Before I proceed, I will address the decaf issue: I love the taste of coffee but dislike the jitters caused by caffeine. Call it diet coffee or something more sinister, but I like my decaf as long as it tastes like real coffee (no Trader Joe's weak stuff; I get the pricey-yet-worth-it Starbucks variety).
So back to Sunday morning: Since I'd promised my coworker Tony that I'd bake him some variety of chocolate cake for his birthday, I wanted to find a recipe that would both delight his picky taste buds and challenge my mediocre baking skills. I chose the Chocolate Crunch Layer Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting from my newly acquired Bon Appetit Cookbook. The crunch comes from a layer of toffee bits, and since Tony is a fan of the candy, I figured it'd be a suitable choice.
I perused the recipe while keeping an ear to the radio. This week's episode, titled "What I Learned from TV," was poignantly funny and featured some of my favorite writers as well as Mates of State, who performed covers of television theme songs. David Rakoff's monologue about his recent introduction to cable television was especially hilarious.
But I digress. I started first with the cake batter, which consisted of 4 oz. of melted, unsweetened Valrhona chocolate, eggs, butter, sugar, plus the basic dry ingredients. Then there is the whole milk, which really transformed the flavor of the batter (and, ultimately, the cake) from a rich chocolate to a rich, milky chocolate.
The cake itself was relatively easy to make, but the frosting was a bit of a challenge. First, you have to melt 1 lb. of chopped milk chocolate with heavy cream and corn syrup.
Chocolate ready to meltThen you have to pour the melted chocolate mixture into a bowl over an ice bath, and whisk for about 15 minutes. The purpose of this is to cool the mixture quickly without letting it set, so constant whisking is necessary. The recipe says "about 8 minutes" but I can tell you from personal experience that it takes much longer for the chocolate to cool. The bonus is a great upper body workout.
After the mixture has cooled, you whip the chocolate with an electric beater until the color has lightened to a tan-ish brown. The mixture will also thicken, essentially becoming a fabulous frosting.
I frosted the first layer of cake, then added bits of chopped toffee candy on the middle of the cake. Then I topped with the second layer of cake, and covered the entire thing with the milk chocolate frosting. I finished the top with more toffee bits and some chopped semi-sweet chocolate for a nice flavor contrast (well, I hope - I haven't tried it yet, because, unlike Paula Deen, I can't bring myself to give a half-eaten cake as a present!).
I liked the way the cake turned out - especially the frosting. It's thick enough not to run all over your cake plate, but loose enough to ooze down the sides of the cake. And the flavor is very milk chocolaty. Hopefully I'll get a bite at work today and can update you later on the taste.
