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Island Cake in a bowl

Small and full of chocolate, Island Cake in a bowl.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time35 minutes
Assembly and setting12 hours
Total Time13 hours
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American, International
Keyword: Island Cake
Servings: 4
Calories: 830kcal
Author: ChiefElf

Equipment

  • 4x glass bowls (about 250-400 ml each)
  • Baking tray or a cake form
  • Medium saucepan
  • Mixing bowls

Ingredients

For the simple chocolate cake:

  • 1 cup granulate white sugar
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup warm water or coffee
  • ½ cup milk
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the chocolate ganache:

  • 113 grams semi-sweet chocolate
  • ½ cup heavy whipping cream

For the white chocolate coating:

  • 150-200 grams white chocolate

For the gelatin:

  • 1 pack (9 grams) granulated gelatin
  • 6 tablespoons water

For the lemon sugar syrup:

  • 2 cups white granulated sugar
  • 500 ml (minus 6 tablespoons) water
  • juice of 2 lemons (approx.)
  • drop of blue food coloring

For the grass:

  • 100-150 grams butter biscuits, crumbled
  • green food coloring

Instructions

Make the chocolate cake:

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease and line with parchment paper a baking tray or a cake form. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix thoroughly.
  • In another bowl whisk together eggs, water or coffee, milk, oil and vanilla extract.
  • Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated. The batter might seem a bit thin, but that is the way it should be.
  • Pour the batter into the prepare tray and bake for about 25-35 minutes. Depending on your tray or form and the oven. The cake will be broken apart and shaped into the base and hills, so it just needs to be cooked through.
  • Cake is ready when the toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs.
    Take the cake out of the oven, allow to cool in the tray for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare chocolate ganache:

  • Chop the chocolate, place the chocolate and the heavy cream into a medium pot over low heat. Melt the chocolate and mix through with the cream, until all the chocolate has been melted and the mixture is silky and smooth.
    Take off the heat and set aside to cool down.

Make the white chocolate coating:

  • Heat up 1 cup of water in a medium pot and bring to boil. Turn the heat to medium low and keep the water at a simmer.
    Place a large metal bowl (or a heat proof bowl) over the pot with the simmering water. Make sure the water is not touching the base of the bowl. Creating a kind of steam bath.
  • Chop the white chocolate. Place it into the bowl over the simmering water. Melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until all the chocolate is melted and nice and smooth.
    Take off the heat and set aside to cool down a little bit.
    If the chocolate cools down too much and becomes harder or less spreadable, place it over simmer water for a few seconds, and give it a good mix, it will soften up.

Assembly:

  • Cut out a shape from the cake to cover the bases of the glass bowl that you have.
    Place the base, then spread some chocolate ganache on top.
    Crumble some cake into a bowl, add some chocolate ganache and mix through with a spoon or your hands. This will be you play doh for making the hills. Make the hills by placing some of the chocolate play doh on top of base cake in the bowl, shaping to whatever hills you want sticking out of the water.
    Repeat for all the bowls.
  • Here I experimented and used a layer of milk and then a layer of white chocolate, but it turned out a bit hard when trying to eat later, so I adjusted the recipe to just a layer of white chocolate. The picture has milk chocolate, but you will have just white chocolate.
    The reason I used white chocolate for coating, is because it will reflect the transparency of the water later.
  • So, coat the hills and the base, any part of sponge cake that is visible with white chocolate. Make it thicker if needed. This is an important part.
    This coating will harden and prevent sugar syrup to sip through into the cake later on.
    Place the coated cake bowl into the fridge or freezer, until the chocolate hardens. About 20-30 minutes in the fridge, and about 5 minutes in the freezer, but check for yourself.

Lemon Sugar Syrup and gelatin:

  • Mix 6 tablespoons of water with 9 grams (1 pack) of granulated gelatin. Allow to stand for 5 minutes to bloom.
  • In a medium pot combine sugar and water and bring to boil, reduce heat to medium and stirring occasionally simmer until all the sugar has dissolved.
    Take off the heat.
  • Add the gelatin to the sugar syrup and mix until all the gelatin has dissolved.
    Add the lemon juice.
    Add a drop of blue food coloring and mix thoroughly. You can add more or less of food coloring, depending on how dark you want the water to be.
    Allow to cool completely at room temperature. If you put it in the fridge, it might cool down too fast and become gelatinous, and you want it liquid.

Pouring the water on the cake:

  • Once the chocolate coating has hardened, take the bowls out of the fridge. You are ready to pour the water in.
    Carefully from a side of the bowl, start pouring the sugar syrup until you reach the desired depth, up to the edge of the bowl if you want.
    Repeat with the other bowls.
    Place in the fridge for at least 3 hours to harden.

Preparing the grass:

  • Crumble the biscuits.
    Separate into two bowl. Add a few drops of green food coloring to one bowl and mix through.
    Add a couple more drops of food coloring to the other bowl, to make the grass a darker shade of green.

Add the grass to the hills:

  • Once the gelatin water has set, take the bowls out of the fridge, one at a time.
    Carefully cover the water part with plastic food wrap, leaving the hills exposed.
    Brush with a thin layer of white chocolate the tops of the hills and sprinkle with grass, lighter color at the bottom and darker on the top.
    You can leave some biscuits without color, to make a beach on the island. :)
    Repeat with the other bowls.
  • If you want to make a wave effect, you will need a bit of vodka and white food coloring. I did not have either, so I used melted white chocolate.
    Dip an end of a toothpick into white chocolate (or food coloring with vodka) and scrape a bit the jell-o water. Repeat until you reach the desired effect.
  • And you are ready to serve the cakes. :) Enjoy!