In A Nordicware Pan
I want a moist cake that will come out of my beautiful Nordicware cake pan. I trust David Leibovitz for desserts although I always cut his sugar measurement in half. His Double Chocolate Cake sounds great but I’m on my last block of Callebaut chocolate. I have the dutch cocoa and black onyx cocoa from Savory Spice Shop, both of which are high quality. So, I abandoned Leibovitz and sought another source and the recipe was – to be generous – untested. Two sticks of butter, one of which separated from the batter and landed on my oven’s spill tray.
The plan was for a cocoa powder cake, and the good Callebaut chocolate for a drizzle-like ganache icing, giving me the double chocolate feel. For my first attempt, I used 60g of cocoa – half of it the black, the two sticks of butter. It was far too much batter for my 6-cup Nordicware pan. The cake was impossible to remove from the pan after baking. And it was very black. For my second attempt, I halved the butter and greased the baking pan with a butter paper, chilled the pan while I ground almond flour very fine and applied that to the greased pan.
Here’s my tested recipe:
- 4 oz. butter (softened)
- 340 g of flour/ some almond (used to flour the pan)
- 1/2 teaspoon(3g) baking soda
- pinch of salt (3g)
- 40g cocoa (5 of black onyx)
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tsp sherry
- vanilla sugar, 80 grams, fine
- 4 large eggs
I beat the batter by hand so the butter must be soft but not liquid, easy to do in a hour in summer. Plan ahead and you’re committed to baking a cake. And it’s so easy.
Mix the dry ingredients; blend the liquid ones. Beat the butter with sugar until fluffy, add one egg at a time beating between additions. Then add the dry ingredients, cover with mixed liquid ingredients and mix until well combined. There is no benefit to over mixing.
To make a ganache, warm 1/4 cup of cream and add to it one or two ounces of chopped chocolate. Melt and combine to a consistency that you can drizzle over the top of the cake. You can do this while the cake bakes in a 350F oven on convection.
Here’s the other option: David Leibovitz’ Double Chocolate Cake:
For the cake
5 ounces (140g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup (50g) Dutch process cocoa powder, sifted if lumpy
1/2 cup (125ml) heavy cream
1/2 cup (125ml) strong coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (280g) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, preferably aluminum free
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 ounces (200g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups (350g) sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
For the glaze
5 ounces (140g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup (180ml) heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF (160ºC). Set the rack in the center of the oven. Generously, and thoroughly, butter a 10-inch (23cm) bundt pan.
2. Put the chopped chocolate and cocoa powder in a medium sized bowl. Bring the heavy cream and coffee almost to a boil, remove from heat, and pour over the chocolate and cocoa powder. Let sit for 30 seconds, then stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Stir in the vanilla.
3. In a separate medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or by hand in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium-high speed until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, stopping the mixer between additions, to scrape down the sides, so the eggs are incorporated.
5. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a spatula to stir in one-third of the flour mixture. Add half of the melted chocolate, then another third of the flour mixture. Finally add the rest of the melted chocolate then the last of the flour. While you’re mixing to reach down to the bottom of the bowl with the spatula, as the dry ingredients tend to sink to the bottom.
6. Scrape the batter into the prepared bundt pan, smooth the top, and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean, but with moist crumbs still attached, about 50 minutes. Don’t overbake.
7. Cool the cake on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn the cake out onto the rack and cool completely.
8. Make the glaze by putting the chopped chocolate in a medium-size bowl. Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan until almost boiling then pour over the chocolate. Let stand for 30 seconds then stir until the chocolate is smooth and melted. Stir in the vanilla extract.
9. Set the cake with the wire rack over a sheet of parchment paper. Use a spoon or ladle to cover the cake with the glaze. My glaze was pretty thick (as you can see from the photos in the post), but if yours is too runny, let it cool down a bit until it’s thicker. (Any glaze that slides off can be saved to spoon over ice cream, according to Cenk. I stirred it back into the glaze, because there wasn’t any cake crumbs in it.)
Serving: Serve the cake at room temperature. It’s a pretty rich cake although could be served with whipped cream or ice cream.
And a helpful chart from King Arthur Flour: Ingredient Weight Chart