Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Ganache, Chocolate Glaze, Molten Chocolate Cakes

Recipe Testers,

Betsy asked if I had a chocolate cake recipe for her Dad's birthday. Since we get all of our cakes from my mother's bakery, I rarely bake them. (Susan's Supreme being the best!) But I do have some terrific recipes from some of the best home cooks in the country. So here is a list of tried and true favorites from my friends.

I also want to write a quick note on making Chocolate Ganache. Being the "rarely ever measures" person that I am, when I make chocolate ganache I pour in a bunch Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips (the same ones you use to make cookies) and then just add some heavy cream to it. So I'll post some other people's officially measured recipes here, but just know that I don't measure. Also, I don't have a double boiler and I see no reason to buy one. I just put a metal bowl over a saucepan that has about two inches of simmering water. I have a cloth I hold the bowl with and I stir with a wooden spoon. (I'm not sure why you need a wooden spoon, but it seems you need a wooden spoon when working with sugar or chocolate...maybe this is just a myth but it works for me.) Now that chocolate is all the rage, feel free to use something finer than Nestle chocolate chips. Valrhona, Guittard, Scharffenberger, etc. will all ship chocolate and you can also find it in specialty stores. Or just grap a quick back of Nestle semi-sweet. Just don't use milk chocolate. You want something semi-sweet or dark. (you can also use a glass bowl if you don't have a metal bowl to put over the boil of simmering water.)

Chocolate Ganache is very thick and the basis for making truffles. If you cook the ganache too long and it kind of seizes up, then just got with it, roll it into balls, roll that in cocoa power and you have truffles. You can put the ganache as just the filling or use it as filling and icing. if you are looking for something more glossy, then go with a chocolate glaze on the outside.

So I'll post Megan Yaeger and Mindy Rice's grandmother's Chocolate Buttermilk Cake Recipe (in addition to being gifted floral designers, seamstresses and decorators they are also amazing cooks and bakers!) Then I'll end with Rosemary Musial's Molten Chocolate Cake recipe. Rosemary got this recipe from Jean-George Vongericten's JoJo. Rosemary sent me by mail and huge packet of all of her most favorite recipes. This was one of them. And all of them that I have tried have been fantastic! I'm glad that even though I never get to see Rosemary, that she is one of my "cooking soul-mates" through e-mail.

Enjoy!

Maili

BASIC CHOCOLATE GLAZE RECIPE

6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (or you can put a flavored liqueur here, such as raspberry chambord or orange liqueur, etc. add more liquid if using liqueur) or omit

Stir chocolate and butter in heavy saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Add corn syrup. Add vanilla extra or liqueur and whisk until smooth. Let cool slightly. Stir while it cools. put whatever cake you are making on rack. have aluminum foil or parchment or something under the rack for easy cleanup, since you are going to drizzle the glaze all over the cake. Start with it covering the top first.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (or chocolate cut up into small shards)

Put cream and chocolate together in a bowl over simmering pot of water (creating a double boiler) Cook until just smooth and melted. Do not continue cooking.

MINDY AND MEGAN'S GRANDMOTHER'S CHOCOLATE BUTTERMILK CAKE

Megan says she always makes a recipe and a half so she can make 3 layers. Megan also said "This cake is even better the next day, or the next day after that...the frosting seeps into the cake in a very moist and super-delicious way! Unlike many recipes, there is adequate frosting for the whole shebang."

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 stick unsalted butter

2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon instant espresso

1/2 teaspoon salt

Melt butter with chcolate and combine with other wet ingredients when cool. Add to dry ingredients alternately and mix well. Bake for approximately 30 minutes in 2 greased and floured cake pans at 350 degrees. DO NOT overbake. Remove as soon as toothpick emerges clean.

Frosting

melt:

1 stick unsalted butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 teaspoons instant espresso

beat in:

1 pound powdered sugar

1/2 cup evaporated mlik

2 teaspoons vanilla

MOLTEN CHOCOLATE CAKES

Jean-Georges Vongerichten's recipe from JoJo. Given to me by Rosemary Musial from Dayton, Ohio.

You can refrigerate the filled ramekins for up to six hours. Bake the chilled batter for about 18 minutes instead of 12.

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, preferably Valrhona, chopped

15 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 large eggs, a room temperature

4 large egg yolks, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

7 tablespoons flour

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour eight 5-ounce ramekins or 6-ounce custard cups. Set them on a bakery sheet. Melt the chocolate with the butter in a double boiler, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Cool slightly.

2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale yellow, about 10 minutes. Reduce the speed and add the flour gradually. Add the melted chocolate. Continue beating until glossy, about 5 minutes. Divide among prepared ramekins.

3. Bake in the middle of the oven until the cakes are set around the edges but the centers move slightly when the ramekins are jiggled, about 12 minutes.

4. Run a small, sharp knife around the edge of each ramekin and turn the cakes out onto plates. Serve warm, with ice cram if you like.

Jean-George Vongerichten, JoJo

Where there is great love, there are always miracles. –Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop