This Takes the Cake

Last Thursday, my wife "asked" me to make a cake for a birthday party she was hosting at her work. Since the recipient of the party happens to a Director at the hospital, the cake needs to be good. Last year I made a Tiramisu, which happened to go very well, thank you very much. This year, she wanted me to make a Chocolate Torte with Apricot Filling. Not a problem, but the recipe she gave me was not written with the correct proportions. Since I did not have the time to work them out myself, I tried to find something else that would be just as good. I ended-up taking parts of three different recipes and combining them into something I am calling Chocolate Fudge Cake with Cream Cheese, Apricot Filling, and Chocolate Glaze. I gave this recipe a test-run this weekend and it turned-out very good. The photo below, shows the cake I made on Saturday, because I was too stupid to take a picture of the one I made for the party. Sorry, I am not the best photographer. My wife just told me that the cake was a hit; there was nothing left to bring home.


Chocolate Fudge Cake with Cream Cheese, Apricot Filling, and Chocolate Glaze

Da Cake Ingredients
1 ¾ cups of All-Purpose Flour
1-cup less 1TBS of Cocoa Powder
1 ¼ tsp Baking Soda
1/8 tsp Salt
3/4 cup (1 ½ sticks) Unsalted Butter (softened)
2/3 cups Granulated Sugar
2/3 cups firmly packed Brown Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
1 ½ cups Buttermilk

• preheat oven to 350 degrees and line the bottoms of 2-9" cake pans with parchment paper and grease and dust the sides with flour


• Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside


• In another bowl mix the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes)




• This is a very important part, because during the mixing, the sugar is tearing tiny holes in the butter (creating air pockets), which allows the cake to become lighter and less dense.




• Add the eggs, one at a time. Mixing well after each addition




• Tip: to avoid the unwanted egg shells in your mix, first break the eggs into a bowl and use that for your addition.




• Add vanilla


• At low speed, alternately add the dry mixture and the buttermilk into the butter mixture. Mix only till combined. Do not over mix


• Divide the batter evenly into both pans


• Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.


• Place cakes on a cooling rack and let cool for 10 minutes


• Turn-out cakes onto racks, remove paper, and place cakes upside-down to cool
  completely

Hey, guess what, you're 1/3 of the way there!!

Da Filling Ingredients
6 Ounces of Cream Cheese (softened)
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
2 TBS Grated Lemon Peel (about 4 lemons) (careful and avoid the white pith...tis bitter)
1 TBS Lemon juice
1 TBS water (for you science types that's H₂0)
1/3-2/3 cups of Apricot Preserves

• In a bowl, place the cream cheese, lemon peel, lemon juice, and water.


• Mix well, until thoroughly combined

Go Team, Go...

Da Construction

• If you desire a clean serving plate (this was learned the hard way, as seen in the picture below), take strips of wax paper and slide them under your cake; completely covering the edges of your serving dish


• Take the largest of your two cakes and, with it still upside down, place on serving platter and spread the apricot preserves on it


• Spread the filling over the apricot preserves


• Take the other cake and flip right-side up


• Trim the top to flatten


• Spread some additional apricot preserves on the top and then flip over and place on the bottom cake


• Trim the sides, if the cakes are uneven

Hey, You're almost there...

Da Glaze Ingredients
2/3 cup of Heavy Cream
6 ounces (squares) Semisweet chocolate (coarsely chopped)
2 TBS Unsalted Butter
2 TBS Light Corn Syrup
2 ounces White Chocolate baking squares, shaved (optional)

• Put everything into a pan


• Over medium heat, stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil


• Remove from heat and stir for an additional 1-2 minutes, until glaze thickens


• Slowly pour the glaze over your cake and smooth


• If desired take the white chocolate shavings and sprinkle over the top of the cake

I hope you enjoy your cake

Shopping List for Entire Recipe
1 ¾ Cups Flour
1 Cup Unsweetened Chocolate
1 ¼ tsp Baking Soda
1/8 tsp Salt
2 Sticks Unsalted Butter
2 Cups Granulated Sugar
2/3 Cups Brown Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 ½ Cups Butter Milk
2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 Pint Heavy Cream
6 Ounces (squares) Semisweet Chocolate
2 Ounces (squares) White Chocolate baking squares (optional)
2 TBS Light Corn Syrup
6 Ounces Cream Cheese
5 Lemons
1-15.5 Ounce Jar of Apricot Preserves