Layered Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Chocolate Ganache (and the Fondant!)

Soo here's the finished product of my first fondant experience! I was a little disappointed in the way the result looked on the outside but it tasted spectacular all-together!

I changed the cake recipe to get 2 9-inch layers instead of a bundt pan, as you'll find the original recipe calls for if you check it out. I used this cake with the fondant I posted about on Tuesday. It was, of course, pound cake, so it's a very dense cake (but also SOO GOOD, probably one of my favorites). After trying it once, though, my family realized that the cake slices we originally served were at least two times too big. Plus, the fondant tasted better in...well, smaller quantities, even though it was really good. Okay, I guess I have to repeat it: pound cake is SO GOOD. especially this one, mixed with the ganache and the buttercream and the fondant...personally I think I still prefer buttercream by far, because I love frosting, but the fondant was a nice change.

Carlo's Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Adapted from the Cake Boss

2 1/3 cups cake flour
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
6 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese together until fluffy.

Sift the flour.

Beat in the sugar, flour and vanilla on low speed. You want the mixture to be just mixed
through and to have a dry and crumbly appearance.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg is added.

Pour batter equally into each pan. Place pans in the center rack of the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Remove from oven. Allow cake to cool in pan for about 5 minutes. Invert onto cake rack and continue to allow cake to cool.






Chocolate Ganache Filling
Recipe from Hershey's Chocolate Treasury
Found at Hershey's

8 ounces dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1 tbsp butter
1 ½ tsp crème de cacao
¼ cup heavy whipping cream

Combine chocolate bar pieces, cream and butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Stir constantly until mixture is melted and smooth. Stir in crème de cacao. Cool to lukewarm.


Quick Vanilla Buttercream
From the Food Network

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.

Decorating
Frost the top of one layer of cake with chocolate ganache.
Top it with the second layer, and coat the cake completely in the quick vanilla buttercream.
Roll out the fondant with a rolling pin and place it on top, folding in the edges and decorating however way you like. I used glasses to cut circles in my other colors of fondant, and I didn't really like how it looked, but I'm a beginner, so oh well!