Chokoladelagkage (Chocolate Danish Birthday Cake)
This chocolate Danish birthday cake is beyond your wildest dreams, with layers of chocolate cake, chocolate pastry cream, and strawberry jam.
Ingredients
CHOCOLATE CAKE BATTER (FOR A 4-LAYER CAKE)
- 250 grams granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 180 ml vegetable oil
- 90 ml coffee or espresso (you can also dissolve 1 tsp instant coffee in 90 ml water)
- 90 ml milk
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
- 80 grams cocoa powder
- 220 grams all purpose flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
PASTRY CREAM
- 1½ - 2 portions chocolate kagecreme (pastry cream) (this is a lot of pastry cream!! We make 2 portions of our recipe and then split 3/4 of it between the cake layers and use the remaining 1/4 to mix in with the whipped cream for piping and decorating the cake)
JAM
- 400 grams fresh strawberries (you can also use frozen)
- 150 grams granulated sugar
DECORATION
- 475 ml heavy whipping cream
- Powdered sugar
- Cocoa powder
- Water
- Sprinkles, candles, fresh strawberries, freeze-dried strawberries, chocolate shavings, etc.!
Instructions
TO MAKE THE FILLINGS:
- Make the chocolate kagecreme (1½ - 2 portions: if you prefer thinner layers of pastry cream, make 1½ portions, but if you like lots of pastry cream in your cake, go for 2!) following the steps in our recipe. We would recommend doing this (at the latest) the morning of the day you are assembling the lagkage. You can also make the pastry cream the day before that. Once done, place in the fridge to chill completely.
- Make strawberry jam by combining strawberries and sugar in a pot on the stove and cooking over medium heat until all the sugar dissolves; lower the heat and let the jam simmer until thickened enough to see the bottom of the pot for a second when you run a spatula along the bottom of the pan. Place in a container to cool and move to the fridge to chill completely.
Make a day ahead or the morning of assembling the cake to save time! You can also save time by using store-bought custard and jam.
TO MAKE THE CAKE:
- Butter or oil two cake pans (we used 9-inch cake pans) and line the bottoms with parchment paper by measuring out a square of parchment paper that fills the bottom, pressing it into the pan so you get the outline of a circle, and cutting out the circle. If you have pre-cut round sheets of parchment, you can use those!
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C).
- Add your room temperature eggs and granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer or a mixing bowl. Using your stand mixer, or a hand mixer, whisk together the sugar and eggs for about 5 minutes until the mixture is lightened considerably and has reached ribbon stage: when you lift the whisk out of the mixture, it should flow off the whisk and sit for a second or two on the surface of the mixture before sinking in.
- Mix together coffee/espresso with milk in a small bowl/measuring cup. You can mix hot coffee and cold milk, and it will even out the temperature, but make sure the mixture is not too cold - heat it up in the microwave for short 5 second bursts if needed to get it closer to room temperature.
- Add the vanilla extract and oil to the coffee/milk mixture and stir with a spoon to combine (it will not combine entirely - the oil will naturally separate).
- Combine your dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt) in a separate bowl.
- Now it's time to combine the ingredients for the batter. Add half of the wet ingredients to the mixer and run the mixer for just around 5-10 seconds.
- Then, sift in half of the dry ingredients and do the same, running the mixer for 5-10 seconds. It's important to sift when using cocoa powder since it can be so lumpy!
- Repeat with the rest of the wet, running the mixer for 5-10 seconds, then the rest of the dry, running the mixer for 5-10 seconds or until everything looks incorporated. Give the final mixture some folds with a rubber spatula to make sure it's well combined, but do not overmix!
- Divide the mixture evenly between the two cake pans and place in the oven. To be completely accurate, you can weigh the batter into the pans.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- After you remove the cakes from the oven, let them cool for about 5 minutes. Then run a knife along the edge of the pans and remove the cakes from the pan, leaving them to cool on a wire rack. If you're doing this the day before assembly, wrap them in cling film and refrigerate until you're ready to assemble the cake layers. If you don't have room in the fridge, wrapping them and leaving them at room temp will also work just fine.
TO ASSEMBLE:
- Once the cakes are cooled and you're ready to assemble the cake, trim the tops off (if the cakes are domed on top), and cut each sponge in half. This can be tricky to get completely even, so don't worry if it isn't perfect! The best tip that we have is to keep the knife completely horizontal as you cut through it, and get down to eye level with the knife!
- Make sure you have your chocolate pastry cream and jam ready (cooled down/chilled) at this stage!
- To assemble: on a large plate or cake stand, start with a layer of sponge, then add a layer of chocolate pastry cream. We use 1/4 of the pastry cream for this layer. Spread evenly across the sponge all the way to the edges with a knife.
- Add one third of the jam on top of the pastry cream. We like a lot of jam in ours, but adjust according to your taste! Spread evenly across the pastry cream, also going all the way to the edges.
- Repeat this - sponge, pastry cream, jam. Repeat again - sponge, pastry cream, jam. You should now have used up all of your jam and have 1/4 of the pastry cream remaining.
- Place the final layer of sponge on top.
- Cover the cake in plastic wrap and let it rest overnight (8-12 hours) in the refrigerator or until you're ready to serve the cake. This will allow the layers to hold together a little bit better! We would recommend chilling it for at least a few hours if you still want to serve it the same day, but we've also served it within an hour of assembly, and it's still been perfectly delicious.
- Make sure to save the remaining pastry cream to add to the whipped cream. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.
Assemble the night before serving to let the cake firm up in the fridge overnight.
TO DECORATE
- The next day, prepare your cake decorations by making a thick icing, combining about a cup of powdered sugar with a teaspoon of cocoa powder, and a very small amount of water until you reach the desired consistency. We usually don't measure out the amounts that we use, but feel free to add more powdered water or sugar to get more icing!
- Whip your heavy whipping cream using a stand mixer, a hand mixer, or a whisk and a bowl until it just reaches stiff peaks.
- Add the remaining chocolate pastry cream to the whipped cream and whisk together, making sure not to overwhip as it can then get runny - no more than 30 seconds or so. If streaks remain, you can fold the mix together with a spatula! Add the mixture to a piping bag.
- Pour the powdered sugar icing glaze on top of the cake and spread to the edges; try not to let the icing go over the edge! It's best if it's a thicker consistency.
- Add some sprinkles on top of the glaze. You can also add fresh fruit, like sliced strawberries!
- Pipe the prepared chocolate whipped cream along the edges of the cake - the specifics are up to you! We usually pipe in a continuous up and down pattern, going right up over the edge so that the whipped cream doesn't slide down. You can also do dots of whipped cream all along the edge, or just use a knife to add the whipped cream around the edges!
- Decorate the cake with candles, more sprinkles, dots of whipped cream, fresh fruit, a written message, or whatever you like!
- Light the candles on the cake and enjoy!