really lovely and moist. Some vanilla extract for flavor. And then hot water. Really add in the water until your cake forms its smooth batter. I'm just going to go in and scrape down the side of my bowl just to make sure that everything is getting mixed because it's such a big cake. Now I'm just going to add in the last of my water. Lovely. Then just turn off that speed a little bit until it combines and it's lovely and smooth and silky just like this. If you would like to do this cake by hand, it is possible. I will just tell you you're going to need a lot of elbow grease and very big bowls. There you go. That's it. That's our cake batter. It couldn't be simpler. No creaming or anything like that. Just combine all the ingredients together. Now I'm going to take this and divide it between our pans. I have 9 inch pans here and they've been buttered and lined. And divvy up your cake batter as evenly as you can. If you want to weigh it on a weighing scale, you can do that also just to make sure that they're all the same. Look at that. If you're mixing this cake, make sure you go in with your spatula and give it a good mix around so there's no big lumps of batter. Nice. Now for those of you who have never heard of a 24 layer chocolate cake, it actually is kind of famous here in the United States in steak restaurants and you know all across the country you would see these you know steak restaurants or even barbecue places that would do these huge big giant slices of chocolate cake. It is 12 layers of cake and 12 layers of filling all covered with a beautiful ganache or you know a chocolate buttercream on the outside. We are doing ganache just to really send you over the edge. One thing I know about myself, I don't always love baking with chocolate because how messy my kitchen is afterwards. There's chocolate in the sink, there's chocolate on all the utensils, there's chocolate on my tea towels. Maybe I should just learn to be a cleaner cook. But after 10 years I haven't seemed to have improved so why change it out. Okay lovely. 4 cakes evenly divided I think roughly, sure why not. That's it. Okay I have my oven preheated, let's get them in there. We are baking these cakes with our fan on in our oven. 325 degrees Fahrenheit, 165 degrees Celsius. We're putting them on two different trays so we want that fan in the air to go all the way around the oven. If you don't have a fan in your oven then just do it on two different shelves and just rotate as they bake, that's not a problem. They might take a little bit longer. All in all the cakes are gonna take around 30 to 35 minutes. So here we am at the stove top because the filling that we're going to make is a little bit different. We're actually gonna make a chocolate pastry cream which I've never made before on Bigger Bolder Baking. It's absolutely delicious, it's rich, it is like bittersweet, it is just the perfect filling and it keeps the cake really moist. It's absolutely lovely. So we're gonna start out in a saucepan and I'm going to add in my milk. I guess it's full fat milk. We're making a big old batch of pastry cream because you know our cake is 24 layers. So we need pastry cream to go all between the layers. Now turn on that heat to like roughly a medium and let that come to a simmer. As it's doing that here I have some egg yolks and some whole eggs. They're at room temperature. To this I'm going to add in some sugar, whiskey whiskey, do do do do. Cocoa powder. Again, that's just regular cocoa powder. It is not a dutch process. We have done a mix. Then we're going to go in with our thickener which is corn starch, also known as corn flour. And a little bit of salt. You have to have salt in there when you're using chocolate. It just brings out all the lovely flavors. And then just give that a whisk together until it's combined and smooth. So for those of you who've been following Bigger Bolder Baking over 10 years, thank you very much. Where has the time gone? I've created almost 800 videos over the last 10 years which is just insanity when I think about like you know a 31 year old Gemma standing in my tiny kitchen in Santa Monica and Kevin pointing a camera at me and saying go. Hi everybody I'm Gemma and welcome to our very first episode of Bigger Bolder Baking. Some of the comments of the first videos were like she's not blinking. And it was just like, again nobody told me to blink. I was just baking. Nobody told me to smile, nobody told me to blink. I was just trying to get through a video. I did not like to have my photo taken, I did not like being on camera so this was a whole new world for me that I had to learn to get comfortable with which took me a very long time let me tell you. Now I really enjoy doing videos, I find it much easier and I enjoy being on camera. Okay so our milk has come to a simmer, I'm going to just temper these eggs a little bit, pour a little bit in just to get the same eggs, the temperature as the hot liquid so they don't go into shock when one hits the other. Just like that little bit at a time. Lovely lovely. Once your eggs have warmed up, pour that whole mix back into your pot. And now what we're going to do is we are going to cook this and whisk at the same time until our creme patisserie or pastry cream thickens nice and thick. It's going to take a few minutes and just keep that heat at a medium to low. So guess how many comments we have answered on all platforms over the last 10 years? One million comments. It's pretty insane on Facebook, on YouTube. We still try and answer as many comments as we can and we have people working in Hawaii, Ireland, the Philippines trying to get to all of your comments. You know when we first began Bigger Bolder Baking it was just Kevin and I and then we started to kill each other and we realized we're going to have to take on some more team members because this is not good for a married couple to do this by ourselves. So you know we created a team of like really some fantastic people over the years. My mom is there, we had Brian Barnes working with us for many years and he was fantastic. We have Joey, we have Viso, we have Megan who's editing this right now and making me look really good. Thank you Megan. We have Alma in the Philippines, we've got Rachel in Hawaii, we've got my mommy in Ireland, we've got Ami here in Los Angeles who's my culinary assistant. Camille on social media, Jet who does our design stuff and then I have my photography team I've got Carla who did my cookbooks, we have Daniella, we have Liv, Crouppen, we're growing and growing and growing and only getting better. If I forgot anybody I'm sorry but just so you know you're all very much appreciated. Okay so you can see now this is starting to bubble. So now it's got lovely and thick, I've turned off the heat and into this I'm going to add in some butter, cold butter, some vanilla extract and bittersweet chopped chocolate. Please use good quality because it'll make this so much better. And then just let that chocolate melt with the heat of the pastry cream. Look at that. This pastry cream is not just for filling cakes, it can also be used as a pudding set into little pots and a filling for eclairs. It is really versatile and absolutely yummy just as it is. One more mention that I almost forgot was Zach, Zach Powers was our cameraman for many years and we absolutely love him. I'm going to bring this over to the countertop, strain it and then we can move on to our next steps. So the last thing we want to do is just pour it through our sieve, oh my gosh it's a big old mix. We do this because we want to get rid of any lumps of cooked egg or corn starch. We want it to be lovely and smooth, especially if you're eating it as a pudding. Oh my gosh it smells delicious and that little bit of salt and bite of vanilla in there. Yummy. Yum even warm, it's like warm chocolate moussey yumminess. Now here's what we do, with creme patisserie pastry cream we always cover the surface with cling wrap because otherwise it can form a skin. I know it's still hot but just hear me out. I'm going to directly on there because if it gets a skin then it's not going to be lovely and silky like the way we want it. So what we're going to do is leave it at room temperature to cool down before we put it into the fridge to chill completely. It will need a few hours in the fridge. You can also do this the day before and have it ready to go for your cake. So you'll know when your cakes are done, oh my gosh I really wish you could smell these cakes right now they smell amazing. You will know when they're done if you just push the top of your cake and it's firm underneath your finger. You can also use a cake tester, I've never done that. These look great to me, they're nice and firm, they look fantastic. So now we're going to let them cool down before we turn them out of the tin. Then once they're cool we're going to wrap each individually and then pop them into the fridge for at least 4 hours. The reason that we do this is because we want the cake to be very cold when we're decorating, it makes life so much easier. You can also make them the day before. Note, you can also make this cake, wrap them and freeze them and that works really well too. So the third element of this cake is a milk chocolate ganache which will go around the outside of the cake. It's really easy to decorate with ganache so do not worry, it's also easy to make it. In a nice big bowl we're going to add in some chopped milk chocolate. Make sure that chocolate is chopped because it melts so much faster and it just means that we stir it less. We're going to put in a little bit of bittersweet in there just to get an extra kick of chocolate, a little bit of bitterness too which just gives lovely flavor. So over on the stove top I've got a pot of cream. Once it comes to a simmer we're going to pour that directly over the chocolate. Once your cream is in there let this mix sit for around 5 minutes and let that cream melt the chocolate all by itself. When you come back a few minutes later and give it a stir, you will have a beautiful velvety silky smooth ganache. So once your ganache is lovely and smooth just like this it's done. Now we're going to set this over to the side at room temperature. It's going to cool down and thicken all by itself. We don't need this for a little bit because we have to assemble our cake before this goes on so it's okay just to hang out. Okay it's assembly time. The first thing you want to do is divide each cake into three different layers. Now let me tell you something, get down nice and low, use a big carving knife and go back and forth and back and forth and try and get it as even as possible. As you can see mine are not perfect but you know it'll all come good in the end. So just do this with all of your cakes. And if your cakes are a bit knobbly on the top then use your serrated knife just to get them nice and even because you want a lovely even cake at the end. Okay I have a turntable, I have a cake board on here. I'll tell you why this cake weighs 15 tonnes and you will want a cake board to be able to lift it and transfer it. Okay so let's start. Our creme patisserie is nice and cold. You want to scoop less than a half of a cup measurement of creme patisserie for each layer. So get it on there, use a big spatula, spread it out as evenly as you can and then on with your next layer. And do this until you get all the way to the top. Measure that scoop every time so you end up with some at the end. This is a bit knobbly but you can start to see it come together. So keep on building as you go. And then get down, look at it, straighten it out if you need to. Give it a little smush down on top to get it nice and flat. That's my sneaky trick that nobody saw. And then keep on going. Don't ask me why for the 10 year anniversary I decided to make a cake because for the last 10 years I've been telling you that I'm not a cake decorator but anywho here we are. Once you have all your layers done I like to use a very flat piece to put on the very top. Makes life so much easier. Then take that bit of leftover creme patisserie, put it on the top and bring it down the sides. This is our crumb coat and it's just gonna grab any loose crumbs. Let me tell you if you actually run out of your creme patisserie use some of your ganache. That's totally fine. It might not have started out this way but it ended up looking nice and straight. I don't know how I managed to do that. Fantastic. Now what we want to do is get this into the fridge, make a big ol' space for it and we want to chill it for at least I'd say 45 minutes and let it get nice and cold so we can do the final ganache coat. So my cake is back out, the crumb coat has set. Here I have my ganache. Now you want your ganache to be nice and thick like this. You see the way it's kind of slow to drop off. We want it just like this. It will set even firmer as we decorate. So you don't want to have it too firm because we need to be able to spread this all over our cake. If it's much runnier than this pop it over a bowl of ice and a little bit of water and that will help stiffen it really fast. Or you can also pop it into the fridge. The ice is kind of better. So let's start on the top of our cake. We're going to work fast here now guys, there's no hanging around. Like I said, it thickens as it goes. There we go. Start on the top and as per usual, you work your way down the sides. Now with ganache, something like this, I don't like to overwork it with my spatula. So I'm only going to be going over it kind of once. We don't want too much messing around. Fill in all those nooks and crannies. Just take your spatula. The less I think about cake decorating and the more I just do it and move with the frosting, the better my results are. We want a bit of texture to that final coat. A bit of movement. Go back and forth with your offset. Just get a bit of movement to that frosting. It doesn't have to be perfectly straight. And then I'm going to do the top. Do do do do do. Ah ah ah. Do do do do do. Mm mm mm mm. Then just straighten up the sides. Let me get it a bit straighter. All our holes are filled in. I'm going to stop now. I can feel the ganache firming up underneath my spatula. And I think that looks nice and straight. Gorgeous. My very last step is to put a few gold embellishments around the top. Because this is such a big celebration and we are going fancy. So you break out the gold sprinkles for the 10th anniversary. So now we're about to cut into it but I want to pop it back into the fridge. Get that ganache coating set and make sure that our cake is nice and firm before we cut into it. But I don't want you to go anywhere because I'm going to tell you how you can download your free digital cookbook. Go to biggerbolderbaking.com and you'll see it on the front page. You can download that book. It is free for everyone. I really hope you enjoy it. It is our top recipes there from all over the years. These are recipes that you have made over the years. You've sent us photos, you've rated, you've written reviews, you've given us stars. These are the creme de la creme of Bigger Bolder Baking recipes. So make sure you get this free digital cookbook for yourself or even for somebody else. Everybody can have it. It's free. You can also click a link in the description box and it will bring us straight to the book. So let's take a moment to say that this 10th anniversary video is for you. It's for every single one of you for over the last 10 years. It gave us over half a billion video views. Made our website biggerbolderbaking.com one of the top baking websites in the world. Has put our videos on the map for two ingredient ice cream, for cakes in a microwave all those years ago, for crazy cookie dough, for my best ever series of brownies and cookies and all of the things. Thank you for being here this whole time, for sharing the love, for being a part of the community most importantly. And we're not going anywhere. I am 10 years older, but I'm still going strong. So let's keep the momentum going. We have a lot of stuff coming your way. We have two cookbooks out. Go check out my cookbooks if you haven't already. But you know, stay here for the journey because we've got some really big things coming for Bigger Bolder Baking. Time to bring in the cake of the hour. Look at this. Honestly, it's two times the size of my head and it weighs more than my four year old. It is absolutely massive. What a showstopping cake. It might have started out a bit rough, but I'm really happy about how it looks now. Layer upon layer of cake and frosting one after the other. You really have to stand this cake upright to be able to see its full beauty. Just by looking at this cake, you can tell that it is rich, decadent and a chocolate lover's dream. If any celebration was worthy of this cake, definitely our 10th anniversary is it. Now it's time to taste it. Let's welcome in the co-founder of Bigger Bolder Baking. I brought my own fork. I need one for this. Gemma, this is seriously the biggest and boldest dessert you've ever made. That's chocolaty, but not overly sweet, rich, gorgeous, Gem. Well done. You know, the reality though is in 10 years, this is your biggest cake, but I kind of feel like this is still only the beginning. This is only the beginning. We have a lot of exciting things coming for Bigger Bolder Baking, so stay tuned. Follow us on all social media. Go to biggerbolderbaking.com. Get yourself that free digital cookbook, and I will see you back here at the same time, same place next week. Thanks so much for being a part of the community. That's a chocolate dream. That's incredible. I will. All you're going to do is rest the cake.