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6 January 2004 - The Velvet Underground I came across a recipe for a decadent chocolate cake on the weekend, and since S. and I were having a few guests over on Saturday night for appetizers and some wine, I thought I'd give it a try. It had been a while since I'd baked a real cake, with layers and icing and filling...actually I attempted a rather difficult one a few months ago for my mother's birthday, but the caramel topping didn't work out quite right and although the cake tasted quite good it just didn't look right. So, I buckled down on Friday night and baked the rich chocolate layers and left them to cool over night. Cutting the layers into two was easily accomplished with my lovely lazy susan and the cake was both soft and springy...perfection! I nabbed a few bits from the counter and it was as delicious as the recipe had promised. I spread the chilled fudge filling on each layer, put them together and gathered my ingredients for the mocha icing with coffee as the base. Beating it togeher in my KitchenAid, I noticed it wasn't quite emulsifying. The coffee and the whipping cream and butter were staying slightly separate...there was a puddle of coffee in the bottom of the bowl and a mound of icing sitting in it. But, upon tasting the icing it tasted quite like coffee, in fact at the time I thought it a bit too strong. I iced the cake and placed it on a serving platter, shredding some sweet chocolate on the top as a garnish. Somehow it didn't look quite as glamorous as I had thought and expected. Taste-wise, it was delicious; and I'm not even a fan of chocolate cake, either. It was a mellow chocolatey taste that melded with the mocha icing in a way that I hadn't really expected. The cake itself was extremely moist and the fudge filling finished it off perfectly. I would change it, were I to make it again, however. I think the fudge filling needs something; perhaps to be folded into some really well whipped whipping cream in order to make it a bit more like a filling rather than what it was -- a paper-thin layer of fudge. The icing of course I will try again and hope for better results. The cake? Not a change at all. It was perfect. Of course, the problem with baking a cake for a party on Saturday is that there are leftovers on Sunday and Monday...and there is still one lonely slice on the counter...I think I will make S. eat it -- twist his rubber arm. |