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Cloud Forest Chocolate Cake

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The cake I chose for this month’s Cake Slice Baker’s challenge is called Willie Harcourt-Cooze’s Cloud Forest Chocolate Cake. Quite a name for a cake, but Willie Harcourt-Cooze was the guy who came up with it. Apparently he moved from Britain to Venezuela so he could immerse himself completely in world-class cacao (aka cocoa beans). He built a farm in the cloud forest and began experimenting with and harvesting cacoa. Sounds like quite an adventure, doesn’t it?

When a local sugar plantation gave him raw sugar cane, he used it with his cacoa and a few other standard ingredients and created this decadent chocolate cake.

The original recipe had ground almonds in it, but I used an equivalent amount of flour instead. When I baked it, the cake swelled on one end like an ocean wave – it was really strange! I’ve never seen a cake do that. After it was finished baking though, I gently pressed down the high side and it settled into a normal-ish looking cake. Not sure if the flour instead of almonds had something to do with it, but it’s fine now!

Be sure and prep your ingredients before starting this cake. It looks pretty straightforward, but it takes a little time to chop up that chocolate. Oh, and about that chocolate. It required 100% cacao bar and I could only find a ten dollar 99% bar. Ten dollars! Yikes. I went ahead and got it, though, because I was curious to see what a difference it would make.

The chocolate definitely made a difference. Bret thought it was a little bitter and I agreed, mainly because I’m not used to that deep dark of chocolate. The icing is heavenly made with it, though, and I would use it on a number of baked goods (vanilla cupcakes come to mind). I find that Europeans seem to prefer drier cakes than the U.S. and I did find this one to be a little dry, but that’s entirely subjective since I substituted the flour for the almonds.

I’ll be cleaning chocolate out from under my fingernails and scraping it off of the counter for awhile, but I enjoyed this challenge. It was the first time I’d used a springform cake pan and I look forward to making a cheesecake in it sometime soon! If you like chocolate, you might like this cake and I highly recommend the icing.

Take a look at the other creations by the Cake Slice Bakers (below the recipe)!

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Cloud Forest Chocolate Cake

**1/2;  Very chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cake and icing.  The icing is to die for, but the cake is a little dense.  Adapted from Willie Harcourt-Cooze's recipe slightly.

Servings: 12
Author: Willie Harcourt-Cooze
Ingredients
  • 6.5 oz. 100% cacao finely chopped or grated
  • 1 C butter
  • 6 eggs room temperature
  • 1/4 C light brown sugar
  • 2/3 C granulated sugar
  • 1 C all-purpose flour (original recipe - 1 C finely ground almonds)
  • pinch of salt
  • Icing
  • 1 C heavy cream
  • 1/4 C sugar, plus 2 tbsp sugar
  • 3 oz cacao finely chopped or grated
Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 325°.  Grease and line a 10" springform cake pan with parchment paper.

  2. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl is not in contact with the water.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

  3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugars together until pale and doubled in size.  Slowly add in the cooled melted chocolate mixture to the eggs and mix until well combined.  Fold in the flour and salt and gently stir until blended.

  4. Pour the batter evenly into the springform pan and smooth the top.  Bake for 30 minutes or until slightly risen and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

  5. Remove the cake from the oven and set on a rack (in the pan) to cool completely.

  6. Meanwhile, make the frosting by putting the cream and sugar into a pan over low heat.  Bring it just to the point of boiling and remove from the heat.  Stir in the 3 oz. of grated/chopped chocolate and stir until thoroughly combined.  (About 5 full minutes to actually get the chocolate incorporated.)  Set aside to cool until desired consistency.

  7. Remove the cake from the pan and peel off the parchment paper.   Put the completely cooled cake onto a cake stand or plate, and smooth the frosting on the cake, top and sides.  

  8. Keep the cake at room temperature until ready to serve.  If you refrigerate it, the frosting will harden too much.

Recipe Notes

Tips and Stuff:

If I ever made this again, I would use a smaller pan - maybe a 9" round cake pan, so it would be a little thicker.

I'm told it would definitely be more moist with the ground almonds instead of the flour.

Four stars for the frosting!

 

 




Lunch Lady Brownies – My Version!

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If you’ve been on Pinterest for at least ten minutes, you’re probably familiar with the popular Lunch Lady Brownie posts. It began on a site that’s long abandoned called SaltBox House Creations, and has blossomed into a Pinterest megahit. The photos are amazing and people get excited to recreate the brownies from that elementary school cafeteria lady back in the day. I don’t remember brownies, but I do remember those fluffy, buttery rolls they made (I’ll try to find that one, too!).

I’ve never used frosting on a brownie – just a preference because they’re usually gooey and sweet and don’t need it. Bret doesn’t think a brownie’s a brownie without frosting, so I knew he’d like these.

Even though there are 2 cups of sugar in the brownie, it’s not particularly sweet. The frosting is sweet, but not overwhelmingly so, and complements the barely sweet chocolate brownie. I think these are a great special treat!

The brownie is thick and soft, but not gooey. The frosting is fluffy and smooth and just right for these brownies. You frost them while they’re still warm and it creates kind of a glaze right on top of the brownie and then the rest of the frosting gets that kind of cracked look. Almost like you get on a Coca-Cola cake. So very, very good.

We’ve enjoyed these brownies and Bret gave them a thumbs up, reminding me once again that brownies aren’t complete without frosting. I think I may agree.

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Lunch Lady Brownies - My Version!

****Outstanding brownie with frosting - a throwback to the good old days and as good as you remember!  Adapted from SaltBox House Creations.

Ingredients
  • 1 C butter melted
  • 1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 C all-purpose flour
  • 2 C granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • Chocolate Frosting
  • 1/4 C butter softened
  • 1/4 C evaporated milk
  • 1/4 C plus 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • pinch of salt
  • 3 C powdered sugar
Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°.  Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with foil, on the bottom and up the sides so you can lift it out after cooled.  Spray foil with non-stick spray.  Set aside

  2. In a large bowl of an stand mixer, combine the butter and cocoa powder.  Blend until smooth.  Add the flour and sugar.  Beat together then add the eggs, salt, and vanilla.  Mix until completely combined, but don't over mix.  Batter will be thick.

  3. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and spread out evenly.  Bake 25-28 minutes, checking at 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes away with a few crumbs.  Remove brownies from oven and let the pan stand on a rack for about 20 minutes.  The brownies will still be warm when you frost them.

  4. For the Frosting:  Beat together all of the frosting ingredients until completely smooth (about 4 minutes to blend powdered sugar in completely).  Pour and spread over the warm brownies.  Let cool completely before lifting the brownies out by the foil ends.  Cut and serve with a cold glass of milk.

Recipe Notes
Tips and Stuff Don't over bake them. They won't be gooey, but will be thick and "bendy." When you lift the brownies out they will bend a bit so put your hand under the bottom to steady them. Don't worry about the wrinkled frosting - it gives them character!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting (Mary Berry)

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The Great British Bake-Off and The Great American Baking Show are two of my favorite baking shows. I love that the judges don’t yell at or deride the contestants and the contestants don’t talk dirt about each other (ahem…Top Chef…). They’re mostly home bakers, vying for the title of greatest baker and seem to have a good time. Plus, they do some incredible baking and it inspires me to pull out the cookbooks and get going!

Mary Berry is the constant between the two shows. She’s the classy, gentle judge who has a special way of telling the contestant that their baking is maybe a wee bit dry or might need 5 more minutes in the oven, without making them cry. I finally bought one of her cookbooks (I think she has over 80 published) called “Baking with Mary Berry” and have tried a couple of recipes from it, including these Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting.

I’ve made many chocolate frostings/icings in my life, but this was different from any of them. It’s simple, but delicious and deeply chocolate. I liked the way it set up on the cupcakes and since it was very sweet, it complemented the barely sweet cupcakes.

I found the cupcake to be a touch dry, but it seems to me that the Brits prefer a drier baked good than we colonists do. Next time I would add a bit more butter or maybe a tablespoon of oil to make them more moist. If you get a bite of frosting along with the cupcake, though, they go very well together. Don’t forget the coffee or cold milk to go along with them!

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Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
***by Mary Berry, from Baking with Mary Berry; good, but a little drier than I prefer.
Servings: 12
Ingredients
  • 1/2 C cocoa powder
  • about 1/4 C. boiling water
  • 3/4 C margarine (I used butter)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2/3 C granulated sugar
  • 1 C self-rising flour
  • Frosting:
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 1/3 C cocoa powder
  • 3-4 tbsp milk
  • 1 3/4 C confectioner's sugar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Sift the cocoa powder into a large bowl, pour in the boiling water, and mix into a thick paste. Add the remaining cake ingredients and mix with a hand-held mixer (or beat well with a wooden spoon).
  2. Divide the mixture equally in the muffin pan, about 3/4 up the side of the liners. Bake for 12-14 minutes (don't over bake!) until springy to the touch. Cool cupcakes completely on a wire rack before frosting (about 30 minutes).
  3. To make the frosting, melt the butter, then pour into a bowl. Sift in the cocoa powder and stir to mix. Stir in the milk and then sift in the confectioners' sugar a little at a time to make a glossy, spreadable frosting. Spread the frosting thickly on the cupcakes and let set.
Recipe Notes

Tips and Stuff:  I will add another tablespoon of butter or so to make the cupcakes more moist next time.  I added a little more milk to make the frosting a little thinner.  There's a lot of frosting, so slather it thickly onto the cupcakes.