— Cooking with Adam LiawThe third season of airs weeknights on SBS Food at 7:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. The series will be available after broadcast on SBS On Demand. —
For us, cake means chocolate cake. When my family throws a party, the one cake we know everyone will love is a chocolate cake.
While you can never go wrong with a classic, here are some ways to make chocolate cake a little more interesting.
Instant coffee
Adding a teaspoon of instant granulated coffee amplifies the chocolate in a cake just as much as cocoa accentuates the flavor of a cup of coffee. The granules can be added to the batter with the other dry ingredients, or mixed with hot water and added to other liquid ingredients, like in these Mini Chocolate Almond Pies.
dulce de leche
You can get canned caramel, but it’s much more satisfying to make your own dulce de leche at home, and even better when you add it to chocolate cake.
Simply take a can of condensed milk, remove the paper label, place it in a saucepan and immerse it in water. Put the pan on a boil for three hours and let it cool a little before taking out the can. So ! The once cream-colored condensed milk has now taken on a golden brown color.
Sandwich the dulce de leche between layers of chocolate cake. Finish the cake by frosting it with chocolate ganache.
fruit purees
Fruit purees add moisture and a natural sweetness to cakes. Try it in this luxurious vegan chocolate cake, with chocolate buttercream (made with vegan butter), shared by Stephanie Stanhope on Cooking with Adam Liaw.
You can also experiment with tomatoes. The idea of putting tomatoes in a chocolate cake was partly inspired by thunder cake, a children’s book by Patricia Polacco. The story tells of a grandmother who bakes a chocolate cake with tomatoes and helps her granddaughter fight her fear of thunderstorms.
While the tale is a work of fiction, it is a fact that tomatoes work in a chocolate cake.
The slight acidity of tomatoes works in chocolate cake much like apple cider vinegar does; it makes the dessert delicate and soft. Be sure, however, to use tomatoes without the skin and seeds.
Yuzu
Yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit that is much sweeter than lemon and has a more orange-lemony taste.
While orange and chocolate are pretty much the go-to combo when it comes to citrus and cocoa, yuzu lends itself well with milk chocolate, or even better, the white kind. Yuzu gives chocolate a well-balanced flavor, and its acidity and sourness are much less confronting than the usual lemon.
Yuzu gives chocolate a well-balanced flavor, and its acidity and sourness are much less confronting than the usual lemon.
Like other acids, a pinch of yuzu activates baking soda or baking powder in a chocolate cake.
peppers
It’s no surprise that chili peppers and chocolate go well together – take, for example, the classic Mexican mole (sauce).
But when it comes to chocolate cake and chili, it’s all about considering the flavors you want and choosing the right variety of chili.
Use ancho chili powder if you don’t want the heat to be too intense. Use chipotle chili powder for a milder, smokier flavor. Either powder complements the taste of the chocolate and gives the cake a more complex flavor.
Beer
Here’s an excuse to grab a bottle of beer in the middle of the day – to bake a chocolate cake!
Beer is a great addition to chocolate cake because its leavening abilities help make cakes softer and moister.
If you are going to use beer in a cake, be sure to use strong beer. What’s great about this black strain is its complex flavor profile. Stout beer lends richness to chocolate cake and has notes of coffee, chocolate and caramel. Try it in these Double Choc Stout, Macadamia Nut and Candied Bacon Brownies.
Lawyer
The versatility of an avocado makes it a wonderful addition to both sweet and savory dishes.
Avocados can replace butter and sometimes even eggs in chocolate cake, without compromising on quality. This replacement makes the cake more vegan.
Instead of being overwhelming, the avocado complements the taste of the chocolate, making the cake even richer and more fudgy. And don’t limit your avo-adventure to cake: it can also be used to add richness to frostings and frostings, like the dark chocolate mousse layers in this gluten-free dark chocolate espresso mud cake.
Do you like history? Follow the author here: Instagram @nikki.ag.
