TRIPLE CHOCOLATE POUND CAKE

Southern Living Magazine  is a favorite of mine and when I spotted the delicious Chocolate Goodness cake on the cover of the February 2015 edition I just knew that was (or my version) what I was going to make for the Alzheimer's Idaho support group meeting tonight. If you follow the blog then you know I am a volunteer for them and one of the things I do is to make their dessert each month for their dinner.

The photo reminded me of a recipe that I have used before that I think is from The Charleston Cake Lady - Teresa Pregnall.  If you don't know about her she was famous in the south and wrote wonderful little cookbooks and gave out her recipes - they were simple, many using a mix, you did not have to have some odd thing from the gourmet store, just good desserts.  When I still lived in California I had the great pleasure of calling Charleston to order her cookbooks for friends and both times she answered the phone and we had nice long chats - a real southern lady.  Sadly, she passed away in 2008 but you can find both her recipes and books by just put Charleston Cake Lady in Google and see what comes up - many links with lots of recipes.

I am calling this triple chocolate because it has a devil's food mix, chocolate Jell-O pudding, chocolate chips and then just for kicks and giggles I added 1/4 cup black chocolate - guess that is really four kinds of chocolate.

 I normally spray my bundt pans with either Baker's Joy or Wilton's version of a spray product with flour but I was out so I sprayed with some non-stick butter spray and dusted with some malted milk - just another layer of chocolate - teehee.

This is a very thick batter and will not pour into the pan - I used a large rubber spatula to get the batter into the bundt pan.

A good tap on the bottom to get any air bubbles out and into the oven.

Once out of the oven, let it cool for at least 1.5 hours on a rack and then slide a kitchen knife around the edge and make sure it is not sticking in the center.

Came out pretty good but it does not really matter as you are going to drizzle ganache and then some white frosting and any imperfections will disappear.

This is a sweet rich cake so I chose to make my ganache with bittersweet chocolate.

A very simple way to drizzle the ganache or other frosting (to get that more professional look) is to take the cooled frosting/ganache and put into a ziploc bag, push it to one corner, twist the bag so that the frosting feels firm and hold the corner point of the bag pointed up and just nip off the corner and you are ready to go back and forth across the cake. First with the ganache and then with the white frosting.

Drizzle on the white...make a tent card for description...

A label for the ice cream - now don't you think that Nigella's yummy coffee ice cream will be great paired with the cake??

Recipe - Triple Chocolate Cake

 Ingredients

·         1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix

·         1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix

·         1 cup sour cream

·         1 cup vegetable oil

·         ¼ cup black chocolate (if desired)

·         4 eggs

·         1/2 cup warm water

·         2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

·         ¼ cup powdered black chocolate (if desired)

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding    mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.

3. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate

Chocolate ganache

1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces chopped semi sweet chocolate
Pinch of salt

Bring cream to a boil in a medium pot. Add chocolate and let stand 5 minutes. Add salt and stir until smooth. Let stand 10 minutes, then pour over cake allowing the glaze to drip down sides and cover cake. Let set 3 hours at room temperature or 1 hour in refrigerator. 

White Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

3-5 tablespoons milk or cream, depending on the desired consistency

½ t vanilla

Sift the powdered sugar and then add three tablespoons milk or cream along with the ½ t vanilla, stir to combine, if desired add more cream/milk and using a wire whisk beat until smooth and creamy.

 

Recipe - Coffee Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tablespoons instant espresso powder

• 2 tablespoons espresso liqueur – I use  2 T cold coffee and 1/2t vanilla paste in place of the liqueur – since this does not cook the alcohol will still be there and not everyone wants that so the coffee/vanilla works.
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Nigella's recipe calls for double cream which is not readibly available here in the US - dbl cream is heat treated and then quickly cooked and is 48% butter fat while US heavy whipping cream is 36% and has been pasteurized. If  you can get this cream then you can combine all the ingredients and whip until stiff peaks form and then freeze.

Directions

Put the condensed milk in a bowl and stir in the espresso powder and liqueur (or coffee vanilla mixture). In a separate bowl whisk the cream until it reaches stiff peaks. Fold the cream into the condensed milk mixture, then pour this gorgeous caffe latte-colored airy mixture into an airtight container and freeze for 6 hours or overnight.  Serve straight from the freezer. 

Resource

Ice cream recipe, Nigella Lawson

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