Cookie Chick

There is something to be said for making someone’s eyes roll to the back of their head as they bite into something you have lovingly crafted. The closed eyes and quickened breath revealing the joy they are experiencing so publicly.

It makes the hours spent in front of the hot stove in our record breaking heat wave worthwhile to witness that kind of ecstasy.

It’s birthday month again at my office. It’s been one full year since I started baking cakes for my colleagues, wanting to make their birthdays a little more special with a homemade treat made just for them. I work in a large office and had limited it the folks in my group. However, word is getting out and it’s hard to have enough cake for the people who want to partake. I may need to move this to once per month and make a couple of larger cakes to satisfy more people and include more birthdays. The downside is that it makes it a little less special to not have a cake made special for you, but the positive is that I won’t exclude anyone, either.

This cake was mainly for my colleague Steve. However another Steve shares his birthday and one of our student employees has a birthday this week, too. So this German Chocolate Cake hybrid is for the three of them.

I took Ina Garten’s lovely chocolate cake that has become my gold standard and Cooks Illustrated’s topping for German Chocolate Cakeand combined them in a decadent, succulent cake that pleased all, even coconut haters. The cake is delicate, so splitting the layers was a bit of a challenge. I experimented using a flexible cutting mat to slip the cut layer onto. This worked very well and I’ll use that again.

I was even able to shave off a small slice for Dave. Poor thing had to suffer me heating up the house, he deserves a little sugar.

Update: June 4, 2007

This cake has proven to be very popular at my work. I have made it as birthday cake four times. I’ve also made it twice as cupcakes. Once I made a peanut-butter butter cream frosting for the center. That was very good. My husband has asked me to make it with all peanut butter frosting sometime. This last time, I chopped the almonds up a little to help them stay on when cutting. This worked very well.

I’ve had great success using Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder and semi-sweet chocolate. Trader Joe’s carries the semi-sweet chocolate in chunks that is quite a cost savings. I got the cocoa powder at Whole Foods.

After making the practice cupcakes, I decided to be adventurous and try a new recipe. While the devil’s food cupcakes were really good, I was not happy with the frosting. I was able to salvage the recipe by adding unsweetened chocolate and cocoa, but the consistency was a little off and by omitting half the sugar I wasn’t sure it would be enough for a two layer cake.

Instead I decided to try Ina Garten’s Double Chocolate Layer Cake from Food & Wine Magazine. I read about this fantastic cake on another Food Blog, Dine and Dish. I was intrigued by this cake because it did not call for the usual creamed butter, but used buttermilk and coffee. The frosting only had 1 cup of powdered sugar which was much better than the 3 – 4 cups in most recipes.

The cake batter was very thin, which concerned me a little before baking. One of the layers was a tiny bit lopsided so I trimmed a bit off. This also allowed me a sneak taste, it was divine. My husband thought it was fantastic and he’s not a big cake fan.

The frosting was luscious. I made sure to get the freshest organic butter I could find. The last time I made a butter-cream frosting, I made the mistake of buying whatever butter was on sale. The butter was not great and the taste came through in the frosting. I did add two tablespoons of dutch processed cocoa powder to the frosting in the final mix. It didn’t really need it, but I wanted an extra chocolate punch.

I really love the taste of almonds with chocolate. I toasted some almond slivers in the oven and added them to the side of the cake. I finished off the top with some chocolate shavings from a bar of Scharffen Berger Semi-sweet chocolate. This is the same chocolate I used in the frosting.

The birthday girl was out sick on Monday, so we are saving the cake for today. My hope is that it will still be moist and delicious after being refrigerated for almost 48 hours. I’ll update later today with more comments and hopefully more photos of the cut cake.

Update

Well, the birthday girl is still out but she wanted us to eat the cake and save her a piece. Boy, was that difficult. This cake is amazing, even after two days. I had a line of colleagues out the door begging for a piece. A few people commented that they are very picky about their baked goods and that this cake was divine. It’s not difficult to make and the results are spectacular. One person who hates chocolate (I know, hard to believe) ate the crumbs off the cake round. So, if you need to make a chocolate cake for an event, try this one. The almonds on the side worked very well. For future cakes, I might chop them a bit smaller. They fell off the cake during cutting.

Double-Chocolate Layer Cake

MAKES ONE 8-INCH LAYER CAKE

“This is the most fabulous chocolate cake that I’ve ever made,” says Ina Garten, host of Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa. “It’s so easy and so moist and light. There’s buttermilk and a cup of coffee in the batter! The frosting is just buttercream and a little coffee.”

Ingredients

CAKE

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (sifted)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (1 cup of instant coffee works well, too.)

FROSTING

• 7 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules

Directions

MAKE THE CAKE: Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and line them with parchment paper; butter the paper. Dust the pans with flour, tapping out any excess.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the flour with the sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt at low speed. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk with the oil, eggs and vanilla. Slowly beat the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients until just incorporated, then slowly beat in the hot coffee until fully incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then invert the cakes onto a rack to cool completely. Peel off the parchment paper.

MAKE THE FROSTING: In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the chocolate at high power in 30-second intervals, stirring, until most of the chocolate is melted. Stir until completely melted, then set aside to cool to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat for 1 minute, scraping down the side of the bowl. At low speed, slowly beat in the powdered sugar, about 1 minute. In a small bowl, dissolve the instant coffee in 1 tablespoon of hot water.  Slowly beat cooled chocolate into the butter mixture until just combined. Add the disolved coffee and mix until well combined.

Set a cake layer on a plate with the flat side facing up. Evenly spread one-third of the frosting over the cake to the edge. Top with the second cake layer, rounded side up. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and side of the cake. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before slicing.

MAKE AHEAD The frosted cake can be refrigerated for 2 days. Let stand for 1 hour before serving.

Update: April 9, 2007

I made this recipe a second time this past weekend as cupcakes. They were amazingly good and were a huge hit at my work and my husband’s work.

Cupcakes

Tip: The batter is very thin. You can pour the batter into a liquid measuring cup for easier portioning.

Line muffin pan with cupcake liners. Pour the batter into each muffin cup to 3/4 full. Bake for 20 – 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans on a wire rack for 10 – 15 minutes and then remove from the pan and cool to room temperature.

I made 28 cupcakes with this recipe. With the frosting, they are about 200 calories and 10 grams of fat. Not too bad for the delicious richness. I’d take this over a Krispy Kreme any day.

Last September, I decided it would be nice to make birthday cakes for the people in my group. I work in a large department, but my group is only 8 people. It turned out that 3 of those people all have birthdays in September, so I was busy that month.

Bob’s favorite is German Chocolate. It turns out that it was Steve’s favorite too, but I didn’t have time to make one from scratch for him. Steve’s cake was a Duncan Hines mix. It was good, but not too chocolate-y. Bob was my first try at making one from scratch. I used the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated.

Differences Between the From Scratch Version and the Box Mix Version
I was quite pleased with the cake made from scratch. The cake had a deep chocolate taste, which the box mix was lacking. The pecan filling was sweet and nutty and did not have that artificial taste. There was also enough for all four layers. The tub of pecan frosting from the store was barely enough for two layers. I also had less doming with the from scratch version. The boxed cake domed terribly.

Doming Mishap (Box Cake)
I forgot that you had to even out the layers before icing. I iced it the night before and went to bed. The next morning I came down to find the cake in three pieces. I was ready to pitch it and go buy a cake when my husband suggested cutting it up before hand. It looked intentional that way and no one was the wiser.

Overall, it was worth the effort. I like the taste of box mix cakes, but I would rather know what was going into the cake using real whole foods and not a lot of chemicals. However, I’d still take a homemade cake made from a box over a grocery store cake any day.

German Chocolate Cake with Coconut-Pecan Filling

When you assemble the cake, the filling should be cool or cold (or room temperature, at the very warmest). To be time-efficient, first make the filling, then use the refrigeration time to prepare, bake, and cool the cakes. The toasted pecans are stirred into the filling just before assembly to keep them from becoming soft and soggy.

Serves 12 to 16

Filling
4 egg yolks
1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cut into 6 pieces
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut (7 ounces)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans (6 1/2 ounces), toasted on baking sheet in 350-degree oven until fragrant and browned, about 8 minutes

Cake
4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa , sifted
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces), plus additional for dusting cake pans
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar (about 4 3/4 ounces)
3/4 teaspoon table salt
4 large eggs , room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sour cream , room temperature

1. FOR THE FILLING: Whisk yolks in medium saucepan; gradually whisk in evaporated milk. Add sugars, butter, and salt and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is boiling, frothy, and slightly thickened, about 6 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl, whisk in vanilla, then stir in coconut. Cool until just warm, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cool or cold, at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. (Pecans are stirred in just before cake assembly.)

2. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine chocolate and cocoa in small bowl; pour boiling water over and let stand to melt chocolate, about 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth; set aside until cooled to room temperature.

3. Meanwhile, spray two 9-inch-round by 2-inch-high straight-sided cake pans with nonstick cooking spray; line bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray paper rounds, dust pans with flour, and knock out excess. Sift flour and baking soda into medium bowl or onto sheet of parchment or waxed paper.

4. In bowl of standing mixer, beat butter, sugars, and salt at medium-low speed until sugar is moistened, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula halfway through. With mixer running at medium speed, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down bowl halfway through. Beat in vanilla; increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 45 seconds. With mixer running at low speed, add chocolate, then increase speed to medium and beat until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down bowl once (batter may appear broken). With mixer running at low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream (in 2 additions), beginning and ending with dry ingredients, and beating in each addition until barely combined. After final flour addition, beat on low until just combined, then stir batter by hand with rubber spatula, scraping bottom and sides of bowl, to ensure that batter is homogenous (batter will be thick). Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans; spread batter to edges of pans with rubber spatula and smooth surfaces.

5. Bake cakes until toothpick inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes, then invert cakes onto greased wire rack; peel off and discard paper rounds. Cool cakes to room temperature before filling, about 1 hour. (Cooled cakes can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 1 day.)

6. TO ASSEMBLE: Stir toasted pecans into chilled filling. Set one cake on serving platter or cardboard round cut slightly smaller than cake, and second cake on work surface (or leave on wire rack). With serrated knife held so that blade is parallel with work surface, use sawing motion to cut each cake into two even layers. Starting with first cake, carefully lift off top layer and set aside. Using icing spatula, distribute about 1 cup filling evenly on cake, spreading filling to very edge of cake and leveling surface. Carefully place upper cake layer on top of filling; repeat using remaining filling and cake layers. If necessary, dust crumbs off platter; serve or refrigerate cake, covered loosely with foil, up to 4 hours (if refrigerated longer than 2 hours, let cake stand at room temperature 15 to 20 minutes before serving).