EXOTIC CHOCOLATE CAKE
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 197). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
Quite a while ago, from a description given in a Detroit area newspaper of an exotic, chocolate cake (the recipe of which was locked in a bank fault), I set out to duplicate a cake of this kind, using only the clues given in the newspaper article.
Both semi-sweet and unsweetened chocolate, real butter, coffee cream and whipped cream were a few of the ingredients mentioned. But having read so much incorrectly written newspaper articles, I wondered if this cake was described accurately.
To be sure that such a cake could be possible, I took the most celebrated chocolate cake recipes I could find in my 27-year-old recipe files and tried to determine what each of them had in common. From those clues, I developed the following combination of ingredients and, after preparing the cake – complete, with the 3 layers, filled with my Buttercream Icing and frosted with my Ultimate Exotic Icing. [See “Recipes” tab.]
I delivered the finished product to the editor of the Richmond Review – the newspaper in which the story first appeared about “the recipe locked in a bank vault”. It was enough to get me an interview for a weekly column in the paper!
INGREDIENTS:
8 ounces butter
2 ounces corn oil
2/3 cup sifted granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 ounces light rum
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 cup Half-and-Half or buttermilk
(Note: the original recipe called for 4 ounces, heavy, un-whipped cream and 4 ounces light cream)
2 cups cake flour, measured by spooning lightly from box into a measuring cup
[+ 1 recipe of my “Buttercream Icing” (see “Recipes” tab)]
[+ 1 recipe of my “Ultimate Exotic Icing” (see “Recipes” tab)]
INSTRUCTIONS:
Cream butter and oil for 5 minutes. Gradually beat in sifted granulated sugar. Also, sift in the packed brown sugar a little at a time, continuing to beat with electric mixer on medium speed, scraping sides and bottom of bowl frequently. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
Over hot water, melt rum with both chocolates until smooth. Beat into creamed mixture, adding salt, soda and alternately beating in cream with cake flour, beginning and ending with the cream. Beat 5 minutes with last addition. Spread batter equally between 3 greased, 9-inch, round-layer pans that are lined with a circle of waxed paper, also greased and floured.
Bake at 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes or until it tests done with a toothpick. Cool the layers in pans 15 minutes and invert onto paper plates lined with greased waxed paper so that you can more easily assemble the cake. Refer to my Buttercream Icing recipe, [p. 195] in this chapter, for assembly instructions. [See also, reprint below.]
FOR ASSEMBLY: When cake is completely cold, spread buttercream icing ½ inch thick between the layers. When applying the 2nd layer of cake over [icing], secure it in place by inserting thin wood skewers at 4 “corners” and center, through both layers, to keep the top layer from slipping.
Then place cake in the freezer for 15 minutes before applying the remaining [icing]. Keep the remaining buttercream icing covered and refrigerated during this time. When you remove the cake from the freezer, apply another half inch thick layer of [icing] and return it to the freezer for another 15 minutes to be sure it is “set”…
See also…
