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.

I feel very fortunate that I’m not allergic to peanuts. I really love nuts of all types, although technically peanuts are legumes and not nuts. Who doesn’t love the combination of chocolate with peanut butter? After all, they’re “Two great tastes that taste great together.”

My best friend requested a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for her birthday last month. I have already found a perfect recipe for chocolate cake and started searching for one for peanut butter frosting. I have found that I prefer ones without a lot of sugar. 1 cup of confectioner’s sugar seems to work well. I found an easy recipe that is quite tasty. It called for 2 cups of sugar, but I cut back as I don’t like things too sweet. This frosting goes very well with the Mocha Double-chocolate cake recipe.

I made cupcakes for a birthday at my husband’s office this week. I frosted half the cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and half with chocolate. I topped the peanut butter ones with shaved chocolate and the chocolate ones with chopped, toasted almonds.

Peanut Butter Frosting

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar (4 oz)

DIRECTIONS

Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes or until fluffy.

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.

Chocolate Cake

Yesterday was our anniversary. We usually have Fridays off, but unfortunately Dave had to work that day. I decided to make him a nice dinner and wanted to have a sinful dessert to go with it. He loved the chocolate cupcakes I made a few weeks ago, but I didn’t want to have that many cupcakes in the house.

I’ve been intrigued by the chocolate cakes that ooze yummy goodness when you cut into them. They go by different names; lava cakes, fallen cakes, molten chocolate cakes, etc. The cake was originally created by master chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and is popular in restaurants. King Arthur Flour and Trader Joe’s had mixes to create this cake at home. I wanted to try making one from scratch for this special occasion. One nice thing about this recipe is that you can make it ahead of time and bake it when you are ready. This would be perfect for a dinner party.

I chose to use the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. It is similar to others I saw online, including the original recipe for Molten Chocolate Cake from Jean-Georges Vongerichten which is published on Food & Wine magazine’s web site.

Some type of electric mixer is must as you need to beat the eggs at a very fast speed until they triple in volume. This was a breeze with my KitchenAid stand mixer. It might be tedious with a hand mixer, but still doable. You then gently fold the egg mixture into the melted chocolate and butter. You have to work gently so that you don’t remove all the volume you created with the mixing.

I cut the recipe in half to make four individual cakes since it was just for the two of us. I baked two last night and will bake the other two tonight. I’m not sure how well the cakes will rise tonight after being refrigerated for more than 24 hours. The cakes last night rose well and were delicious. I served them with a small scoop of Double Rainbow vanilla ice cream. Dave loved them. It was a nice ending to a long day for him.

Individual Fallen Chocolate Cakes

Servings/Yield
8 servings
8 cakes

You can substitute 5 ounces of unsweetened baking chocolate for the semisweet if need be, but you’ll also have to increase the sugar by 6 tablespoons, for a total of 7/8 cup. To melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave oven, heat chocolate alone at 50% power for 2 minutes; stir chocolate, add butter, and continue heating at 50% for another 2 minutes, stopping to stir after 1 minute. If chocolate is not yet entirely melted, heat an additional 30 seconds at 50% power.

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), plus extra for ramekins
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 4 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon table salt
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for ramekins
• confectioners’ sugar or unsweetened cocoa powder for decoration, optional
• whipped cream for serving, optional

Method

1. Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously butter and flour (or use cocoa powder) eight 6-ounce ramekins or Pyrex custard/baking cups; tap out excess flour and position ramekins on shallow roasting pan, jelly roll pan, or baking sheet. Meanwhile, melt 8 tablespoons butter and chocolate in medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of almost simmering water, stirring once or twice, until smooth; remove from heat. (Or melt chocolate and butter in microwave oven. See instructions above.)

2. Beat eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt, and sugar at highest speed in bowl of a standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment until volume nearly triples, color is very light, and mixture drops from beaters in a smooth, thick stream, about 5 minutes. (Alternatively, beat for 10 minutes using a hand-held electric mixer and large mixing bowl.) Scrape egg mixture over melted chocolate and butter; sprinkle flour over egg mixture. Gently fold egg and flour into chocolate until mixture is uniformly colored. Ladle or pour batter into prepared ramekins. (Can be covered lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerated up to eight hours. Return to room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.)

3. Bake until cakes have puffed about 1/2-inch above rims of ramekins, have a thin crust on top, and jiggle slightly at center when ramekins are shaken very gently, 12 to 13 minutes. Run a paring knife around inside edges of ramekins to loosen cakes and invert onto serving plates; cool for 1 minute and lift off ramekins. Sieve light sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder over cakes to decorate, if desired, and serve immediately with optional whipped cream.

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.