Layer cake with berries and chocolate icing

You need a  sponge cake of Montersino because it is so soft and lofty that you can have three layers to be stuffed. When you cut iit into three lawers use the bottom as the top, to have the surface smooth and flat ...like this:…

For the filling:

300g berries (even frozen ones)

2 tbs brown sugar

100 ml water

150 g caster sugar

350 g whipping cream

1. Mash the berries in a bowl with the brown sugar and let macerate for 15 minutes. Boil over high heat for about 5 minutes the water with sugar for a syrup. Let cool a little and pour over fruit and stir.

2.  Combine the berries with the cream whipped to 70% in a cooled bowl in the freezer along with the electric beaters. Fill the two layers of sponge cake with the mixture of cream and berries.

For the frosting:

• 350 g dark chocolate  (70%)

Prepare the frosting with dark chocolate melted in a double  boiler or microwave. Proceed to the tempering* of chocolate before using it.

Spread the frosting over entire cake, and over the sides.

Serve with cocoa powder.

* * In his book paul.a.young also explains the ways of manually tempering chocolate, here I report the one that for method and time is faster and easier (you should not pour the chocolate on the working plan). You have to stir solid chocolate into molten chocolate to "inoculate" in it crystals. Take 2/3 of the total chocolate, melt it in a double boiler or microwave until it reaches the temperature of 55° (this is the correct temperature to melt the fats, the sugars and the crystals crystals contained in the chocolate). If you melt chocolate on a double boiler, the bowl should not touch the water but must be suspended  and the water should never boil. If you melt the chocolate in a microwave put it at the highest temperature for 25-30 seconds, stir it gently and put it again in the microwave so as to control the temperature each time. When the chocolate is at 55° pour the remaining chocolate and stir vigorously until it will be completely melted and wait until the temperature  reaches. 27°-28°. The chocolate must be then gently warmed to working temperature, 31°-32°.