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1
Heat heavy cream in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat until boiling.
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2
Add chocolate chips.
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3
Remove from heat and stir with rubber spatula until melted and smooth.
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4
Transfer to a large bowl of electric mixer and refrigerate about 2 hours, stirring twice, until just chilled.
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5
(If mixture gets too cold, it will be too stiff to beat properly.
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6
).
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7
Beat mixture with electric mixer just until soft peaks form when beaters are lifted.
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8
(Cream will continue to thicken after a few minutes at room temperature, so be careful not to overbeat or it will turn curdy and grainy.
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9
Should this happen, you can salvage it by remelting, rechilling, and rebeating.
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10
).
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11
To assemble, trim top of cakes with long serrated knife, cutting off any raised areas.
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12
Place 1 cake layer on serving plate.
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13
spread 1 cup chocolate cream evenly over layer.
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14
Top with another cake layer and 1 more cup chocolate cream.
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15
Reserve some cream for piping decorations, then ice sides and top with a thin layer of chocolate cream.
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16
Put reserved chocolate cream in pastry bag with an open star tip.
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17
Pipe a border around bottom and top edge of cake.
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18
Refrigerate until serving.
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19
If desired, just before serving, carefully stencil the confectioners sugar on top of the cake.
