Because I’ve gotten some great food advice on CC, and because I have a foodie son I like to bake for, I hereby start this thread with the hopes of getting some cake ideas.
The parameters:
Not too sweet
No fondant (sorry, no one in my family likes it)
Interesting icing ideas
Made from scratch
Ethnic recipes welcomed
Bonus points for inclusion of fruit
I 'll start with this recipe:
My Favorite Chocolate Guiness Cake:
1 cup Guinness (dark beer)
1/2 cup butter, cubed
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup baking cocoa
2 large eggs, beaten
2/3 cup sour cream
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
Directions
Grease a 9-in. springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper; set aside.
In a small saucepan, heat beer and butter until butter is melted. Remove from the heat; whisk in sugar and cocoa until blended. Combine the eggs, sour cream and vanilla; whisk into beer mixture. Combine flour and baking soda; whisk into beer mixture until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Remove sides of pan.
I serve it with whipped cream and a simple strawberry puree. It’s also yummy with a home made organge or tangerine sorbet.
Lots of sugar, I suspect you can cut quite a bit of it and not sacrifice texture, etc. I made both as-written and GF version (family members with celiac).
Funny, so many of us eliminate frosting @onward, care to share the recipe for the whiskey ganache? (Pretty please?) @momo2x2018 those sound SO good! Going to try that Simnel Cake for sure. @HouseChatte I love lemon cake, thanks for the recipe, and what an interesting website.
If you really feel like going all out to impress a foodie and have a pretty awesome cake too, check out Alice Medrich’s Pave D’Amour. This was actually our wedding cake back when she still had her Cocolat shop in the Bay Area, and we loved it so much I started making it once a year at Christmas. It takes a few days to make, so it’s a labor of love. The original recipe appears, appropriately enough, in her cookbook titled “Cocolat”.
@BunsenBurner, that cake looks awesome. Two questions- what size cake pan do you use, and how hard is it to cut the cake into 4 layers?
Thanks in advance
This is for 9 inch pan (just make sure to keep the oven closed for the first half hour so the cake would not deflate and after that use a toothpick to check, 40 min baking time is approximate). I agree that it is a bit of pita to make… cutting it is easier when it completely cooled and slightly drier, and 3 layers is easier than 4. You can use chocolate buttercream for frosting… I usually moisten the layers a bit by sprinkling them with some sort of watery “syrup.”
@anomander Oh, I remember Cocolat. Best chocolate truffles in the world, period. My world dimmed when Cocolat was no more. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I totally feel challenged.
@katliamom I’m so happy to meet another Cocolat fan! That is literally my oldest cookbook, and I bought it specifically for that cake recipe.
W and I used to love going to the Cocolat location in Stanford Mall when we were dating, so it was a no-brainer to use them for our wedding cake. I believe you can still get the Cocolat cookbook on Amazon. The original recipe uses square pans instead of round in that website I linked. Since we have a small family, I’d make the square cake, then cut in half and apply the icing after so you end up with two separate rectangular cakes. Then we’d freeze one to eat later.
If you do decide to give it a whirl, be sure to use a high-quality European-style butter for the buttercream. I like Plugra or a cultured butter. I typically give myself 2-3 days to make the various components, then another day for assembly.
