Mmmm... cake... mmmm....

I used to make a lot of cakes, and often volunteered to make birthday cakes for parties.  But for some reason, I think over a year has gone past without my making a cake (except for a few of James Beard's blitz kuchens to eat with fruit and whipped cream).  So it was time. 

I'm not such a great froster, but I did get it done in like 5 minutes, which was nice.  I hate getting the cake and frosting all ready and then spending a long time fussing with it.  I took one of those Wilton cake decorating courses once, so I can make roses and decorative borders and all that stuff.  But I'd rather put my time into making a good tasting cake than making it look fancy.  [Ed.: really I'm just lazy.  :)  ]

This particular cake -- the cake itself -- was the devil's food variation of the simple chocolate cake from Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  It was a little coarse, and one layer was slightly sunken in the middle.  That was probably because I jacked the baking soda up a little bit in an effort to get the cake redder.  (There's a substance in chocolate that acts like a pH indicator: the higher the pH, the redder the chocolate gets.)  And I was only rewarded a little bit for my effort there: the cake was only slightly red.  Maybe three ounces of Scharffen Berger unsweetened wasn't enough chocolate.  :)

The frosting: I'm addicted to making ganache.  It's incredibly easy: chop up a bunch of chocolate in the food processor, and pour in boiling hot cream.  Let it cool to a good consistency for frosting, and have at it.  This frosting used 12 ounces of Callebaut 70% and 12 fluid ounces of extra heavy cream.  I also added 2 tablespoons of cognac and a little bit of butter.  If I'd had some coffee around, I would have reduced some of it and added it too. 

You know, chocolate bombs are nice, but one of these days I'm going to have to make something else.  I also need to stop making cakes that are $3 worth of ingredients, then frosting them with $8 worth of frosting.  :O  On second thought, maybe not.  :)

Comments

[Gretta]

It is a crying shame that you live so far away. I want a slice.

[Joe Eater]

Clearly Google needs to open offices in the Research Triangle. :)

[Maura]

Cake!!!!
I've so much bad icing, I think whatever you have to do to make great icing is worth it. And I don't think it can get any better than ganache.

[stew]

yum

[stew]

yum

Dude. you filtered me. I say again!

YUM!

[Joe Eater]

Stew: That makes absolutely no frickin' sense. Your comment was one word. No links. And the one word wasn't even anything like "VIAGRA" or "Make Money Fast!" I approved it so if there's any feedback loop in what gets approved, maybe something will change.

[Kelly]

I like the frosting the best anyway so $8 of ingredients sounds fine! Do you use cake flour when you make cakes?

Kelly

[Joe Eater]

Kelly: I often use cake flour, but this time I used all-purpose. The all-purpose I have right now is Southern Biscuit, which is pretty soft and bleached, just like cake flour. I think cake flour would have been better though.

[durhamdiner]

Every think of selling these beauties?

It has just the right amount of "homemade" look; I mean obviously it IS homemade, but it looks both elegant and tasty.

I know people (ahem, *cough* myself) who would pay for a cake like this to take to a "Bring Desert" party or something like that.

Cakes that look too commercial (Mad Hatter's, Francesca's, Whole Foods, et al) always seem out of place.

Although there was that lady down at the Farmer's Market who used to sell DELICIOUS little cakes. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?

[Joe Eater]

DD: No, I don't sell them. Isn't that illegal or something? :) I wonder what it would be worth? I used to know a guy who made wedding cakes for people out of boxed cake mix. I think I'd kill myself before I foisted that off on someone for their wedding. / Never saw the cake lady you mention.