Make My Day Camp: Chocolate Chevron Cake

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Chocolate Chevron Cake

I made this cake for dinner last weekend, it's an Ina Garten recipe (which usually means it'll turn out great haha, I trust her recipes) and it's something different, so I thought I'd make it. There's only 1 layer which I like, we won't have tons of leftovers; it has an unusual ingredient that I was interested in using; and it's pretty - Ina swears it isn't a hard technique and she's right!

Now having said all that I will add a note: I baked it for an additional 15-20 minutes trying to get the middle to set. I finally pulled it hoping that at least the edges would taste good and have the right consistency, cooled in the pan for 30 minutes before turning onto a wire cooking rack - I could see it wasn't done all the way thru and had the thought that maybe it'd be like molten lava cake? I warned everyone what I expected the outcome to be, but then when we cut into the cake it was perfect! What? I have no idea how that happened - the texture is amazing. Not a crumbly cake texture, not a brownie but close to that texture I guess. It's smooth, dense, rich, thick, and delicious. I don't even like chocolate very much and was blown away by this one!

I took a lot of photos, but really it's a very simple cake and you probably don't need any of my pics!

for the cake:

8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 (16 oz) can Hershey's chocolate syrup (1 1/3 cups)
1 T. vanilla extract
1 cup flour

for the white stripe icing:

1 cup confectioners' sugar
water

for the ganache:

1/2 cup heavy cream
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
1 t. instant coffee granules

Preheat oven to 325'. Butter an 8x2 inch round cake pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pan, tapping out the excess flour.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, then mix inn the chocolate syrup and vanilla. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40 to 4 minutes, until just set in the middle. Allow to cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then remove from the pan, turn the cake upside down on a wire rack set over a sheet pan, and cool completely.

For the icing, whisk together the confectioners' sugar with 1 T. water until smooth, thick, and just barely pourable. When you lift the icing from the bowl with the whisk, it should slowly fall back on itself in a ribbon. (You may need to add a few more drops of water.) Fit a pastry bag with a small round pastry tip and fill it with the icing. Set aside while you make the ganache.

For the ganache, place the heavy cream, chocolate chips, and coffee in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water and heat the mixture until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Pour the ganache evenly over the top and sides of the cake, tilting the rack until the ganache is smooth all over.

Immediately, before the ganache sets, pipe parallel lines about an inch apart across the cake, stopping just short of the edge. Lightly drag the back of a small paring knife through the ganache perpendicular to the white lines also 1 inch apart, alternating directions (first left to right, then right to left, and so on thru all of the lines). Allow the ganache and icing to set. Cut into wedges and serve at room temperature.

note: you can wrap and refrigerate the cake for a few days, but one it is ganache, leave it at room temperature for up to 8 hours. If you refrigerate it, beads of condensation will form on the ganache and damage the decoration.

barefoot contessa, cook like a pro 2018

I made the ganache by microwaving the cream 1 minute until hot,
then add the chips and coffee granules. Let it sit on the counter until
the chocolate melts, stir until the cream and chocolate are totally incorporated.

put the icing in a plastic baggie, seal the top

see how the center does not look done?

pour the ganache onto the cake

spread the ganache across the top and down the sides of the cake

smooth the ganache around the sides

snip one corner of the baggie of icing

pipe lines of icing across the top, fortunately this doesn't have to be perfect haha

lightly drag a knife across the lines left to right

now drag the knife an inch away from the first line you made,
this time going from the right to the left

I pushed too hard on the knife, you don't need to 'cut' into the ganache like this

repeat dragging back and forth until you've gone thru all of the lines

in addition to not dragging too deep, it's also prettier if you wipe off
the knife after every line (if you don't then you get the chocolate
mixing into the white like above - still pretty tho!)