Birthday cake – chocolate, of course
When I asked my Momsy what kind of cake she’d like for her upcoming 90th birthday, she looked at me like I’d thrown a shoe in the back forty. “Well, chocolate,” she said. She sent me a look that was half surprise, half disbelief. What other kind of cake is there? was her unspoken message.
“Of course,” I said. I too want cake to mark my birthday, mostly chocolate. One year, my partner of the time did not buy or bake a cake for me, and I was shocked at how devastated I felt. Never again, I promised myself.
To help Mom decide, I rattled off a list of the many kinds of chocolate cakes I have made over the years to mark birthdays, anniversaries and graduations. Some of them have been epic.
When my eldest son Darl turned twelve, he perused my cookbook library and announced he’d like Death by Chocolate, a multi-layer edifice by American chef and baker Marcel Desaulniers. To construct it, I made chocolate ganache, chocolate brownie, cocoa meringue, chocolate mousse, mocha mousse and mocha rum sauce. It took all day. I seem to remember gilding it with some nut praline I had kicking about, but I could be conflating another memory with this. It really didn’t need praline. I made it just that once.
One of my favourite chocolate cakes is a crumb cake, featuring two layers of streusel crumbs and chopped chocolate buried in a lush butter cake topped with more buttery, nutty chocolate streusel. It involves half a dozen bowls, and is worth every single one of them, and every inch of counter space they take up.
I’m also pretty partial to my own Queen Cake, which has been my youngest son Dailyn’s favourite since he was a sprout. It evolved out of my restaurant and catering career back in the day and was the most popular cake on my menu.
Deceptively light, it’s a chocolate angel food cake, split, filled with a layer of seasonal fruit and a layer of chocolate cream, the whole shooting match sprinkled with fruit-infused simple syrup before being encased in chocolate cream.
I garnish it with the same fruit I put in the middle and then pipe rosettes of chocolate cream around the top circumference. As I said, deceptive. It’s the closest I have ever come to making my Hutterite mom’s all-time favourite, Schwartzwälder kirschtorte, or Black Forest cake.
Another fave from those days is the cake taught to me by American chef Hugh Carpenter: a kilo of dark chocolate, half a kilo of butter, seven eggs, a shot of espresso and its grounds, vanilla, sugar. A nine-inch springform panful that I top with chocolate ganache, it feeds sixteen to twenty, a dense, rich, slightly gritty slab more akin to a chocolate bar that calls out for a doppio espresso on the side.
Then there are the many variants I’ve fiddled with, among them fallen chocolate torte, classic chocolate layer with buttercream, almond flour torta Caprese, red velvet cake with chocolate buttercream, chocolate olive oil cake, flourless chocolate torte and the childhood classic: border-crossing, self-saucing chocolate pudding. Not really a cake but worthy of note. It marked my path to my current fave.
My current chocolate lovechild (well, really, my fave for at least five years!) is American chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s molten chocolate cake. It, too, is flourless, and is baked à la minute in ramekins, then topped with a dollop of whipped cream. When you spoon into it, it’s warm, luscious, self-saucing, utterly seductive. Quick and low fuss, it has the added charm of being mixed up in advance, the ramekins full of raw batter consigned to the fridge, then baked moments before you serve them.
Have the champagne or prosecco ready.
First, we eat, then we toast our beloved elders making another trip around the sun.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Molten Chocolate Cake
The very best chocolate is necessary in this cake composed of six ingredients. It originates with Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef, by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman. This cake punches way above its super-simple weight class. I usually double it to have unbaked extras waiting in the fridge for the arrival of company or a milestone worth celebrating. Bake it right before you eat it! Serves 4.
Ingredients:
- Butter and flour for ramekins
- 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate
- 1/2 c. unsalted butter
- 2 whole eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/4 c. white sugar
- 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
- Whipped cream for garnish
Preparation:
Butter and flour five 4-oz. ramekins or fluted brioche moulds, knocking out any excess flour. Set the oven at 450 F.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave at medium power or in a double boiler, stirring occasionally.
Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together in a mixer until thick and pale. Add flour, chocolate and butter. Mix well.
Divide evenly among the ramekins. Cover and chill if desired. Remove from the fridge 30 minutes before baking.
Transfer the ramekins to a baking sheet and bake for 6 minutes. Serve immediately with ice cream, whipped cream, berry compote, passionfruit coulis, raspberry sorbet or plain.
P.S. Other chocolate cake recipes to follow.
