Easy Moist Chocolate Mayo Cake From Bon Appetit

From Denny: Have you ever made a chocolate cake without butter but with mayonnaise as the substitute for oil? It's surprisingly good too while it creates an extra moist mouth-watering chocolate treat! Bon Appetit was on The Today Show this week touting their latest cookbook.

Well, it gets better. I've made this kind of chocolate cake - once out of desperation - only to find it was a great idea to substitute mayo for butter. I was about to pass on the video and recipe until I saw the cool update Bon Appetit came up with to create one awesome presentation: a chocolate collar to wrap around the cake.


Here's the new cookbook and already discounted at Amazon:




Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes by David Lebovitz


Review from Bon Appetit: Trained as a baker in France and Belgium, Lebovitz spent 12 years in the pastry department at Chez Panisse (his strongest baking influence was Lindsey Shere, founding pastry chef of the restaurant). He has authored three cookbooks including Room for Dessert and The Perfect Scoop. The Paris-based baker also writes an award-winning blog, davidlebovitz.com, where he shares recipes, cooking tips, and his picks for culinary experiences in La Ville-Lumiere.

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Here's the demo on how easy it is to dress up a holiday cake or use this chocolate collar band on this cake:









Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

From: Bon Appetit magazine

10 to 12 servings

INGREDIENTS

Cake:

• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61 percent cacao), chopped
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 13/4 cups boiling water
• 23/4 cups all purpose flour
• 11/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
• 1 1/3 cups mayonnaise (do not use reduced- fat or fat-free)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting:

• 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (measured, then sifted)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Special equipment:

• Three 8-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides

DIRECTIONS

* Mayonnaise replaces the oil that is typically used in chocolate cakes. It makes this cake — which would make the ideal birthday cake — incredibly moist and tender.

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour three 8-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Combine chocolate and cocoa powder in medium metal bowl. Add 1 3/4 cups boiling water and whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder into another medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat both sugars and mayonnaise in large bowl until well blended, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with chocolate mixture in 3 additions, beating until blended after each addition and occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Divide batter among prepared cake pans (about 21/3 cups for each).

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, 30 to 32 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on rack 20 minutes. Run small knife around sides of cakes to loosen. Invert cakes onto racks and cool completely.

Frosting:

Place chopped chocolate in medium metal bowl; set bowl over saucepan of simmering water and stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove bowl from over water; let chocolate cool until lukewarm, stirring occasionally.

Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Add melted chocolate and beat until well blended and smooth, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl.

Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread 3/4 cup frosting over top of cake layer to edges. Top with second cake layer; spread 3/4 cup frosting over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining frosting decoratively over top and sides of cake. Cut cake into wedges and serve.

Do ahead: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome and let stand at room temperature.


Here's the new cookbook and already discounted at Amazon:




Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes by David Lebovitz



*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

Flourless Passover Chocolate Cake

From Denny: This recipe comes from the Sephardic Jews' traditional Passover dishes from the culture of Spain and Portugal and is based on Mediterranean cuisine.

Before the years of the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century, many Jews were affluent, well educated and held high positions in the Spanish royal court. Once the Spanish Inquisition got geared up they forced two choices upon the Jews: leave the Iberian Peninsula or convert to Catholicism. Those that did not convert settled in the Caribbean Islands, eventually these Sephardic Jews migrated to the American South centuries later.

Most Jews in America are considered Ashkenazic, tracing their roots back to France, Eastern Europe and the Germanic countries.







Passover Chocolate Cake

From: Chef Ann Amernick in “The Jewish Holiday Baker” by Joan Nathan (Schocken Books 1997)

Serves: 10 to 12

Chef Ann Amernick: She created the recipe because people were always asking for a good chocolate Passover dessert. Most Passover chocolate cake recipes call for cocoa and potato starch. Chef Amernick uses real chocolate, giving the cake a denser texture. Strictly observant Jews during Passover would substitute pareve margarine for the butter if the cake is to be served with meat dishes. Chef Amernick prefers real butter to margarine for this cake.


INGREDIENTS:

10 ozs. good imported bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces
1/2 cup unsalted butter (or pareve margarine)
1/2 cup sugar, divided
5 large eggs, separated
1/3 cup finely ground almonds (done in a food processor)
2 tbls. brandy
Confectioners’ sugar
Whipped cream, optional
Fresh raspberries, optional


DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and grease well a 9-inch springform pan. Line the bottom with baking parchment.

2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over barely simmering water. When the chocolate has melted, turn off the heat and leave it over the hot water to cool slowly.

3. Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl of the electric mixer, beat the butter or margarine with 1/4 cup of the sugar until the mixture is fluffy and almost white. Add the egg yolks and beat for 1 minute. Add the almonds and brandy and beat for 2 minutes more.

4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until light and foamy while gradually adding the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Continue beating the whites until they are stiff and shiny.

5. Add cooled melted chocolate to the egg-yolk mixture and mix with a rubber spatula until well combined. Fold one-quarter of the chocolate mixture into the egg whites, then gently fold the egg-white mixture back into the rest of the chocolate mixture, taking care not to deflate the batter.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for 25-30 minutes or until a tester comes out covered with a thick, moist (not wet) and crumbly coating.

7. Allow cake to cool for 30 minutes in pan. Loosen edges with a knife, remove the sides and carefully turn the cake upside down onto a plate. Remove the baking parchment.

8. Dust with confectioners’ sugar. Serve warm, at room temperature or chilled with whipped cream and raspberries on the side, if desired.



*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!