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Danielle's Dark Chocolate Birthday Cake

Source of Recipe

Avalon


Recipe Introduction

This moist, decadent cake is more similar to a flourless chocolate torte than a typical light layer cake, ergo the unusually small amount of flour coupled with a large number of eggs.

List of Ingredients

Filling:

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Cake:

1-1/4 cup salted butter
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
7 eggs, separated (room temperature)
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/8 cup cake flour (1/2 cup minus 2 tablespoons)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar


Recipe

To make filling: Melt butter with cream in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. When mixture steams and begins to bubble (stir to avoid scorching), remove from heat and add white chocolate; stir until smooth (if chocolate becomes lumpy, return to very low heat and stir until smooth). Add almond extract. Place in refrigerator until thickened, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours or overnight.

To make cake: Heat oven to 375 degrees. Butter 2 8-inch round cake tins; line bottoms with wax paper and butter again.

Melt butter and chocolate over low heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, stirring until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly in the refrigerator, at least 10 minutes.

Separate eggs. Beat sugar and brown sugar with egg yolks and vanilla extract for about 1 minute, add warm chocolate mixture, pouring slowly to avoid curdling the eggs with too much heat all at once; mix thoroughly. Add cake flour; mix again.

In a separate bowl beat egg whites and cream of tartar to glossy, stiff peaks. Fold into chocolate mixture. To fold, hold a large rubber spatula like a knife. Cut through the center of mixture, scraping the bottom of the bowl and lifting up and over; give bowl a quarter turn and repeat. (Batter should remain spongy, with a high volume of air, thick enough to pour slowly. If it becomes thin and soupy, it will overflow the pans in the oven).

Pour into pans and bake 30 to 40 minutes. Top will puff in the oven, then fall, leaving a misshapen crust. Center will jiggle when done. Allow to cool completely in pans. Pull off top crust and brush away crumbs. (The cake tends to stick, so run a knife around the edge before flipping out of pans.)

To assemble: Trim hard edges from cake layers. Place bottom layer face down on cake plate; spread filling. If filling is too soft for your taste, whip with electric mixer until it resembles frosting. I used almost all the filling, once it had thickened. If that's too much filling for your taste, the extra keeps well frozen or in the refrigerator and can be heated and poured over ice cream, whipped and used as a frosting on graham crackers or left at room temperature and served with fresh fruit. Also, extra filling can be thinned with a splash of cream, reheated and drizzled over finished cake in lieu o f frosting.

Top with second layer. Cover top and sides with frosting. Chill for 1 hour.

Makes one 8-inch double-layer cake.