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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!

 

 




Chocolate Magic Cake

by 2 Comments

 
This recipe has been floating around Pinterest in many forms.  I keep thinking I’ll make this every time the photos pop up, because it looks so good.  It is good! It’s easy to make and is a good little dessert for any weeknight. One of those I’ve-got-everything-in-my-cabinet recipes.


There’s a vanilla version, but since there’s also this chocolate version it was no contest. Chocolate won.

The idea behind this “magic” cake is that you make the batter, pour it in the pan and it miraculously (?) divides into three different layers – a thin cake base, custard layer and fluffy cake topping. Well, it worked, but my bottom layer was barely noticeable.

magic cake 2
We really enjoyed this cake and I especially liked the custard layer. It was like a cross between a custard and flan to me, and the flavor was delicious. We warmed our pieces up a few seconds in the microwave and plopped some vanilla ice cream on top. Truly an enjoyable dessert!

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Chocolate Magic Cake
***1/2; original recipe from JoCooks.com ; simple ingredients, great dessert.
Servings: 12
Ingredients
  • 4 eggs , room temperature and separated
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 3/4 C sugar
  • 1 stick butter , melted
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 6 1/2 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 6 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 2 C milk , slightly warmed
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp vinegar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease/flour an 8x8" baking pan.  Separate the eggs and add the egg yolks to the bowl of a mixer.  Add the water and sugar to the egg yolks.  Beat on high until the eggs are light and creamy.
  2. Add the melted butter (slightly cooled), vanilla extract and salt to the mixer and continue beating until butter is fully incorporated and mixture is light and fluffy.  Stir together the flour and cocoa and add to the egg/butter mixture in three batches - incorporate well between batches.  After flour mixture is added, pour the milk into the mixing bowl and mix until well blended.  The batter will be thin.
  3. In a clean mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites and vinegar until stiff.  Fold the stiff egg whites into the batter a little at a time, just until whites are incorporated - don't over mix.  Batter will still be thin.
  4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-55 minutes.  The cake will still jiggle a bit when you take it out - just make sure the cake on top is done and browned.  Let it cool completely before cutting into squares and serving.
Recipe Notes

Tips and Stuff:

Make sure the butter is slightly cooled before adding to the egg yolk mixture so the yolks don't cook.

Next time I will use a glass pan.  I think it will come out better when sliced.

Chocolate Streusel Bars

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This deliciously sinful bar recipe has been circulating for as long as I can remember.  Since there are so many new recipes to try, it’s been over ten years since I last made these. The recipe is out there at the Eagle Brand site as well as the Hershey Cocoa site, so that gives you the tip off that you’re in for something rich!

Chocolate Streusel Bars3
Bret loves chocolate desserts and this one certainly fits the bill! It’s a chocolate crust, a creamy chocolate center, and a crunchy chocolate streusel topping. My chocolate spidey senses are tingling just thinking about them.  You definitely need to cut them into small bars or you’ll be on chocolate overload (if such a thing is possible…).

Chocolate Streusel Bars
These bars are easy to make and are a great pot-luck dessert, warmed up and served with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream, or just plain with a tall cold glass of milk. As you can tell from some of the photos, I added a sprinkle of sea salt after they were pulled out of the oven. Just a preference because I like the sweet-salty thing, but is entirely optional.

Chocolate Streusel Bars2

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Chocolate Streusel Bars
***1/2  These are very chocolately and rich, and easy to make.  Cut into 36 bars unless you're a die-hard chocolate fanatic - then you can cut them into 24 bars!
Servings: 36 small bars
Ingredients
  • 1 3/4 C flour
  • 1 C sugar
  • 1/4 C cocoa
  • 1/2 C butter (cold)
  • 1 egg
  • 14 oz (1 can) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
  • 12 oz pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips , divided
  • 1 C coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 13x9" baking pan.  

  2. Stir together flour, sugar and cocoa. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add egg; mix well. Set aside 1 1/2 scant cups of the mixture.  Press remaining mixture onto bottom of pan.  Bake 10 minutes. 

  3. In a microwave safe bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk and 1 cup of the chocolate chips.  Microwave 1 to 1 1/2 minutes until chips are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred.  Pour over  baked crust.  Add nuts (optional) and remaining chips to reserved crumb mixture. Sprinkle evenly over the top.  Bake 25 minutes or until center is almost set.  Cool completely.  Cut into bars.

Recipe Notes

Tips and Stuff:

I added a sprinkle of sea salt after they were pulled from the oven, just because I like that sweet-salty thing.

I didn't use the nuts, although it would be very good with them.

Don't obsess about the "coarse crumbs."  Just make sure the butter is distributed throughout the flour/cocoa mixture.  You'll be adding an egg, so it will combine nicely.

Enjoy!