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Wednesday 28 August 2013

RECIPE > DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE WITH A VANILLA FROSTING

It's that time of year! Autumn you say? NO. Great British Bake Off Season 4 has begun! Unfortunatly I was a week late on bake-off having only just got back from the Dordogne. In a way, this was a good thing, I could decide between celebrating bake off with either 2 of the last week's themes; chocolate cake or bread? I chose chocolate cake obviously I'm not a fool. This is a Magnolia Bakery recipe from the famous bakery in NY. My most important tips would be to seperate the eggs at room temperature and to melt the chocolate the CORRECT way (no microwaving you lazy bakers).

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and lightly flour two cake tins, approx 9 inches. Also cover the bottoms of the tins with baking paper. Lightly beat 3 seperated egg yolks until thick and bright yellow in colour. Then sift around 380g of plain flour, along with 1 and a half teaspoons of both baking powder and bicarb of soda into a large bowl. In another bowl, beat (using an electric whisk) 170g of softened unsalted butter with 240g of light brown sugar until well mixed and smooth. Add the egg yolks and 225g of melted dark chocolate., then mix until combined. Then add the dry ingridients gradually, alternating with 1 and a half teaspoons of vanilla extract and 500ml of milk. Mix alltogether until well incorporated. At the time it may seem like a lot of milk but it will gradually smoothen out. Using the 3 leftover egg whites, whisk until soft peaks are formed, then fold these into the cake batter; do this VERY gently as to knock all the air out. Divide between the prepared pans and bake for 40mins. GBBO tip: bake the cakes on one shelf and if you can't fit both, alternate halfway through baking. Let cake cool whilst making the icing.


Whisk 6 tablespoons of flour into 500ml of milk until smooth. Place on a medium heat and stir continously until mix is very thick. If mix stars to congeal, take off heat and whisk vigourously until smooth (it will turn out fine). Cover with baking paper placed directly on the mix's surface and cool for 30 mins. Meanwhile beat 450g of unsalted soft butter with 250g of caster sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract until fluffy. Add the milk/flour mix and whisk on a high speed for 5 mins or so. Cover with cling film and cool in the fridge for 15 mins. Once cakes have been removed from their tin, ice in between cakes and all over top and sides.

I ended up putting more frosting on mine once served as a non-healthy cream subsitute. You don't have to use this icing recipe, pretty much most frostings or buttercreams will go nicely with it. How about a mocha buttercream?  A whipped vanilla cream? or a white chocolate cream? Why not add another layer? I'm kidding... I'm really not kidding.

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