Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (21 page)

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Authors: Maida Heatter

BOOK: Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts

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Optional: confectioners sugar (to be used after the cake has cooled)

Adjust rack one-third up from bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a one-piece plain tube pan that measures 10 inches across
the top. (The standard depth of this size pan is 4 inches. The cake will not be that deep but it is all right to use a pan that size.) Line the bottom with baking-pan liner paper or wax paper cut to fit, butter the paper, dust the inside of the pan with fine, dry bread crumbs, and invert over a piece of paper to tap out excess. Set aside.

Cover the raisins with boiling water and let stand for about 5 minutes. Then pour into a strainer and let stand with the strainer over a cup, to allow any remaining water to run off.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cocoa and set aside.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until thoroughly incorporated after each addition. Beat at high speed for about a minute after adding the last egg.

On low speed add the sifted dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the applesauce in two additions, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating only until thoroughly mixed after each addition. (The applesauce will make the mixture look curdled—it’s all right.)

Remove from the mixer and stir in the raisins and nuts.

Turn into the prepared pan and rotate the pan a bit one way, then the other, to smooth the top.

Bake for 1 hour and 25 to 30 minutes until the cake begins to come away from the sides of the pan and the top springs back when lightly pressed with a fingertip. (The baked cake will fill the pan only a little more than halfway—that is correct; it will be about 2½ inches high.)

Cool in the pan on a rack for about 15 minutes. Cover with a rack and invert, peel off the paper lining, and let the cake cool upside down. During cooling, cover the cake with a rack and turn it over briefly a few times just to make sure that it doesn’t stick to the rack.

Serve it upside down. If you wish, it may be sprinkled with confectioners sugar pressed through a fine strainer held over the cake.

This is so rich and dense that it should be cut into small slices—two small slices for a portion.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

12 TO 16
P
ORTIONS

Moist, mildly spiced, not too sweet, very dark and chocolaty, plain (no icing), beautiful-looking (made in a fancy-shaped pan). Don’t shy away from this because of pumpkin with chocolate; the pumpkin is only to keep it moist and doesn’t give much taste to the cake. It is a perfect cake for the holiday season, or to wrap as a gift. A perfect cake for any time with tea or coffee. Wonderful to have on hand for any occasion. Everyone loves it. And it is easy to make and keeps well.

You will need a Bundt pan, kugelhopf, or turban pan with a 3-quart capacity.

2¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1½ teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon cloves

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch process)

½ pound (2 sticks) sweet butter

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs (graded large or extra-large)

1 pound (scant 2 cups) canned solid-pack pumpkin (not the one labeled “pumpkin pie filling”)

6 ounces (1½ cups) walnuts, cut or broken into medium-size pieces

Optional: confectioners sugar (to be used after the cake is baked)

Adjust rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 10-inch Bundt pan or any fancy-shaped tube pan with a 3-quart capacity. It is best to do this with very soft but not melted butter, applying it with a pastry brush. Then dust the whole pan, including the tube (see page 16), with fine, dry bread crumbs. Invert the pan over paper and tap lightly to shake out excess. Set the prepared pan aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa. Set aside.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat to mix well. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating after each addition until it is incorporated. On low speed add half of the sifted dry ingredients, then the pumpkin, and finally the remaining dry ingredients, scraping the bowl with the spatula and beating after each addition only until it is incorporated.

Stir in the nuts.

Turn the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top.

Bake for 1½ hours or until a cake tester gently inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean and dry.

Let it stand for about 15 minutes.

Cover with a rack and carefully invert. Remove the pan and let the cake cool on the rack. Then let it stand for several hours or overnight before serving.

OPTIONAL
:
Cover the top generously with confectioners sugar, sprinkling it through a fine strainer held over the cake.

Old-Fashioned Cakes Without Icing

86-PROOF CHOCOLATE CAKE

BLACK AND WHITE CAKE

CHOCOLATE ANGEL FOOD CAKE

CHOCOLATE CHIFFON CAKE

CHOCOLATE GINGERBREAD

86-proof Chocolate Cake

12
P
ORTIONS

This is an especially moist and luscious dark chocolate cake generously flavored with bourbon and coffee. Sensational. It is made in a fancy pan and is served without icing. I have made this at demonstrations all around the country. It is one of my favorite cakes to teach because people can’t wait to make it.

5 ounces (5 squares) unsweetened chocolate

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup dry instant coffee or espresso

Boiling water

Cold water

½ cup bourbon (see Note)

½ pound (2 sticks) sweet butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs (graded large or extra-large)

Optional: additional bourbon

Optional: confectioners sugar

Adjust rack one-third up from bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees. You will need a 9-inch Bundt pan (that is the smaller size; it is called a Mini-Bundt pan) or any other fancy tube pan with a 10-cup capacity. Butter the pan (even if it is a non-stick pan). Then dust the whole inside of the pan with fine, dry bread crumbs; invert over a piece of paper and tap lightly to shake out excess crumbs. Set the pan aside.

Place the chocolate in the top of a small double boiler over hot water on low heat. Cover and cook only until melted; then remove the top of the double boiler, and set it aside, uncovered, to cool slightly.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In a 2-cup glass measuring cup dissolve the coffee in a bit of boiling water. Add cold water to the 1½-cup line. Add the bourbon. Set aside.

Cream the butter in the large bowl of an electric mixer. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat to mix well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Add the chocolate and beat until smooth.

Then, on low speed, alternately add the sifted dry ingredients in three additions with the liquids in two additions, adding the liquids very gradually to avoid splashing, and scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition. Be sure to beat until smooth after each addition, especially after the last. It will be a thin mixture.

Pour into the prepared pan. Rotate the pan a bit briskly, first in one direction, then in the other, to level the top. (In a Mini-Bundt pan the batter will almost reach the top of the pan, but it is O.K.—it will not run over, and you will have a beautifully high cake.)

Bake for 1 hour and 10 or 15 minutes. Test by inserting a cake tester into the middle of the cake and bake only until the tester comes out clean and dry.

Cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Then cover with a rack and invert. Remove the pan, sprinkle the cake with a bit of optional bourbon, and leave the cake upside down on the rack to cool.

Before serving, if you wish, sprinkle the top with confectioners sugar through a fine strainer.

This is a simple, no-icing cake, wonderful as is. Or with a spoonful of vanilla- or bourbon-flavored whipped cream.

NOTE
:
Of course you can substitute rum, Cognac, or Scotch whiskey for the bourbon; or Amaretto, the suggestion of a friend of mine in Ohio.

Black and White Cake

12
G
ENEROUS
P
ORTIONS

This is a marble cake in which the black and white batters form a dramatically beautiful swirling pattern. And whereas most marble cakes have more white batter than dark, this one deliciously has more dark than white. And the dark is very dark.