Edited on 07/21/2021 to make it reader-friendly
Rigo Jancsi - a special treat for the chocolate lovers in your life.
Imagine a layer of chocolate cake, topped with chocolate glaze and filled with chocolate mousse topped with another layer of chocolate cake and chocolate glaze - suffice to say, this would satisfy all your chocolate cravings.
Read about the beautiful story of the origins of this sinfully good chocolate pastry here.
This pastry was our Baking partner's challenge for the month.
Tips
It was fun to plan an entire day of baking, glaze making, and just decorating the pastry. When you see the list of ingredients and the steps in the recipe, you might think it is difficult - it is not. A little planning goes a long way.
- Make the cake.
- While the cake is cooling, make the glaze.
- While the glazeis setting, make the chocolate mousse filling.
- Fill, decorate (optional) and you are good to go.
I love the idea of the stabilized whipped cream, though I love the taste of the regular whipped cream. I decided to go with the stabilized whipped cream since I wanted a pretty decent fridge life for this decadent treat. But if you are the sort of person who can afford the calories (without having to worry about portion control) or have a lot of people to share the calorie overload, skip the gelatin.
Since there was enough rest time between the steps, for this pastry, I was not able to record the time taken perfectly. Here is an approximate breakdown of the time I took to make the pastry.
- Preparation time - 15 minutes.
- Baking time - 15-20 minutes.
- Chocolate glaze - 5 minutes.
- Setting time in the Fridge - 30-45 minutes.
- Chocolate Mousse 15-20 minutes.
- Assembly - 15 minutes.
Rigo Jancsi
Ingredients
Chocolate Sponge Cake:
- 2 ½ tablespoon 24g all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon 6g cocoa powder
- 5 tablespoon 71g butter plus a little extra for greasing
- 2 ounces 57g semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
- 3 eggs room temperature and separated
- 3 tablespoon 45g sugar; divided
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Chocolate Glaze
- 3 ounces 84g bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 tablespoon 26g butter
- 1 tablespoon 27g light corn syrup
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Mousse Filling
- ¾ tablespoons 5g cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 3 ounces semisweet chocolate chopped fine
- ¾ cup heavy cream + 1 tablespoon
- ¼ teaspoon rum extract otherwise use ¾ tablespoon rum
- ¾ teaspoon gelatin
- 1 tablespoon cold water
- 1 tablespoon boiling water
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Apricot Glaze
- 1 tablespoon apricot jam
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
- Line an 8 inch square pan with parchment paper and brush it with melted butter.
Chocolate Sponge Cake
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and flour. In another small bowl, add the chopped chocolate pieces and butter. Microwave it for 10 second bursts till chocolate and butter start to melt. Mix well after each burst. Repeat till the mixture is smooth and velvety. Set it aside to cool.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, whip the egg yolks (on high speed) till pale and fluffy. Add half the sugar in a stream and whip till well incorporated and yolks and sugar fall from the whip in a ribbon.
- Fold in the cooled chocolate-butter mixture.
- Put the egg whites in a clean bowl and whip to soft peaks, add the salt, then add the remaining sugar in a stream. Continue to whisk till the soft peak stage.
- Combine ⅓ of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Mix well to loosen the egg yolk mixture and gently fold in the rest of the the whites mix in two batches.
- Fold in the flour-cocoa mixture.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, level it with a spatula and bake for 12-15 minutes or till a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove from the pan, remove the parchment paper and set it on the wire rack to cool.
- While the cake is cooling down, make the chocolate glaze.
Chocolate Glaze.
- Prepare the glaze by combining all the ingredients except vanilla in a small bowl.
- Microwave the bowl for 20 seconds on full power, then apply as many ten-second bursts as needed to melt the chocolate completely, stirring in between.
- When the chocolate and butter is completely melted, stir in the vanilla and mix well to get a smooth glaze.
- Trim the edges of the sponge cake to even it out and pour the glaze over the cake, spreading it as evenly as possible using a spatula.
- Allow the glaze to set for about 30-45 minutes in the refrigerator.
Chocolate Mousse filling
- Add 1 tablespoon cold water to gelatin and let it rest for 5 minutes. Then add 1 tablespoon of boiling water into the gelatin.
- In a small bowl, combine the cocoa powder and the powdered sugar.
- In a different bowl, melt the chocolate pieces with 1 tablespoon heavy cream in the microwave, using a 20-second burst, then as many ten-second bursts as needed until it’s completely smooth. Cool it to warm-to-the-touch.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, pour the heavy whipping cream, vanilla and rum extract.
- Whip the cream mixture to just shy of soft peaks. Add the cocoa and and powdered sugar mix and mix well.
- Add the melted chocolate and quickly whisk till well combined.
Assembly
- Prepare the apricot glaze by mixing apricot jam with water.
- Divide the cake into two equal halves.
- Place the bottom layer on a serving dish (cake board works just fine) with the chocolate glaze side up.
- Brush the apricot glaze liberally over it using a pastry brush.
- Spread the chocolate mousse filling as evenly as possible on the cake.
- Place the other half of the cake (again with the chocolate glaze side up) and fill in the gaps (if any) with the chocolate mousse.
- When ready to serve, dip a serrated knife in hot water, wipe and then cut into desired size and serve.
Molly Kumar says
OMG - the cake looks delicious Sreelatha & Happy Blog 2nd Anniversary!!! I'm not a big chocolate fan but whenever I eat it, I like the dense extra rich kinds (lol) maybe I'm transitioning into one 😉 The pictures look AWESOME n wish I could taste some of these decadent delights.
Framed Recipes says
Thank you Molly.
Akshaya says
Hi, the recipe sounds amazing! Happy 2nd anniversary of being a blogger 🙂
Would like to know at what temperature should the cake be baked, as you've asked us to bake it only for 12 - 15 minutes and still the toothpick to come out clean..
Would be really helpful if you could help me ttgere..
Framed Recipes says
Thanks Akshaya for stopping by. And thanks so much for the wishes. Like I have already mentioned in the recipe, the cake is to be baked at 350 degree Fahrenheit. Hope you will try it.
Sandhya Hariharan says
Rigo Jancsi is a fancy cake just like its name... They look beautiful !! Beautiful pictures as usual.. And look at the layers... I will bookmark them right away...
Framed Recipes says
Thank you Sandhya
shailaja says
Lovely cake sreelatha....
Framed Recipes says
Thank you so much Shailaja
Aruna says
Beautiful cake! I am drooling over the pics!
Framed Recipes says
Thank you Aruna
Nusrath says
Congrats on your blogging anniversary. ..sinfully decadent cake.i agree nothing can ever go wrong with chocolate!!!
Framed Recipes says
Thank you Nusrath
Christine | Vermilion Roots says
Love the story behind this cake. And I'm so happy for you on your special day. Happy birthday! 🙂
Framed Recipes says
Thank you so much Christine.
[email protected] says
Oh my goodness. The cake looks so classy Sree. Simply mind blowing!
Framed Recipes says
Thank you Jyothi.