When our friends Jim and Colleen recently hosted us for dinner at their home with some other couples, I offered to bring a dessert. Chocolate cake is always a safe bet when we go to Jim's house, so I decided to finally crack open my copy of Ovenly and try the recipe for "Black Chocolate Stout Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream." I've owned this book for a while but it sort of got lost in the mix of the many cookbooks I've added to my collection of late; because I've never been to an Ovenly bakery in New York City, I wasn't in any particular rush to try any of the recipes.
This recipe appealed to me because I already had all of the ingredients on hand, including some Young's Double Chocolate Stout. To make the batter, you whisk together sour cream and eggs; add a cooled mixture of stout and butter than has been brought to a simmer and mixed with cocoa powder; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt). You divide the batter between two 9-inch pans and bake. My cakes rose into tall domes during baking and I had to trim off quite a bit to level the layers.
The Ovenly buttercream frosting base recipe is just a mixture of softened butter, powdered sugar, and cream. To make the salted caramel cream cheese frosting, you just add some cream cheese and salted caramel sauce (cream, sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt cooked to 250 degrees and finished with additional cream and vanilla bean seeds) into the base buttercream. Because of the caramel addition, the frosting ended up an ecru color. (The cover photo on the Ovenly cookbook is this cake; it looks like it's garnished with cake crumbs. Or cocoa powder. Or shaved chocolate. Or something.)
The cake sliced beautifully and I think I might have overcooked it a bit, because the texture looked a little rubbery. But it was still moist, with a deep chocolate flavor. The frosting was a very good match -- sweet with a distinct salted caramel flavor. Tom said that the cake reminded him of an Oreo and I agree -- mostly because the simple buttercream frosting was very similar in texture and sweetness level to Oreo filling. In fact, I imagine that this frosting would make some excellent Faux-reo filling. And given that Oreo keeps coming up with new flavors, I don't know why they haven't come out with salted caramel yet.
Everyone enjoyed this cake and I consider it a success. It makes me hopeful about trying more recipes from the book!
Recipe: "Black Chocolate Stout Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream" from Ovenly by Agatha Kulaga and Erin Patinkin, recipe available here.
Previous Post: "The Cake Couldn't Hold It Together: Chocolate Stout Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting," November 20, 2014.
This recipe appealed to me because I already had all of the ingredients on hand, including some Young's Double Chocolate Stout. To make the batter, you whisk together sour cream and eggs; add a cooled mixture of stout and butter than has been brought to a simmer and mixed with cocoa powder; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt). You divide the batter between two 9-inch pans and bake. My cakes rose into tall domes during baking and I had to trim off quite a bit to level the layers.
The cake sliced beautifully and I think I might have overcooked it a bit, because the texture looked a little rubbery. But it was still moist, with a deep chocolate flavor. The frosting was a very good match -- sweet with a distinct salted caramel flavor. Tom said that the cake reminded him of an Oreo and I agree -- mostly because the simple buttercream frosting was very similar in texture and sweetness level to Oreo filling. In fact, I imagine that this frosting would make some excellent Faux-reo filling. And given that Oreo keeps coming up with new flavors, I don't know why they haven't come out with salted caramel yet.
Everyone enjoyed this cake and I consider it a success. It makes me hopeful about trying more recipes from the book!
Recipe: "Black Chocolate Stout Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream" from Ovenly by Agatha Kulaga and Erin Patinkin, recipe available here.
Previous Post: "The Cake Couldn't Hold It Together: Chocolate Stout Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting," November 20, 2014.
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