Olive Garden Chocolate Lasagna

For what it's worth, this is what I have so far. It still needs some tweaking. I finally settled on Wilton Butter Cream Frosting. (mostly because it uses meringue powder instead of eggs) It's close, but you have to practice making the frosting in order to get the consistency right. It took me quite a few tries. The filling is softer than the top frosting but the flavor is exactly the same (another reason for using the same recipe for both). You should have no trouble finding clear almond and clear vanilla extract. The colorless butter flavor is a little more difficult. If you can't find it anywhere else, Wilton sells it online. Feel free to make any changes that you think might help.

Ingredients

Cake

• 6 cups cake flour
• 5 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 1/4 cups Hershey's Cocoa
• 2 tablespoons baking soda
• 4 1/2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups butter
• 12 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Butter Cream

• 2/3 cup water
• 4 tablespoons meringue powder
• 12 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 1/4 cups shortening
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon clear almond extract
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon colorless butter flavor

Instructions

Cake

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 10-inch springform pans.
2. In mixing bowl, stir together sifted cake flour, sugar, Hershey's Cocoa and baking soda. Add butter and mix well. Add milk, eggs and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly.
3. Pour about 5 cups of the cake batter into each prepared pan.
4. Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in cake center comes out clean.
5. Cool for 10 minutes before you remove the cake from the pan. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Butter Cream

1. Combine water and meringue powder; whip at high speed until peaks form. Add 4 cups of sugar, one cup at a time, beating after each addition at low speed. Alternately add shortening and remainder of sugar. Add salt and flavorings; beat at low speed until smooth.
2. Thin out 1/2 of the frosting with a little extra water. The thinned frosting is used as the filling between layers.

Assembly

1. Place one 10 inch cake on a large round plate or a large round cake platter. Spread 1/2 of the thinned frosting on top. (Only frost the top of the cake) Sprinkle very lightly with semi-sweet chocolate chips. (There are very few chips on this layer, usually only 1 or 2 per wedge, so sprinkle very very lightly).
2. Place the second cake on top of the first. Frost the top with the remaining thinned frosting. Sprinkle with semi-sweet chocolate chips. (You can be a bit more generous with this layer)
3. Place the third layer on top of the second. Frost the top with all of the Butter Cream that was not thinned. This is a thick layer of frosting so pile it on. Try to get the top as smooth as you can. Sprinkle with semi-sweet chocolate chips. The frosting seems more authentic if you let it set up (sit out) for an hour at room temperature. (I wrapped the sides lightly with foil to keep the cake from drying out as well)
4. Cut the cake into wedges, as you would cut a pizza. Using Hershey's chocolate syrup, create a design on your dessert plate. Place the wedge of chocolate lasagna at the 11 o'clock position on your dessert plate with the point facing down so that you can see some of the syrup design.
5. Serve.

Attribution

Posted by LladyRusty at Recipe Goldmine 1/17/2002 6:48 pm.

Source: Recipe by LladyRusty, Hershey and Wilton Enterprises