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What Makes A Good Chocolate Cake Recipe - Yahoo Recipe Search
Food.comMoist, rich, very chocolaty . . . what is not to love about this cake?! Adapted from a recipe in Country Living UK, this cake tastes far better than it should considering how easy it is to make. My hubby and daughter declare they even prefer it to the store-bought local gourmet bakery chocolate cake. And we live in Quebec, where good French baking traditions thrive!Food52So many flavors in Thai cooking straddle the line between sweet and savory - coconut, ginger, kaffir lime, lemongrass, even chile - so I didn't think twice about translating one of my favorite Thai dishes, green curry, into something sweet. I came up with this recipe several years ago for a challenge to create a dessert with eggplant in it - the cake was really a sweet and chocolatey version of green curry with eggplant - and have since modified the recipe to omit the eggplant in the cake batter as well as the topping so as to simplify the recipe a bit. The cake is a simple chocolate cake, although the texture of it is wonderfully light and fluffy, with a small crumb that is moist. For good measure, though, I soak the cake with a ginger simple syrup. The filling of the cake is a rich and deeply flavorful dark chocolate ganache infused with kaffir lime leaves and Thai bird chiles. The herbaceousness of the kaffir lime hits your tongue first, and as you swallow, the sweet heat of the chile creeps up. The heat is not overpowering, but it's definitely present. The cake is topped off with a classic Swiss meringue buttercream infused with a bit of green curry paste. What? Yes, green curry paste. You'd think that green curry paste in frosting would be really strange, but you'd be remiss to not try it. The kaffir lime and chile in the paste echo the flavors of the ganache filling, and the lemongrass, ginger, and galangal play off the flavors of the ginger soaking liquid. But there are two other ingredients in the paste - garlic and shallots - that lend a hit of earthiness and a savoriness that really rounds out the cake. And because cake is more fun with sprinkles, this one is topped off with peanuts that are dusted in coconut milk powder. The peanut sprinkles are totally optional, but because they're really easy to make (if you can find coconut milk powder), I always add them to lend a bit of crunch and contrast to the lush, silky cake. This cake has earned a spot as one of my favorites - give it a try and it might be one of yours, too.Food.comUsually this includes a lot of additional eggs, sugar and butter but no flour - which makes it good as well but somewhat richer. I changed the recipe as i could not be bothered to whip the egg whites and care for the batter to cool down in order to add the yolks. So i went for a little four instead and gave it a try. What a treat! I love it! It is just too easy to be good :-) Enjoy with vanilla icecream. Note: You can use any chocolate you like but i recomend good quality chocolate with at leat 60% cacao.EpicuriousUnder all the whipped cream icing of the Black Forest cake are three layers of chocolate génoise soaked in kirsch. My father finished his génoise by hand, using a huge whisk with widely spaced wires to fold the flour and then the butter into the batter with big, efficient strokes so it would not deflate. On a daily basis, he would grab one of us kids to help. He sifted the flour, cocoa, and salt onto a sheet of parchment paper. When he was ready, my brother or I would hold the parchment paper folded above the bowl and tap the flour over the batter while Dad folded it in, telling us to tap faster or slower. As with many fancy cakes, the assembly is easy; it just takes lots of words to describe. Once you have baked the cake, you have completed the part that needs the greatest attention. The cake s flavor develops as the kirsch soaks into the layers. Give the finished cake a minimum of four hours in the refrigerator before serving, but it s even better made a whole day in advance. My recipe uses home-preserved sour cherries. But if you want to make this cake and did not start in June during cherry season, you still have plenty of options. You can use fresh or frozen fruit or shop for jars of preserved sour cherries such as morello and amarena cherries. Depending on what you find, the syrup will contain more or less sugar, so be sure to taste first and adjust your ingredients accordingly. (See the Note on the next page for details on substitutions.) A good Black Forest cake should be very moist and have a distinct kirsch flavor. So be sure to use good-quality kirsch.EpicuriousUnder all the whipped cream icing of the Black Forest cake are three layers of chocolate génoise soaked in kirsch. My father finished his génoise by hand, using a huge whisk with widely spaced wires to fold the flour and then the butter into the batter with big, efficient strokes so it would not deflate. On a daily basis, he would grab one of us kids to help. He sifted the flour, cocoa, and salt onto a sheet of parchment paper. When he was ready, my brother or I would hold the parchment paper folded above the bowl and tap the flour over the batter while Dad folded it in, telling us to tap faster or slower. As with many fancy cakes, the assembly is easy; it just takes lots of words to describe. Once you have baked the cake, you have completed the part that needs the greatest attention. The cake s flavor develops as the kirsch soaks into the layers. Give the finished cake a minimum of four hours in the refrigerator before serving, but it s even better made a whole day in advance. My recipe uses home-preserved sour cherries. But if you want to make this cake and did not start in June during cherry season, you still have plenty of options. You can use fresh or frozen fruit or shop for jars of preserved sour cherries such as morello and amarena cherries. Depending on what you find, the syrup will contain more or less sugar, so be sure to taste first and adjust your ingredients accordingly. (See the Note on the next page for details on substitutions.) A good Black Forest cake should be very moist and have a distinct kirsch flavor. So be sure to use good-quality kirsch.Food52For the love of brownies and strawberries this summer treat has been created. What can I do if my guys always ask for chocolate brownie? How to adjust a good trusty brownie for spring or summer dessert? I added strawberry cream mousse and a meringue topping with some fresh strawberries and a drizzle of dark chocolate. Well, it was delicious! Addition of meringue was a good decision too, not only did it make the cake look nice it also gave this lovely crunchy structure with soft airy centre. Of course, you could change strawberry to any other berry to your liking. Another interesting thing was to bake brownie without chocolate, actually. Only with cocoa powder. It absolutely worked and I would recommend doing so if you run out of chocolate or to minimize the cost also. Brownie recipe I adapted from ouichefnetwork.comFood.comThis is my father-in-law's mother's cake recipe from Oklahoma, and I'm posting it for safe keeping. Word (word in our family, that is) has it that no one made a mayonnaise cake like she did. She would always send one back with my husband's family when they made a trip out to Oklahoma to visit from Colorado. The frosting she put on it was boiled sugar frosting, and my father-in-law's father apparently liked frosting so much it was like, "How about a little cake with your frosting?" That's what I've heard anyway. ;) I've tried to make the boiled sugar frosting a couple times, but it doesn't come out right (maybe it's the Colorado altitude, maybe it's my cooking skills, maybe it was a grandma thing [she did have 50 years of making it behind her]. Who knows.), but my husband - the grandchild that loves mayonnaise cake the most out of all of them, so much so that we were gifted the "mayonnaise cake pan" upon the grandmother's passing - likes it just as much with this chocolate frosting. The frosting recipe is adapted from Hershey's and works swimmingly, whether you're a grandma or not. ;) Oh, this cake is also great when it's chilled - it makes it more dense and SO good.Food52I know molten cakes have become too trendy for their own good and are a cliché, but I'm in love with them. What's not to love about a warm chocolate cake with an oozing-melting center. I try to make different versions with a different center each time - coffee, caramel, raspberries, and now, cherries. Though these cakes have lost the wonderful surprise element they used to have, the different flavored center still manages to be unexpectedly delightful. Recipe idea credits go to David Lebovitz, Jamie Oliver and Melissa Kronenthal.Food52The chai tea-jaggery combo made these cakes glisten with moisture, giving them a smooth tender texture with subtle coconut undertones. If you need a winter pick-me-up or are just interested in a rich, moist chocolate cake that’s also gluten free, or maybe you’re just wondering what a chocolate cake with chai tea tastes like. Give these a go and they’ll put a smile on your face till summer! Jaggery intensifies the chocolate taste and gives the cake an exquisite flavour,that’s quite unique so it’s worth seeking out. But if you can’t get hold of it, Demerara/turbinado sugar works well but you may have to melt it down first to avoid a gritty texture in the cake. I’ve specified assam tea bags in the recipe but I’ve also made it with decaf normal teabags and it tasted just as good
