Tuesdays with Dorie (Baking Chez Moi): Betty’s Chocoholic Cake

Sometimes things don’t go exactly as planned. Say, for example when you plan on making your own birthday cake, read the recipe, figure it’s pretty simple, gather the ingredients and then go to pre-heat the oven and prepare your three cake tins. And realise that one of them is at work. And you have a three layer cake to make for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe (Betty’s Chocoholic Cake, p 67).

“This is a big cake, the kind you make for a crowd when there’s something wonderful to celebrate,” says Dorie. I thought it was the perfect way to celebrate my birthday – not that it’s wonderful having a birthday but more that we were having a pretty big crowd of people and I figured for once I wouldn’t minify this recipe. Not one to let the lack of correct equipment deter me, I figured I could make the cake in one high springform pan and one regular cake pan, then cut the larger cake in halves to make three layers. I even weighed the batter to make sure it was evenly distributed.

The cake looked GREAT coming out of the oven – I baked the larger one nearly twice as long to make sure it was cooked through. I set them to cool. But not long enough… Because as soon as I started cutting the cake in halves, I realised it probably needed either a spell in the freezer or a LOT longer at room temperature before I cut it. Why? To avoid the disastrous crumbling and breakage that happened seconds after I sliced into the cake horizontally.

Fortunately for me, there was some whipped cream to stick it together on the inside and some ganache to hold it together from the outside.

And at the end of the day, with the lights turned down a little low, after a few celebratory beverages, my guests only remarked on the (amazing) taste of this cake. Not on its appearance.

A note here that this is VERY rich. So the “16 servings” ended up being more like 20+. You truly do only need a sliver.

I’ll definitely remember this for another “big” celebration occasion because it’s a crowd pleaser AND it’s pretty easy. Just need to make sure I bring my third cake tin home 😉

Get the recipe for Betty’s Chocoholic Cake on p 67 of Baking Chez Moi or here.

 

 

Tuesdays with Dorie participants don’t publish the recipes on our blogs, so you’re encouraged to purchase Baking Chez Moi for yourself which you can do on Amazon (this link should bring you to the Amazon store in your country) or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Then join us, baking our way through the book!

 

 

 

Please note: The product links from Amazon and The Book Depository are affiliate links, meaning if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price which goes towards maintaining eat. live. travel. write. Thank you in advance!