Brazilian Chocolate Ciffon Cake with a Kick
Preheat your oven to 325*
Pour 1 ¼ cup hot very strong coffee* over:
4 squares of baker’s chocolate chopped
2 TBS margarine or butter
¼ to ½ ** tsp hot red pepper flakes
½ to 1** tsp cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
and stir until chocolate is melted. *I ground coffee beans until they were espresso powder consistency, put a couple of heaping teaspoons in my glass measuring cup and then poured boiling water into it and let it steep awhile. Then I reheated it in the microwave and poured the whole mess over the chocolate. Most of the coffee grounds stayed in the cup. You can use 2 heaping teaspoons of instant crap coffee but… I’m just saying…
**The amount of pepper flakes and cinnamon depends on how much you like those flavors. I used more pepper flakes because we like more and less cinnamon because I was serving strawberries and cream with the cake. In moderation both intensify the flavor of the chocolate as does the coffee and you hardly know they are there. Adding more pepper flakes does give the cake an unexpected bite. You can also use cayenne pepper.
Set the chocolate mixture aside to cool and sift together:
2 Cups cake flour
1 ½ cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Make a well in the dry ingredients and add in order:
1 1/2 cup canola oil
7 unbeaten egg yolks
cooled* coffee and chocolate mixture
2 tsp vanilla
Stir with a spoon until the mixture is smooth. Do not beat. You do not want the gluten to start binding together. The less you stir the fluffier the cake will be.
*Make sure your coffee and chocolate mixture has cooled to room temperature. Too hot and it will cook the egg yolks and you don’t want that!
Beat slowly until the eggs whites start bubbling:
1 cup of egg whites (7 or 8)
½ tsp cream of tartar
Then crank the mixer up to high and beat until the egg whites form stiff glossy peaks. Fold, do not stir, the chocolate batter into the egg whites just until they are incorporated. There should be light streaks, medium streaks and a few dark streaks in the batter.
Bake in three ungreased 9” cake pans at 325* for 25-35 minutes, then check with a tooth pick. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. If it’s got gooey stuff on it bake another 5-10 minutes and check again.
OR
Bake in an ungreased angel food cake pan for 55 minutes. Increase the heat to 350* and bake another 10-15 minutes and test with a toothpick.
Chocolate Ganache
On medium heat in a heavy pan, scald 1 ½ cup of whipping cream or to be safe, do it over a double boiler. Watch it carefully because it will scorch in a heart beat. That would be bad. While it is heating, in a heat proof bowl put:
1 bag of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips,
6 squares of bitter-sweet baking chocolate
1 TBS corn syrup (I used coconut nectar)
2 TBS unsalted butter
2 TBS Dutch processed cocoa mixed with a little of the hot cream.
Just before the cream starts to boil, pour it over the chocolate and other ingredients and start stirring. Stir until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours until it is of the consistency you can still pour it onto the cake and spread it like frosting.
