My cousin's daughter Alexis requested a chocolate cake for her birthday. I decided to tackle a cake I've been interested in making for literally decades, Alice Medrich's "Chocolate Ruffle Cake." I remember watching Alice Medrich make this cake with Julia Child on PBS when I was in college (you can watch the video on YouTube if you just search for it). The recipe is in Baking With Julia (the companion cookbook to Child's PBS series) and a slightly different version is included as a "Strawberry Celebration Cake" in Medrich's cookbook Bittersweet. The original version in Baking With Julia has a chocolate génoise cake split into three layers, with one filling of chocolate-crème fraîche and a second filling of crème fraîche with raspberries, wrapped with a chocolate band and topped with chocolate ruffles. The Bittersweet version has a chocolate génoise cake split into two layers, sandwiched around a filling of mascarpone, heavy cream, and strawberries, wrapped with a chocolate band and topped with chocolate fans or ruffles. I started out making the version in Bittersweet but then ended up switching to the technique from the Baking with Julia version partway through.
The génoise recipes in both cookbooks are almost identical, and thankfully, after lots of practice over the years, I am now competent at making génoise. You whisk eggs and sugar in a double boiler until lukewarm; take the mixture off of the heat and whip it until tripled in volume; fold in the sifted flour and cocoa powder in stages; and incorporate warm clarified butter and vanilla. For me, the key to successful génoise is my 18-inch Matfer balloon whisk, which evenly and efficiently incorporates all of the ingredients without deflating the eggs. I poured the batter into an 8-inch pan that was lined with parchment but not buttered, and put it in the oven to bake. I didn't rotate the cake during baking, to avoid opening the oven door and losing heat. I ended up with a beautiful, level, chocolate génoise. After it was cool, I split the cake into two layers.
The recipe says you should assemble the cake in an 8-inch springform pan. I don't have an 8-inch springform, so I decided to use an 8-inch cake ring instead. To make the chocolate band that would surround the cake, I cut a piece of acetate that was the exact circumference of the ring, spread on melted (but not tempered) dark chocolate, and carefully set the chocolate-coated acetate strip inside the ring. I set one of the cake layers inside the ring and chocolate band, brushed on simple syrup flavored with Chambord, and spread on a filling made by whipping mascarpone cheese, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla to stiff peaks. You're supposed to arrange a layer of strawberries on top of the cream filling, but the strawberries at the market looked terrible (this was back in early April), so I used raspberries instead. Then I covered the fruit with more filling before adding the second layer of cake, which I had also brushed with the Chambord syrup. I spread the remaining cream filling on top of the second cake layer before putting the cake in the fridge overnight.
To make the chocolate ruffles, you spread a thin layer of melted chocolate on the backside of a cookie sheet that has been briefly heated; chill the sheet to harden the chocolate; take the chocolate out the fridge and let it soften until it's flexible; and use an offset spatula to scrape ruffles. This took some practice for me, and I ended up with a lot of weird twisted shapes instead of neat ruffles. I re-melted the worst-looking ones to make a second (and even third) attempt. But eventually I created enough chocolate pieces to top the cake, even if they don't look nearly as nice as the ones pictured in the cookbooks or demonstrated by Alice Medrich on the TV show (and boy did she make it look easy!).
The morning of the birthday party I pulled the cake out of the fridge and tried to release the cake from the ring. I quickly realized that assembling the cake in a ring instead of a springform pan had been a serious misstep. When I tried to push up the cake from the bottom (I had fitted a cardboard cake circle inside the ring underneath the bottom layer of cake), the cake came out but left the chocolate band behind. The band was no longer pliable and had cracked in several places as I tried to force it out of the ring, so I couldn't just reposition it on the cake.
I had a few hours to figure out what to do, so I switched to the cake assembly method described in the Baking With Julia recipe. In that version of the recipe, you assemble the cake inside a springform pan but without the chocolate band. After you chill the cake and remove it from the pan, then you add the chocolate band. So I cut another piece of acetate, spread it with melted chocolate, and wrapped the acetate/chocolate band around the cake. I chilled the wrapped cake for a bit and was able to peel off the acetate easily, leaving behind a shiny chocolate band -- although you can see in the photo above that there were a few bare spots here and there. Then I arranged the ruffles on top and the cake was ready to go.
The ruffles posed a practical problem when I was trying to figure out where I could insert birthday candles. I eventually found a few gaps where I could squeeze in a handful of candles. Because the chocolate band and ruffles weren't tempered, they weren't crisp, so I could cut slices of cake without the chocolate cracking too much. While the lack of tempering made it easier to serve the cake, I would have preferred if the chocolate had a nice snap while eating it.
Nonetheless, this was a fantastic cake. The Chambord syrup gave the cake a lovely raspberry flavor that reinforced the flavor of the raspberries in the filling. And the filling was amazing. I thought it would taste like mascarpone, but it tasted mostly of sweet cream and had a lovely, luxurious texture. Both the cake and filling were light and the combination of the chocolate, cream, and raspberries was perfect. The cake tasted as good as it looked and it would have been wonderful even without any of the fancy chocolate garnishes. But the ruffles and band really put it over the top.
Recipes: "Chocolate Ruffle Cake" in Baking with Julia; "Strawberry Celebration Cake" from Bittersweet by Alice Medrich.
Previous baked goods for Alexis's birthday:
The génoise recipes in both cookbooks are almost identical, and thankfully, after lots of practice over the years, I am now competent at making génoise. You whisk eggs and sugar in a double boiler until lukewarm; take the mixture off of the heat and whip it until tripled in volume; fold in the sifted flour and cocoa powder in stages; and incorporate warm clarified butter and vanilla. For me, the key to successful génoise is my 18-inch Matfer balloon whisk, which evenly and efficiently incorporates all of the ingredients without deflating the eggs. I poured the batter into an 8-inch pan that was lined with parchment but not buttered, and put it in the oven to bake. I didn't rotate the cake during baking, to avoid opening the oven door and losing heat. I ended up with a beautiful, level, chocolate génoise. After it was cool, I split the cake into two layers.
The recipe says you should assemble the cake in an 8-inch springform pan. I don't have an 8-inch springform, so I decided to use an 8-inch cake ring instead. To make the chocolate band that would surround the cake, I cut a piece of acetate that was the exact circumference of the ring, spread on melted (but not tempered) dark chocolate, and carefully set the chocolate-coated acetate strip inside the ring. I set one of the cake layers inside the ring and chocolate band, brushed on simple syrup flavored with Chambord, and spread on a filling made by whipping mascarpone cheese, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla to stiff peaks. You're supposed to arrange a layer of strawberries on top of the cream filling, but the strawberries at the market looked terrible (this was back in early April), so I used raspberries instead. Then I covered the fruit with more filling before adding the second layer of cake, which I had also brushed with the Chambord syrup. I spread the remaining cream filling on top of the second cake layer before putting the cake in the fridge overnight.
The morning of the birthday party I pulled the cake out of the fridge and tried to release the cake from the ring. I quickly realized that assembling the cake in a ring instead of a springform pan had been a serious misstep. When I tried to push up the cake from the bottom (I had fitted a cardboard cake circle inside the ring underneath the bottom layer of cake), the cake came out but left the chocolate band behind. The band was no longer pliable and had cracked in several places as I tried to force it out of the ring, so I couldn't just reposition it on the cake.
I had a few hours to figure out what to do, so I switched to the cake assembly method described in the Baking With Julia recipe. In that version of the recipe, you assemble the cake inside a springform pan but without the chocolate band. After you chill the cake and remove it from the pan, then you add the chocolate band. So I cut another piece of acetate, spread it with melted chocolate, and wrapped the acetate/chocolate band around the cake. I chilled the wrapped cake for a bit and was able to peel off the acetate easily, leaving behind a shiny chocolate band -- although you can see in the photo above that there were a few bare spots here and there. Then I arranged the ruffles on top and the cake was ready to go.
Nonetheless, this was a fantastic cake. The Chambord syrup gave the cake a lovely raspberry flavor that reinforced the flavor of the raspberries in the filling. And the filling was amazing. I thought it would taste like mascarpone, but it tasted mostly of sweet cream and had a lovely, luxurious texture. Both the cake and filling were light and the combination of the chocolate, cream, and raspberries was perfect. The cake tasted as good as it looked and it would have been wonderful even without any of the fancy chocolate garnishes. But the ruffles and band really put it over the top.
Recipes: "Chocolate Ruffle Cake" in Baking with Julia; "Strawberry Celebration Cake" from Bittersweet by Alice Medrich.
Previous baked goods for Alexis's birthday:
- "Ipso Fatto Instant Photos: Alexis Turns Ten! [Brooklyn Blackout Cupcakes]," April 19, 2018.
- "Ipso Fatto Instant Photo: Alexis Turns Nine [Chocolate Heaven Cake with Chocolate Buttercream]," April 30, 2017.
- "Cake + Pudding + Fudge Frosting = Chocolate Heaven: New Brooklyn Blackout Cake," April 30, 2016.
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