Today was my greatest accomplishment, I made the southern red velvet cake. I don't know how to explain it and I have heard a fair bit of horror stories, such as the cake was not red enough or too red.. some were too moist they could not hold or they were too dry. I'm probably biased but I am in love.
Back on the cake, I really don't know what to say. I'm amazed and in awe of it. It's moist but dry enough to hold itself up. There is a very distinctive taste to it and I added just enough chocolate to satisfy the craving in case it arises. After I finished my slice (without the aid of any beverage) I could definitely taste the chocolate lingering in the back of my throat. It was like biting a cloud but enough to make my stomach feel full. Oh I want to eat you all day!! Though I'm curious as to what made the difference, the recipe or the convection oven.
I think I might have worried my dog, just a little. I'm really happy with how it turned out and let loose a series of squeals of delight.
Now, just a little background information I've never cooked before in my life. Most people would have their parents teach them or they learned it from Home Ec classes. I had neither. Well, I had one Home Ec class but that was back in Junior High School.. I made a really crummy apple shaped magnet, banana smoothies that made the class sick and of course the ever popular burnt chocolate chip cookies. I swear it, they were blackened. But after working with chocolate for a while I've picked up on this dessert making business. I'm getting really good at it! (Maybe one day I can step up to cooking a normal meal?)
One of the first things I tried to make was what people called Ancient Egyptian Chocolate Cake. It was an interesting adventure in the kitchen this thing. It involved cloves, coffee and cinnamon. I was really unsure if I wanted to eat it with the cloves in it (I'm not big on them, as you can tell) but I tried it anyway. It was actually pretty good, but it wasn't really a cake, it's more like something you'd eat with tea. It was naturally, nice and moist when it came out of the oven but it dried out.
You can really taste the cloves, the coffee comes as sort of an aftertaste. It may take a few bites before you actually find the coffee. :P The cinnamon was pretty obvious too, it was the second most noticeable flavor after the cloves. Even with chocolate in it, it's not very sweet or as my Dad put it (the taste tester / second opinion) very mild. Of course, to get my Dad to try it, I had to put the toping on it which is basically whip cream with cinnamon. Personally, it tastes better without 'icing'.
1 & 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. gound cloves
4 oz. semi-sweet baker's chocolate
1/2 cup brewed coffee (can be hot)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup butter
Get out two bowls, one big and a medium size one. Sift the first four ingredients together into the smaller of the two bowls. Put a pot of water on the stove and another pot on top of that one (a boiler, helps to keep from burning the chocolate). Put the chocolate and coffee into the top pot together. When the chocolate is melted (stir it around, it should turn shiny) then add the vanilla into the chocolate and coffee. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar one at a time beating in between. Alternate between adding the sifted ingredients and the chocolate (make sure not to get water into your cake) into the butter, sugar and egg mix beating between each pour. (Pour some sifted in, beat, pour some chocolate, beat, pour some sifted, etc.) Mix them all together and pour into 2 well greased 8 inch pans. Bake in oven at 350 for half an hour (in my oven they finished really early).
Recent Comments
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Jessie said:
Well, I had cut the cake in half so the whip cream which was meant to go over the entire... read more
on I can cook! -
That actually sounds really good. Of course, I like cloves. ;) read more
on I can cook!