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Chocolate Cake with Coffee Frosting (and a Secret)

25 May

There seem to be as many chocolate cake recipes in existence as there are people who enjoy chocolate cake.  There also seem to be as many names for chocolate cake (devil’s food cake, dark chocolate cake, chocolate layer cake) as there are people who are willing to taste all those chocolate cakes in order to officially prove whether or not those differently named cakes actually taste any different from one another.  You’ve never heard of these official cake-tasters, you say?  You think I just made all that up, you say?  Or did I just create a new job for myself—Official Chocolate Cake Taster—all in the name of finally getting to the bottom of this great chocolate cake mystery, thusly making my new job a selfless and totally essential function aimed at bettering the chocolate cake eating habits of all of humanity?  Think about that for a minute.

Though it seems unlikely, it’s not difficult to make a bad chocolate cake.  Cakes lacking moisture will never be able to taste good enough to allow anyone to forget their sawdust-like texture, but, conversely, cakes suffering from a shortage of true chocolate flavor will never be able to shine to their utmost greatness, no matter how moist and toothsome a morsel may be.  The other side of that coin, however, is the realization that it’s not all that hard to make a really, really good chocolate cake either.  In fact, the most difficult step in making a great chocolate cake starts not with one’s prowess in the kitchen, but rather in finding a standout recipe.  Which is where my new job comes in.

Some recipes stress a particular mixing technique, while others insist on using only oil, not butter, in their chocolate cake, arguing that the neutral flavor of vegetable oil allows the true taste of the chocolate in a chocolate cake to really take center stage.  Some recipes favor buttermilk for achieving an optimal texture, but others prefer that you amend the batter with a simple chocolate pudding made from milk and chocolate heated together on the stove.  Though there are endless tricks and techniques by which people will swear, in my new capacity as Official Chocolate Cake Tester, I feel as though I would be remiss in my newfound duties if I did not reveal to you a bit of a secret: Sometimes the secret to making a flawless chocolate cake comes from the most unlikely source, and that source just so happens to grow underground.

While also welcoming in a not insubstantial amount of both butter and buttermilk, this particular cake recipe utilizes a little-known helper in the world of baked goods.  In an effort to turn out a cake with maximum moistness, the recipe calls for the inclusion of a simple handful of shredded raw beets, an ingredient that is undetectable in taste, but very much evident when it comes to texture.  The shredded beets melt into the cake during baking, resulting in a cake with incomparable moistness and richness.  While I won’t pretend that adding beets to a cake magically transforms it into a healthy and wholesome snack (see: butter, chocolate, and sugar), I will wholeheartedly admit that this cake can be deemed magical in an entirely different, indulgent, deliciously chocolaty way.

I’ve mentioned before my propensity to punch up chocolate baked goods with a bit of coffee.  Rather than adding a dose of coffee directly into the cake batter, I took my love of the chocolate/coffee combination a bit further by covering this cake with a completely immodest amount of coffee frosting.  Even if you happen to be a lukewarm fan of coffee on its own, I cannot recommend enough that you go ahead and put these two elements together.

The two flavors go together like a dream, and they were a perfect pairing for celebrating the birthday of a 33 year-old brother who loves both coffee and chocolate with equal affection.  Just add in some friendly dinosaurs and your consummate chocolate cake is complete.  (Note: Dinosaurs are for decoration only and are not meant to enhance the flavor of the cake in any way.)

Chocolate Cake with Coffee Frosting (and a Secret)

Chocolate Cake

From Cooking School Secrets for Real-World Cooks, by Linda Carucci 

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs, room temperature

2 cups buttermilk

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2/3 cup packed finely shredded raw beets

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Position a rack in the lower middle position.

Butter and flour the sides and bottom of 2 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch sides.  Line the bottoms with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.  Stir to combine, then make a well in the center and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs to combine.  Whisk in the buttermilk.  Add to the dry ingredients all at once, and stir to combine completely.  Slowly whisk in the butter.  Add the vanilla and stir to combine.  Stir in the beets.  Transfer to the prepared cake pans and spread evenly, using a rubber spatula to pull the batter away from the center of the pans and out along the sides.  (The recipe claimed that this act would ensure flat, rather than domed, tops, and, I’ll admit, I was dubious, but still did it.  To my complete surprise, it totally worked.  I didn’t have to slice off the tops of either of the cakes whilst in the pursuit of non-crooked layers!  Who knew?)

Bake until the center of each cake springs back when lightly touched and the sides of each cake just begin to pull away from the pan, 30 to 35 minutes.

Allow cakes to cool on a wire rack, still in their pans, for 10 minutes.  Invert each cake onto another rack and remove pans.  Carefully peel off the parchment paper and cool the cake completely, upside down.  Make sure your cake layers are completely and totally cooled before frosting, lest your frosted cake end up a dripping, melted mess.

Coffee Frosting

From The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book 

3 sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks and softened

2 tablespoons instant espresso

3 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

Beat the butter, espresso powder, milk or cream, vanilla, and salt together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium high speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.

Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low, slowly add the confectioners’ sugar, and beat until incorporated and smooth, 4 to 6 minutes.  Increase the mixer speed to medium high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, 5 to 10 minutes.

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Flourless Chocolate Mousse Cloud Cake, the Cake of Plenty

16 Feb

Some people prefer birthday cake, some birthday pie.  I once knew a fellow who, in lieu of a birthday cake, asked for nothing more than a bowl of birthday cake frosting.  My favorite birthday dessert, were I forced to choose, would be the birthday combo-pack, wherein one gets to have a dessert that is very conveniently comprised of several different desserts, like a cornucopia, only filled with baked goods instead of the fruits of one’s harvest.  When I recently offered to make someone a birthday cake of his choice and was informed of his decision (carrot cake with cream cheese frosting), my first response was, “Really?  Just carrot cake?  What about a chocolate marble cake, because it has two kinds of cake in one?  Or a black bottom cake, because it’s a cake with a cheesecake filling?  Or how about two cakes?  Wouldn’t you like to have two cakes for your birthday?”

To most people, this unstoppable desire to make more work for oneself would be viewed as nothing less than ludicrous.  While I can’t argue with that assessment, I can at least justify my actions a little bit by explaining that when I am done making whatever cake or pie that someone has requested for a birthday celebration, I am, most of the time, also invited to eat whatever I have made, and therefore benefiting from our dessert negotiations more than one might initially realize.

So when it came time to prepare a birthday dessert for a beloved auntie who made the very simple request of having something that contained both chocolate and whipped cream, how could I resist the urge to fulfill her birthday cake wish many times over?

It started with the chocolate cloud cake from Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Bites.  The chocolate cloud is a flourless cake, made sturdy with stiffly whipped egg whites gently folded into a rich and chocolaty batter.

The cake rises wonderfully in the oven, then delicately deflates as it cools, leaving a perfect indentation on top in which to place whatever one chooses.  In this case, a creamy, bittersweet chocolate mousse is smoothed into the crater.

 

A simple dollop of whipped cream would, of course, accompany this cake very nicely, but, at this point, why limit the cake to one type of whipped cream?  With just a few more ingredients and in almost no time at all, three flavors of whipped cream can be coaxed into soft peaks and then piled high into individual bowls, inviting the cake to be interpreted three different ways.

The whipped cream variations that made company with this particular cake were flavored with espresso, peppermint, and classic vanilla, and, while they were perfectly acceptable accompaniments, I see no reason to stop at those flavors.  I almost tried out a ginger whipped cream, but the peppermint won out at the last minute.  If you have any Frangelico on hand, a little glug into the chilled cream, pre-whipping, would produce a fantastic hazelnut whipped cream (the same goes for adding a bit of Framboise to make a raspberry whipped cream, or just adding a bit of bourbon if you’re looking for a great kick of flavor with a bit less sweetness).

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of this dessert, however, comes not in its final form.  When you’re cooking with such vast quantities of chocolate, including a simple mousse that skips the standard addition of raw eggs, you are left with several cooking tools that are amenable to being cleaned off with the help of others, and not necessarily by way of the sink.  In particular, when it comes to cleaning chocolate anything off of mostly anything, in my house at least, you don’t have to go far to find yourself an assistant who is willing to help out in any way he can.

Chocolate Cloud Cake

From Nigella Bites

9 0z bittersweet chocolate

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

6 eggs: 2 whole, 4 separated

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of sugar

9-inch springform cake pan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line the bottom of the cake pan with baking parchment.

Melt the chocolate in either a double boiler or in the microwave, and then let the butter melt in the warm chocolate.

Beat the 2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks with 1/3 cup of the sugar, then gently add in the chocolate/butter mixture.

In another bowl, whisk the 4 egg whites until foamy, then gradually add the remaining sugar and whisk until the whites hold their shape but are not too stiff.  Lighten the chocolate mixture with a dollop of egg whites, and then fold in the rest of the whites.  Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the cake is risen and cracked and the center is no longer wobbly.  Cool the cake in its pan on a wire rack.  The middle will sink as it cools.

Chocolate Mousse

Adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 & 1/4 cups heavy cream, chilled

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

pinch salt

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

In a small saucepan, slowly whisk together the cornstarch and 1/4 cup of heavy cream over very low heat.  When the cornstarch has mostly dissolved (this should take under 1 minute), slowly whisk in another 1/4 cup of cream, the sugar, cocoa, vanilla extract, espresso, and salt.  Stir constantly until the sugar dissolves (about 1 minute).

Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and stir in the melted chocolate.  Place the bowl in the refrigerator or freezer, stirring every minute or so, until the filling cools to room temperature and is slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

Whip the remaining 3/4 cup of cream with an electric mixer on medium low speed until frothy, about 1 minute.  Increase the mixer speed to high and continue to whip until the cream forms soft peaks, 1 to 3 minutes.  Gently fold the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate filling until just combined.

Assembling the Cake

When the cake has cooled, gently pour the chocolate mousse into the crater that has formed in the center of the cake.  Smooth the mousse as much as possible, then set chocolate mousse cake in the refrigerator until the entire thing has set, anywhere from 2-3 hours (the cake can, of course, be left in the refrigerator overnight, though after the top of the mousse has set it would be a good idea to cover the top of the cake with a sheet of plastic wrap).

Before serving, run a thin knife around the edge of the cake, gently separating it from the sides of the springform pan.  If, when unlocking and removing the springform’s sides, the cake loses a few crumbs and appears a bit crackly, do not despair.  One of the many charms of this cake is its rustic appearance, as it belies the incredible smoothness held within.

Top cake with whipped cream of your choice, by the slice or in the cake’s entirety.

You can make all three of the following whipped creams by buying one pint of heavy whipping cream and dividing it into thirds.

Vanilla Whipped Cream

2/3 cup heavy cream

scant 1 teaspoon vanilla extraxt

2 tablespoons confectioners’ cugar

Mocha Whipped Cream

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 teaspoons espresso powder

2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Peppermint Whipped Cream

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

Whip cream in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer or whisk until cream begins to thicken.  Add the sugar and flavorings and continue to whip until stiff peaks just begin to form.

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