Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Coulis

Recently, I took a French cooking class, the essentials of burgundian cooking at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in Manhattan.  The class was a fun class where we broke into groups and made an entire French meal.  I perfected my boeuf bourguignon skills, which I will be making at home again this weekend.  The dessert for the class was this delicious French style chocolate cake, Gauteau ay Chocolate avec Framboise Coulis, which I made again at home, and it was even better.  My husband was a huge fan of this classic French dessert which is perfect for any dinner party.

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Coulis
Cake
6 oz semi sweet chocolate
1 1/2 sticks butter, cut into 1 T pieces
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
3 T pureed almonds, or almond flour
4 T flour
pinch of cream of tartar
pinch of salt

Glaze (I made a half recipe of the laze at home because I thought that was enough)
6 oz semisweet chocolate
4 T coffee
6 T butter

Rasberry Coulis
1 pint fresh raspberries
1 T lemon juice
1 T Framboise
powdered sugar to taste (I like the sauce to be tart, so I only used 2 T)

Spray an eight inch cake pan with pam and line with parchment paper, sprayed with pam.  Preheat the oven to 350.

Melt the chocolate and butter for the cake batter in a double boiler.  In an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the yolks with 1/4 cup of the sugar until the mixture forms ribbons that fall from the mixer.  This takes about four minutes at a high speed.  Add the chocolate mixture and blend together.  Add the flour and almond flour and combine.  Remove and clean the mixer and set aside.

In the mixer with a whisk attachment in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until it forms a soft peak, on high speed.  Slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form.  Fold the beaten whites into the chocolate batter with a spatula.  Pour into prepared cake pan.  Bake for 30 minutes or ubtil cake pulls away from sides of pan.

Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes.  Invert and remove from pan and take off the parchment paper liner.  Cool completely before glazing.

To make the glaze, heat the chocolate and coffee over a double boiler.  Off heat add the butter and stir gently to combine.  Pour on cooled cake.

Blend the ingredients for the coulis in your blender.  Serve with cake.

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Coulis

Sasha's Kitchen: Three Tiered Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream

Recently, my husband and I hosted a lovely dinner party for some old college friends. A good time was had by all and we served a four course menu that was matched with beer and wine pairings that one of your friends brought to share with the meal. We have a nice backyard here in Brooklyn, so we first had cheese and crackers with champagne outside since it was a lovely summer night.  Second course brought us inside for chinese style duck dumplings, followed by zucchini-corn fritters with yogurt sauce.  The third course was my homemade spinach ravioli with a three cheese filling (show here is a plain, non spinach batch). And, finally, its cake time.  I did another garden party themed cake, decorated with pretty pink flowers that I piped on with vanilla buttercream that I dyed pink for the flowers and yellow for the centers. I used the special wilton flower tip for making the petals for each of the pink flowers in the cake.  This time, I went with the cookbook from Alice's Tea Cup by Haley & Lauren Fox for the chocolate cake recipe, and also followed their recipe for peanut butter buttercream, which I used to frost the outside of the cake and between the layers.  I found using a rotating cake turner to be very useful for both frosting and decorating the cake. I decorated using a basic vanilla buttercream. 

Chocolate Cake - (makes three 8'' layers) - recipe from the Alice's Tea Cup Cookbook

2 cups of sugar
1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup hot brewed coffee

To prepare the cake, preheat the oven to 350. You will need three eight inch cake pans.  Prepare the three eight inch cake pans and combine the fry ingredients together in a bowl (flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt). In the basin of your stand mixer, on medium speed, beat the sour cream and eggs (one at a time), milk, oil and vanilla, and add in the dry ingredients, mixing for two minutes. Scape down the bowl and drizzle in the coffee and blend until smooth. It will be a very liquidy mixture, which is fine and appropriate.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans before gently removing from the pans and allowing to cool on a wire rack until room temperature.  If necessary, trim the tops of the cake to level them, but I found that this recipe did not require any leveling. Frost between layers and on the top and sides of the cake with the buttercream. To make the buttercream, beat the ingredients until smooth.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/4 cups cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup peanut butter

5 cups confectioner's sugar

1 T milk

Sasha's Kitchen: Three Tiered Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream

Sasha's Kitchen: Garden Party Themed Three Tier Chocolate Cake

Most of the time, I make and decorate cupcakes instead of cakes, because cakes are just - well so big. But making cakes is so much fun for a large gathering of people, especially big and even multi tiered cakes. Last weekend, my in laws had the family over for July 4th and I decided to make a large, three layered chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. I decorated the cake with lovely flowers of all colors on a blue background for a garden party theme. I was really pleased with the results so I thought I would share the cake and recipe here. I used Wilton cake tips to do the petals on the flowers and the leaves, as well as the vines. I got all of the supplies for the decorating at New York Cake, a fabulous baking supply store. Since I had to reuse the petal tip for the different color flowers, I found that using disposable pastry bags for the buttercream was easiest when decorating with the tips. I got the recipe for this delicious chocolate cake from the Alice's Tea Cup Cookbook, and found that their chocolate cake recipe was moist and delicious.

Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream
2 cups of sugar
1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup hot brewed coffe

Vanilla Buttercream (make two batches, one for the layers and covering the cake and one for decorating)
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 lb confectioner's sugar (about four cups)
2 T whole milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

To prepare the cake, preheat the oven to 350. You will need three eight inch cake pans. Next time I make this, I am going to do a second tier, whip up another batch, and also make three six inch cake plans as well for the smaller tier on top. Prepare the three eight inch cake pans and combine the fry ingredients together in a bowl (flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt). In the basin of your stand mixer, on medium speed, beat the sour cream and eggs (one at a time), milk, oil and vanilla, and add in the dry ingredients, mixing for two minutes. Scape down the bowl and drizzle in the coffee and blend until smooth. It will be a very liquidy mixture, which is fine and appropriate.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans before gently removing from the pans and allowing to cool on a wire rack until room temperature.  If necessary, trim the tops of the cake to level them, but I found that this recipe did not require any leveling.

Make a first batch of buttercream by beating together those ingredients into a smooth buttercream. I added a drop of blue gel food color to get the desired color.

To build the cake, frost the three layers with buttercream and stack. Then frost the sides. I recommend using a large metal spatula to frost and to smooth the cakes so the frosting is nice and even. You can use a little metal device (no idea what its called, sorry) to make some texture on the side of the cake as well (See the photo above). You will want to get the base frosting as smooth as possible before decorating. I used blue as  for the inside as well (baby blue, actually) but you could be more traditional and use plain instead. Also, another tip - I bought a cake turntable for rotating the cake while building and decorating - it makes the entire process much easier. I got mine here in Park Slope at Tarzian West.

Make another batch of buttercream to decorate. I divided this batch into five parts and dyed with the gel food color to make orange, purple, pink, green, and yellow. The I used the Wilton flower tip to do the petals in each color, a star tip to do the yellow centers, a leaf tip for the leaves and a thin circle tip for the vines. It's cake art!

Sasha's Kitchen: Garden Party Themed Three Tier Chocolate Cake

Sasha's Kitchen: Mini Dark Chocolate Lava Cakes

This was my first attempt at making a molten chocolate lava cake. The recipe came from the cookbook Rose's Heavenly Cakes, the bible on cake baking. The result was delicious but the lava didn't flow quite as much as I had hoped. The recipe calls for a souffle cake, with a molten dark chocolate ganache center. I think the key to getting the chocolate in the center to flow is using 60-62% cacao dark chocolate for the center. However, I had some fabulous 72% dark chocolate from my visit to the Mast Brothers' chocolate factory in Williamsburg, so I went with that. The result was delicious, but I'd like it to flow a bit more next time.


Rose's Molten Chocolate Souffle and Lava Cakes
Ganache Center
2 oz dark chocolate (60-62% cacao)
1/4 cup plus 2T (3oz) heavy cream

Batter
1.5 oz dark chocolate (60-62%)
1/4 cup plus 1/2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
3T unsalted butter
3 large eggs, separated, plus one large egg white
3 T creme fraiche or heavy cream
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
3 1/2 T granulated sugar

First, make the ganache centers. Melt the chocolate using a double boiler, stirring frequently with a silicon spatula. Do this over simmering water and do not let the bottom of the container with the chocolate actually touch the water.

Heat the cream until warm and gradually stir the chocolate into the cream. Line an egg create with plastic wrap and press into the cavities of the egg create. Pour a spoonful of the ganache into nine cavities. Cover with a second piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours until firm enough to mold into balls. Refrigerate balls until ready to bake the cakes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees before preparing the cake batter. Using a double boiler, melt the chocolate, cocoa and butter for the batter. Whisk together the yolks and creme fraiche. Lightly whisk 1/2 cup of the egg whites for easier pouring. Measure out 2 T of the egg whites an stir these into the chocolate mixture.

Beat the remaining egg whites in your mixer using a whisk attachment until foamy on medium speed. Add the cream of tartar and raise the speed to high. Continue beating until soft peaks form and gradually beat in the sugar, continuing beating until stiff peaks form. Using a wire whisk, stir in the chocolate mixture into the egg whites and fold in the remainder.

Using nine 3 oz silicon molds or 4 7 oz silicon cupcake containers, fill each three quarters fill with the chocolate souffle batter. Gently place the cold ganache balls in the center of each, but avoid pushing them down.  Bake the cakes for 10 minutes in the 3 oz containers or 14 minutes in the 4 oz containers.

Cool the cakes for 20-30 minutes until they have pulled away slightly from the edges. Carefully invert and gently un-mold each. When ready to serve, reheat each cake for 10-15 seconds on high power in the microwave.

Sasha's Kitchen: Mini Dark Chocolate Lava Cakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Devil's Food Cake with Whipped Peanut Butter Ganache

Chocolate cake - what could be better, right? For me the ideal chocolate cake is one that is quite chocolatey, but not overly rich. I like something that is a little bit on the light side, so that it isn't overkill. That's what I love best about a traditional chocolate devil's food cake. Now devil's food cake is traditionally made with a chocolate ganache, which is great, as I love chocolate ganache. I found a recipe for a  chocolate devils food cake in Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum but decided to top it with a whipped chocolate peanut butter ganache recipe that I found elsewhere in the same book. Now, if chocolate ganache is good, the whipped chocolate peanut butter ganache was amazing and was the perfect combination with the cake. The recipe below was used by me to make two cakes (I am not good at trimming cakes and stacking them to make layer cakes, as all bakers have their shortcomings, so I just made two cakes). Apologies on the picture quality - my camera ran out of batteries!


Rose's Devil's Food Cake
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup boiling water
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted and leveled off
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks of butter
2 9 x 2 inch round cake pans

Preheat the oven to 350. In a medium bowl, whisk the chocolate and boiling water until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and cool for about an hour at room temperature.

Combine  the eggs, yolks, sour cream and vanilla in another bowl.

Add all the dry ingredients to your stand mixer and cut in the butter and mix at medium speed until crumbly. Add the egg mixture and beat on medium speed for a minute and a half until smooth. Then, with the mixer on low speed, gradually add the chocolate mixture.  Beat, raising the speed, for about 30 seconds until fully incorporated. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and bake cakes for about 30-40 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed in the center. Allow the cakes to cool before trimming and/or frosting.


Rose's Whipped Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache
8 oz dark chocolate
6 T creamy peanut butter (Jif)
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, stirring constantly. Take off the heat and whisk in the peanut better until melted and combined. The  whisk in the heavy cream. Place mixture in basin of your stand mixer and beat on high with the whisk attachment. You will get a nice, light, fluffy and thick ganache after a few minutes. Spread on the cakes using a spatula and enjoy!

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Devil's Food Cake with Whipped Peanut Butter Ganache