I have not spent much time in Michigan and had never heard of Sanders Confectionery based in Detroit. But I was intrigued by Shauna Sever's recipe for a homemade version of Sanders' famous "Chocolate Bumpy Cake," a chocolate cake topped with fat stripes of vanilla buttercream and a glossy fudge icing. The photo in the cookbook (the same photo you can see here) shows a dark chocolate cake coated in a beautifully glossy icing with a highly reflective sheen.
While the chocolate sheet cake is a snap to make, assembling this cake requires a bit of work, including a couple of stints in the freezer. To make the cake batter, you just combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) in one bowl; combine the wet ingredients (buttermilk, hot brewed coffee, canola oil, eggs, and vanilla) in another; add the wet into the dry; and mix until smooth. I poured the batter into a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan to bake.
To make the vanilla buttercream, you bring sugar, cornstarch, salt, and milk to a boil and cook for one minute; add vanilla and let cool completely; mix in room temperature butter; and beat until light and fluffy. I put the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large tip and piped it crosswise onto the cooled cake in fat stripes; I had some buttercream left over. I put the cake into the freezer until the buttercream was solid.
The final component is the chocolate icing. You start by bringing a mixture of butter, sugar, buttermilk, corn syrup (the recipe calls for dark but I used light), cocoa powder, and salt to a boil and cooking it to 235 degrees. Then you whisk in butter and stir in powdered sugar and vanilla. I didn't sift the powdered sugar and my frosting was lumpy, so I started whisking it like crazy. This took a bit of time, so my icing had cooled off a bit by the time I started pouring it over the frozen cake. My icing was pretty thick (I'm not sure if this was because it had cooled off while I was whisking it, because I had whisked it so much, or a combination of the two factors), so instead of coating my cake and buttercream in a smooth sheet, it fell onto the cake in long ropes that stayed distinct. I didn't get a smooth coating of icing so much as icing that was obviously drizzled on. I was able to cover the entire cake and all of the buttercream, but it wasn't the smooth look I was hoping for.
I put the iced cake back in the freezer until the icing was set. Then I sliced it and dropped off my most of it with friends, but I kept a few slices in our fridge for me and Tom. When I tasted the cake, I was stunned at how good it was. The chocolate cake was dense, richly flavored, incredibly moist, and tasted amazing even cold, straight out of the refrigerator. You could definitely eat the cake alone and be satisfied, but the buttercream that tasted like Oreo filling and the fudge icing put it over the top. In particular, I loved the texture of the icing. Again, I'm not sure if my icing was an outlier from all of the whisking, but it was slightly chewy, like a softened Tootsie Roll, and I could not get enough of it. It's not like any other icing I've ever made or tasted before, but it was like getting to eat chocolate candy on top of the cake.
This is definitely one of the most delicious chocolate cakes I've ever made. Usually I don't think that sheet cakes are all that memorable, but since we ate our last few bites of bumpy cake, I've been dreaming about when I can make and eat this cake again.
Recipe: "Chocolate Bumpy Cake" from Midwest Made by Shauna Sever, recipe available here (unfortunately without weight measurements) from the Kitchn.
While the chocolate sheet cake is a snap to make, assembling this cake requires a bit of work, including a couple of stints in the freezer. To make the cake batter, you just combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) in one bowl; combine the wet ingredients (buttermilk, hot brewed coffee, canola oil, eggs, and vanilla) in another; add the wet into the dry; and mix until smooth. I poured the batter into a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan to bake.
The final component is the chocolate icing. You start by bringing a mixture of butter, sugar, buttermilk, corn syrup (the recipe calls for dark but I used light), cocoa powder, and salt to a boil and cooking it to 235 degrees. Then you whisk in butter and stir in powdered sugar and vanilla. I didn't sift the powdered sugar and my frosting was lumpy, so I started whisking it like crazy. This took a bit of time, so my icing had cooled off a bit by the time I started pouring it over the frozen cake. My icing was pretty thick (I'm not sure if this was because it had cooled off while I was whisking it, because I had whisked it so much, or a combination of the two factors), so instead of coating my cake and buttercream in a smooth sheet, it fell onto the cake in long ropes that stayed distinct. I didn't get a smooth coating of icing so much as icing that was obviously drizzled on. I was able to cover the entire cake and all of the buttercream, but it wasn't the smooth look I was hoping for.
I put the iced cake back in the freezer until the icing was set. Then I sliced it and dropped off my most of it with friends, but I kept a few slices in our fridge for me and Tom. When I tasted the cake, I was stunned at how good it was. The chocolate cake was dense, richly flavored, incredibly moist, and tasted amazing even cold, straight out of the refrigerator. You could definitely eat the cake alone and be satisfied, but the buttercream that tasted like Oreo filling and the fudge icing put it over the top. In particular, I loved the texture of the icing. Again, I'm not sure if my icing was an outlier from all of the whisking, but it was slightly chewy, like a softened Tootsie Roll, and I could not get enough of it. It's not like any other icing I've ever made or tasted before, but it was like getting to eat chocolate candy on top of the cake.
This is definitely one of the most delicious chocolate cakes I've ever made. Usually I don't think that sheet cakes are all that memorable, but since we ate our last few bites of bumpy cake, I've been dreaming about when I can make and eat this cake again.
Recipe: "Chocolate Bumpy Cake" from Midwest Made by Shauna Sever, recipe available here (unfortunately without weight measurements) from the Kitchn.
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