As much as I like cooking, I don’t make a lot of desserts. I like cooking savory dishes and I love baking bread, but by the time I started to enjoy my time in the kitchen more, my sweet tooth had gone from raging, as evidenced by a dorm-room littered with Little Debbie boxes, to much more moderate. I still like sweets, but I no longer have the urge to eat a box of cupcakes for dinner, and they’re not something I have a lot of experience preparing.
Usually when it’s time for cake, I just buy a box mix at the supermarket along with a can of frosting and call it a day. This past weekend, however, the lovely T celebrated another birthday and I wanted to give her something a bit better than what a box from the baking aisle had to offer. In the past she’s made for my birthdays german chocolate cakes, inside-out german chocolate cakes, and german chocolate cheesecakes (guess what kind of cake is my favorite), all from scratch and all delicious.
I asked her what she wanted and her response was “something chocolatey.” Without much cake experience, I decided to type “chocolate cake” into google image search and see what looked good. This was the first one to grab my eye:
Google wins again
So then it was just a simple click through to find the recipe. It’s called Chocolate Cake IV, not because three versions came before it, but because it contains 4 types of chocolate.
Chocolate Cake IV, by Florence Neavoll, Salem, Oregon, Southern Living
JANUARY 2006Ingredients
- PAM Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
- CRISCO Vegetable Shortening
- 1/2 (4-ounce) semisweet chocolate baking bar, chopped
- 1/2 (4-ounce) bittersweet chocolate baking bar, chopped
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 cups firmly packed DOMINO Light Brown Sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup boiling water
- Coffee Liqueur Ganache Icing
- Mocha-Chocolate Cream Filling
- Garnish: dark chocolate curls
Preparation
- 1. Coat 3 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray. Line bottoms of pans with wax paper; grease wax paper with shortening, and set aside.
- 2. Melt chocolates in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth.
- 3. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears after each addition. Stir in melted chocolate and vanilla.
- 4. Sift together cake flour and next 3 ingredients; add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended. Stir in 1 cup boiling water. Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.
- 5. Bake at 350° for 28 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.
- 6. Place 1 cake layer on a serving plate; spread top with 4 tablespoons Coffee Liqueur Ganache Icing. Spread half of Mocha-Chocolate Cream Filling evenly over ganache on cake layer. Top with second cake layer; spread top with 4 tablespoons Coffee Liqueur Ganache Icing and remaining Mocha-Chocolate Cream Filling. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread remaining Coffee Liqueur Ganache Icing on top and sides of cake. Garnish, if desired.
I’m not a master at mixing, especially when things are supposed to be mixed “just until blended.” After getting the batter together, it seemed very soupy, and not as thick as I would have imagined. At this point there was nothing for it but to pop the pans in the oven and see what happened. I’m delighted to say that they firmed up and rose quite nicely. Step 1 went off without a hitch. Now for frostings.
Coffee Liquer Ganache Icing by Florence Neavoll, Salem, Oregon, Southern Living
JANUARY 2006Ingredients
- 3 (4-ounce) bittersweet chocolate baking bars, finely chopped
- 1 1/4 cups whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoons coffee liqueur (I used Kahlua)
Preparation
- 1. Place chocolate in a bowl.
- 2. Heat cream in a small saucepan over medium heat just until cream begins to boil. Pour over chocolate in bowl, stirring until smooth. Stir in butter and liqueur. Let mixture stand 45 minutes or until spreading consistency.
On this step I don’t think I did it quite as intended. The chocolate chopping and the cream heating went fine, but when mixed together the chocolate didn’t get entirely melted. After quite a bit of stirring and the sauce becoming much close to room temperature, it didn’t seem like I was making any more progress. Not sure what to do about this, I popped it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, and then stirred until smooth before adding the other ingredients. It seemed to go fine, but afterwards it never quite set up the way I wanted it to. It was a little more liquid and a little less spreadable than the recipe seemed to suggest. Of course when it came to finishing the cake, I put it all over that thing anyway, it just didn’t totally adhere to the sides and ended up running down a little more than I would have liked. But I’m getting ahead of myself. There’s still one more frosting to go:
Chocolate Cream Filling, adapted from Mocha-Chocolate Cream Filling by Florence Neavoll, Salem, Oregon, Southern Living JANUARY 2006
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
- 1 cup half-and-half
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup DOMINO 10X Confectioners Sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preparation
- 1. Whisk together first 3 ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, 5 minutes or until thickened. Spoon mixture into a small bowl; cover surface of mixture with plastic wrap, pressing wrap onto surface, and let stand 30 minutes or until cool.
- 2. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add cooled cocoa mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Add vanilla, beating until mixture is the consistency of whipped cream.
The original recipe called for the addition of instant coffee to add a mocha flavor, the the lovely T doesn’t like coffee as much as I do, and it’s her birthday after all, so I omitted that ingredient. The filling turned out well anyhow, and ended up being nice and light.
Not as professional looking
Overall, I was quite happy with how it turned out. I definitely didn’t nail the ganache, but even though the texture wasn’t there, the flavor was, so I’m gonna call it a net win. Yum.
The belly of the beast.
Still working on presentation. Tasted good, though.
