A cake as mysterious as the dark side of the moon.
Multiple sources have reported that this is my best dessert to date. One of those sources was my mom, so you know it’s true! I created this epic dark chocolate opera cake for Disney Dinners: Mulan but you can certainly bake this cake for any occasion. The Great Wall of Chocolate is four layers of dark chocolate sponge cake, two layers of chocolate cream filling, and two layers of chocolate ganache.
The Rose Table is in no way affiliated with The Walt Disney Company.
Photography by My Curly Adventures.
I served this beauty with sparklers because Mulan saves all of China with fireworks. It was my first time ever lighting a dessert on fire and man was it fun! These are food safe cake sparklers so if you want to recreate this, be sure to get food grade sparklers.
The chocolate cream filling is to die for and takes minutes to make. Just promise me you’ll use softened cream cheese. Take the cream cheese out of the fridge several hours before you want to use it or else it won’t incorporate properly. I like to take my cream cheese out when I’m drinking my coffee. I bake the cake after my first cup of coffee and enjoy my second cup while the cake is cooling. Then I’ll make the filling and let it hang out in the fridge while I make the ganache. I keep the ganache on the counter for maybe half an hour to an hour before assembling.
Not everyone needs this large of a cake though so for your convenience, I have done the math for you so you can either make it super tall for a party or a reasonable size for dessert anytime.
The Great Wall of Chocolate (larger version, photographed here)
For the cake:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
8 eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar plus 2/3 cup , divided
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup dark cocoa powder (I love Hershey’s special dark)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup water
Chocolate cream filling, recipe follows
Ganache, recipe follows
- Make the filling (recipe below) and refrigerate.
- Heat oven to 375°F. Grease two 15.5×10.5×1-inch jelly-roll pan, line with parchment paper and grease paper. Spread two thin towels or pieces of parchment paper on the counter and sprinkle with a handful of powdered sugar.
- Carefully separate eggs. Beat egg whites in large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1 cup of granulated sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. In a stand mixer, beat egg yolks and vanilla on medium speed about three minutes. Gradually add remaining 2/3 cup granulated sugar; continue beating for two additional minutes.
- Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Add to egg yolk mixture alternately with water, beating on low speed just until batter is smooth. Gently fold beaten egg whites into mixture with a spatula just until the batter is uniform in color. Spread batter evenly in prepared pans.
- Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly in center. Immediately invert onto prepared towels or parchment paper and peel off paper. Let cool completely.
- While cake is cooling, make the ganache (recipe follows).
- To assemble: cut both cakes in half so that you have four long cake layers. Place one cake layer on your serving platter. Spread with chocolate cream filling. Set second cake layer on top of filling, and spread on ganache. Pop in the fridge to let the ganache set for about fifteen minutes. Remove from fridge and set third cake layer on top of ganache. Spread with filling. Top with final cake layer and spread with ganache. Garnish with chocolate curls if desired. Refrigerate until ready to eat! Serve with sparklers to be really epic.
Chocolate Cream Filling:
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla
6 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
16 oz cream cheese, softened – I’m not kidding! Do not use cold cream cheese! – and cut into cubes
1 bag mini chocolate chips
- Beat together cream, vanilla, cocoa powder, and sugar until soft peaks form.
- Cut cream cheese into cubes and slowly beat in. Don’t panic if it looks like cottage cheese at first; keep beating until smooth.
- Stir in mini chocolate chips.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to spread on cake.
Ganache:
8 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate
3/4 cup whipping cream
- Chop baking chocolate into small pieces. Set in heat proof bowl.
- Heat cream in a small sauce pan until just about boiling. Pour cream over chocolate and whisk until smooth.
- Let cool before spreading onto cake.
Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Opera Cake (smaller version, half as tall)
For the cake:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
4 eggs , separated
1/2 cup granulated sugar plus 1/3 cup , divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup dark cocoa powder (I love Hershey’s special dark)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup water
Chocolate cream filling, recipe follows
Ganache, recipe follows
- Make the filling (recipe below) and refrigerate.
- Heat oven to 375°F. Grease a 15.5×10.5×1-inch jelly-roll pan, line with parchment paper and grease paper. Spread a thin towel or more parchment paper on the counter and sprinkle with a handful of powdered sugar.
- Carefully separate eggs. Beat egg whites in large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. In a stand mixer, beat egg yolks and vanilla on medium speed about three minutes. Gradually add remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar; continue beating for two additional minutes.
- Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Add to egg yolk mixture alternately with water, beating on low speed just until batter is smooth. Gently fold beaten egg whites into mixture with a spatula just until the batter is uniform in color. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.
- Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly in center. Immediately invert onto prepared towel or parchment paper and peel off paper. Let cool completely.
- While cake is cooling, make the ganache (recipe follows).
- To assemble: cut cake in half so that you have two long cake layer. Spread one layer with filling, set second cake layer on top of filling, and top with ganache. Garnish with chocolate curls if desired. Refrigerate until ready to eat!
Chocolate Cream Filling:
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
8 oz cream cheese, softened – I’m not kidding! Do not use cold cream cheese! – and cut into cubes
8 oz mini chocolate chips
- Beat together cream, vanilla, cocoa powder, and sugar until soft peaks form.
- Cut cream cheese into cubes and slowly beat in. Don’t panic if it looks like cottage cheese at first; keep beating until smooth.
- Stir in mini chocolate chips.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to spread on cake.
Ganache:
4 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp whipping cream
- Chop baking chocolate into small pieces. Set in heat proof bowl.
- Heat cream in a small sauce pan until just about boiling. Pour cream over chocolate and whisk until smooth.
- Let cool before spreading onto cake.
You could clean up the sides but I thought the ganache dripping down looked awfully sexy and personally, I like my desserts to be sexy!
Love it? Pin it!
Read more about Mulan here. Watch the Mulan video here:
Happy baking,
Don’t forget to follow/like The Rose Table on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Sign up for The Rose Table’s emails here. Shop The Rose Table here.
guard that wall for me! 😉
Can’t wait to try The Great Wall Of Chocolate this evening for Valentine’s Day dinner. This was very easy to make with great results. Only question, how did you get such great looking chocolate curls? I had a heck of a time with not good results using my potato peeler and backing chocolate.
Happy Valentine’s Day! Perfect dessert choice. 🙂 So glad you found it easy! I use a very thick hunk of chocolate for curls, not a thin baking bar. I keep steady pressure on the potato peeler for as long of a curl as possible, scraping as far along the bar as you can. Hope that helps! I should a video about this sometime. It would also be pretty topped with mini chocolate chips if you don’t have a thick baking bar on top.