Yesterday was an awesome day! The cool company I work for – LeaseWeb, arranged a bake off competition with the first prize being a Kenwood Chef Mixer! I knew about it and signed up well in advance, but really had no idea what to make for the longest time. And then, a couple days before the actual bake off – it finally hit me, it has to be a chess cake!
Why a chess cake?
I made this cake once before, for my fiance’s birthday a couple years back after watching the Nerdy Nummies video, I made a one layer vanilla cake back then and an american chocolate butter cream. It’s a great geeky cake, and a fun game to play. The full size board makes it a big cake and the chocolate pieces are quite impressive.
Yes, that is a banana birthday candle holder.
It was a nice cake back then when I first made it, but I felt like this time I needed to up the game a bit. Does triple chocolate layer cake, salted caramel, buttercream, Maltesers (chocolate honeycomb balls) and roasted pecans sound like a first prize winner? I sure hoped so!
Go big or go home
When I joined the LeaseWeb family on April 1st, exactly 7 years ago today (!) we were about 35 people. Now, the company has grown to almost 400 employees worldwide with aproximately 200 just in our Amsterdam HQ. Those are a lot of sweet lovers to feed with one cake, and since I always plan to have a little extra just in case – this cake needed to be a HUGE one.
To create this giant cake, I used over of 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) butter, 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) sugar and 2kg (4.4 lb) Chocolate. It took over 12 hours to make (I lost count at some point). The chocolate chess pieces took most of the time to make. Tempering, molding and glueing together every single piece carefully. There were quite a few Bishops and Knights that broke while trying to tap them out of the mold.
The Competition was fierce, there were a total of 16 cakes competing for the first place and some of them were REALLY good. So many culinary stars in one IT company, it was really impressive!
My personal favorites were a cheesecake lemon meringue, and a rich Russian honey cake decorated with beautiful cream tulips. Each contestant presented their cake to the professional grand jury (random cake lovers in the company ;)) and the voting was done based on a set of categories: Originality, Appearance, Creativity, Structure and ofcourse, Taste.
After the Jury voted, the cakes were cut into pieces and all other employees got to vote during lunch time, it was a big sugar fest! At the end of the day the winners were announced, and after much excitement, my chess cake won the first place, yay new mixer! Thanks LeaseWeb ❤
From the Inside
To continue the black and white chocolate theme of the cake, the layers were made of white chocolate vanilla, malted milk chocolate and dark chocolate. I adapted the lovely Little Sugar Snaps recipe for it. The buttercream was a salted caramel swiss meringue and in between the layers I added some of the crushed honey combs and roasted pecans with a generous drizle of salted caramel.
I certainly can’t say this recipe is an easy one, you need to seriously invest a lot of time and patience into it. The cake is also enourmous, but if you’d like to make a smaller family version, I would suggest pick one layer, divide the recipe in three and go ahead with that, it’s still a 30.5ccm x 30.5cm (12×12 inch) cake, but not as tall and can make a great birthday cake for a big family celebration.
Important must haves to make this cake:
- Chess Pieces Chocolate Mold (I reccomend getting two of these): http://amzn.to/2nKttkQ
- Square Pieces Chocolate Mold (I reccomend getting two of these too): http://amzn.to/2ntkd1P
- Square Cake Pan: http://amzn.to/2npDZub
- 800grams (1.7 lb) white chocolate
- 800grams (1.7 lb) dark chocolate
- 800grams (1.7 lb) granulated sugar
- 360grams (0.8 lb) unsalted butter at room temp (cut into cubes)
- 480ml (2 cups) heavy cream
- 4 teaspoons salt
- 20 Large egg whites
- 960grams (2.1 lb) sugar
- 1300grams (2.8) unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into cubes
- 900g (2 lb) softened butter
- 900g (2 lb) caster sugar
- 15 eggs
- 35½ tbsp (~2 cups) milk (divided)
- 900grams (2 lb) all purpose flour
- 10 tsp baking powder
- 250grams (8.8 oz) white chocolate, chopped
- 250grams (8.8 oz) milk chocolate, chopped
- 250grams (8.8 oz) dark chocolate, chopped
- 2½ Tsp vanilla extract
- 7½ Tbsp Ovaltine (chocolate malt powder)
- 7½ Tbsp cocoa powder
- 2½ cups roasted pecans, chopped
- 2½ cups Maltesers, chopped (can be replaced with additional pecans)
- Starting with either the white or dark chocolate; temper using the seeding method: Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt ¾ over a Bain Marie. Using a thermometer, make sure it does not exceed 46 – 48° C for the dark chocolate and 37 – 43° C for the white chocolate. Make sure bowls and spatulas are completely dry before starting, even a drop of water can ruin the consistency.
- Add the remaining ¼ chopped chocolate to the melted chocolate bowl and stir by folding until the temperature drops to 31° C for dark or 29 – 30° C for white.
- Place chocolate into a pipping bag or squeeze bottle and fill the molds, don't fill it up all the way to the top as they will fit better later when gluing
- Tap the mold with the chocolate in gently a few times on your counter to make sure there are no air bubbles and the chocolate got to all corners.
- Place in the freezer for 10 minutes, then gently release the pieces by tapping on the plastic on the other side.
- Set aside in a cold dry place.
- Heat sugar in a big saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon
- The sugar will starts clumping and slowly melt into a thick amber-colored liquid. Make sure to continue to the next step immediately when it gets this color, over cooking will result in a bitter taste.
- Once the sugar is melted completely, carefully add the butter and stir it in until it's completely melted and combined in the sauce (you may want to use a whisk here to blend it in more easily)
- In a slow stream, add the cream in three additions while continuously stirring, do this carefully, the hot sugar reacts to the lower cream temperature and bubbles up.
- Keep boiling the caramel sauce for an extra minute or two and remove from heat. Stir in the salt and let cool down completely before using. Keep refrigerated in a jar for up to two weeks.
- I divided this into two batches to fit my mixer:
- Combine egg whites and sugar in a heat proof bowl and set over a pan of slowly simmering water. Whisk continuously by hand until mixture is warm and sugar has dissolved completely. Test by rubbing some between two fingers and assuring there are no grains.
- Transfer to a mixer bowl with a whisk attachment and whisk starting on low and slowly increasing to medium-high. Whisk until glossy and fluffy with high peaks. About 7-10 minutes. Touch the bottom of the bowl to make sure it's not warm before continuing to the next step.
- Reduce mixer to medium-low speed and add the butter, few tablespoons at a time. Mix well after each addition. If after all the butter has been added it breaks into a fluid mixture with the butter separating (looks like cottage cheese), increase the speed to high and mix until it comes together.
- Add 4 cups of cooled salted caramel and mix half a minute longer. Set aside.
- I divided this part into three to fit my mixer, making each layer separately and dividing all cake ingredients on the list (until the chocolate) into three:
- Preheat the oven 170° C
- Grease, flour and line the square cake pan with parchment paper
- Pulse melt each layer chocolate at a time (white, milk or dark) in the microwave or over Bain Marie and set aside
- In the bowl of a mixer, attached with a whisk attachment, beat the butter (300g) and sugar (300g) until light and fluffy
- Add 5 eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition
- Add 8½ Tbsp milk and beat again
- Sift the flour (300g) and baking powder (3⅓ tsp) and add to the bowl, beat again until just combined
- When making the White Chocolate & Vanilla Layer: mix two spoons of the cake batter into the melted white chocolate bowl, stirring quickly and then add it all to the cake batter bowl. Add vanilla extract (2½ tsp). Mix until just combined.
- When making the Malted Milk Chocolate Layer: Stir an extra 5 tablespoons of milk and the 7.5 Tbsp Ovaltine powder with the cake batter. mix two spoons of the cake batter into the melted milk chocolate bowl, stirring quickly. Then add it all to the cake batter bowl. Mix until just combined.
- When making the Dark Chocolate Layer: Stir an extra 5 tablespoons of milk and the 7.5 Tbsp cocoa powder with the cake batter. mix two spoons of the cake batter into the melted dark chocolate bowl, stirring quickly. Then add it all to the cake batter bowl. Mix until just combined.
- Bake each cake for 25-35 minutes until a tooth pick comes out clean with just a few crumbs on it. If during the baking time you notice the edges are done but the middle is still unbaked, cover the tin loosely with parchment paper and keep a close eye.
- Let cool for 10 minutes and then remove from the tin. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Cut all three layers to equal pieces with a cake leveler or scerated knife.
- Place the white chocolate layer on the bottom and add 2 - 2½ cups buttercream, spread equally and top with the pecans.
- Add second layer of malted milk chocolate and spread 2 - 2½ cups buttercream, topping with chopped Maltesers.
- Add final layer of dark chocolate and spread the remaining buttercream neatly on the top and the sides. Decorate bottom with chopped pecans if desired.
- Arrange the square pieces on top, they will stick out a litte from the sides which is fine. Use the buttercream to make sure it's completely leveled.
- Arrange the pieces on top and start play a nice game before eating!
- Best served at room temperature
Hi Keren,
It was a great event, our LeaseWeb Bake Off. We had so many good cakes to taste as jury. Your cake was really an eye catcher and tasted very good. We hope that your prize will help you to make many more good cakes.
Congratulations again with your winning cake!! We hope to see your entry for next year.
Greetings
Walter van de Waterbeemd
CHRO LeaseWeb
CHECK MATE!
Wow that cake looks amazing!! No wonder it won first place! Congratulations!!
Thanks Beulah! <3
Thank you so much for this amazing recipe and inspiration.
I made this cake for my husband’s 40s birthday and it was a major success! Of course it was a lot of work but the result was really worth it. I wish I could post a picture. I changed a few things, ended up making 3 genoise sponges and added one layer of butter cream and 2 layers of salted caramel whipped cream. With the crunch of the pecans, it was incredible!
And obviously some serious game of chess happened prior eating!
Thanks again a’d happy new year!