We had another office birthday to celebrate, and the birthday girl told me that she liked chocolate and vanilla cake. At first I thought I might bake her something from BraveTart. But the two most obvious candidates -- the classic yellow cake and the devil's food cake -- both have rich frostings (chocolate fudge and whipped ganache, respectively). I was in the mood for a lighter frosting and so I decided to make the Hunka Burnin' Love Cake from Zingerman's Bakehouse, which is a chocolate butter cake with chocolate Swiss buttercream.
To make the cake, you cream sugar and room temperature butter until fluffy; add eggs and vanilla; and alternately add the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda) and buttermilk. The cookbook recommends natural high-fat cocoa for all of the recipes, so I used high-fat cocoa from Penzey's, and I also used the recommended full-fat buttermilk. I divided the batter between two parchment-lined 8-inch pans that I had coated in baking spray. After I baked the cakes and let them cool slightly, I tried to unmold the cakes and there was a little bit of sticking. I was eventually able to get them out of the pans after a bit of a struggle, but in the future I would coat the pans with both shortening and flour, or use baking spray with flour.
To make the Swiss meringue buttercream, you heat a mixture of egg whites, sugar and salt in a double boiler (the instructions say to heat the mixture to 180 degrees F, but I only took the eggs to 170 degrees because that's sufficient for food safety purposes and I didn't want overcook them); transfer the egg whites to a mixer and beat until completely cooled, thick, and shiny; gradually add softened butter; and add vanilla and cooled melted chocolate. The recipe calls for 56% chocolate and I didn't have anything in that range, so I used a 50-50 mix of 38% milk chocolate and 70% dark chocolate.
The buttercream was beautifully light and silky smooth. My cakes were completely level after baking (I used bake even strips on my pans), so I didn't need to trim the layers before assembling the cake. Even though I had intended to pipe just a simple border around the bottom edge of the cake, I had so much frosting that I decided to use it up by piping shells on the entire outside of the cake. This became somewhat tiresome, which is why at some point I stopped caring about keeping all of the shells aligned and pointing in the same direction. Regardless, I was happy with the final cake design.
When I served the cake the following day, I was surprised to see that the texture was so dense and somewhat damp. The cake was cooked through, but perhaps it would have benefited from a few more minutes in the oven -- although it was true to the headnote description of "a fudgy, solid butter cake." The cake had a very rich chocolate flavor, but I personally would have preferred a lighter texture. However, I couldn't get enough of the weightless chocolate buttercream. I love meringue buttercreams for their ability to somehow deliver so much flavor without being heavy -- and the silky frosting was the perfect accompaniment for a rich, fudgy cake. This modestly-sized cake can serve a lot of people, because even a thin slice is very satisfying.
Recipe: "Hunka Burnin' Love Cake" from Zingerman's Bakehouse, by Amy Emberling and Frank Carollo, recipe available here from Zingerman's Bakehouse.
To make the cake, you cream sugar and room temperature butter until fluffy; add eggs and vanilla; and alternately add the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda) and buttermilk. The cookbook recommends natural high-fat cocoa for all of the recipes, so I used high-fat cocoa from Penzey's, and I also used the recommended full-fat buttermilk. I divided the batter between two parchment-lined 8-inch pans that I had coated in baking spray. After I baked the cakes and let them cool slightly, I tried to unmold the cakes and there was a little bit of sticking. I was eventually able to get them out of the pans after a bit of a struggle, but in the future I would coat the pans with both shortening and flour, or use baking spray with flour.
When I served the cake the following day, I was surprised to see that the texture was so dense and somewhat damp. The cake was cooked through, but perhaps it would have benefited from a few more minutes in the oven -- although it was true to the headnote description of "a fudgy, solid butter cake." The cake had a very rich chocolate flavor, but I personally would have preferred a lighter texture. However, I couldn't get enough of the weightless chocolate buttercream. I love meringue buttercreams for their ability to somehow deliver so much flavor without being heavy -- and the silky frosting was the perfect accompaniment for a rich, fudgy cake. This modestly-sized cake can serve a lot of people, because even a thin slice is very satisfying.
Recipe: "Hunka Burnin' Love Cake" from Zingerman's Bakehouse, by Amy Emberling and Frank Carollo, recipe available here from Zingerman's Bakehouse.
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