chocolate cake Archives - A Calculated Whisk

Fried Banana Brownie Cake with Honey Whipped Cream

May 26, 2014 By Becky 50 Comments

It was my birthday on Saturday, and I had an amazing day. I started the morning by opening the present Ben got for me, which was a Kitchen Aid stand mixer! I’ve wanted one for years, and finally feel like I count as a real food blogger now that I own one. I haven’t used it yet because I have need to clear a special spot for it in the kitchen, but I’ve been peering into the box every few hours and just kind of smiling at it. After opening my mixer, I met up with a friend to go for a run, and then went home and moved a bunch of furniture and hung pictures with Ben. (Our landlords have been renovating our apartment, so we have a lot of rearranging to do. One secret about me is that I love organizing things around the house, even though I put it off like crazy and almost never do it. I am not at all sure why I dread it so much, because once I get started I really enjoy it. So, oddly enough, moving furniture and hanging pictures was one of my favorite parts of the day.)

My mom, Ben, and I went to dbar for dinner, which is within walking distance of our apartment and is one of my favorite restaurants ever. Pro tip: it starts gradually turning into a nightclub around 10 pm on Friday and Saturday. I’ve never been able to convince anyone to stay with me for that phase, but we got to witness the beginning of the transformation last night: one of the waiters walked by, casually pushed a button on his bracelet, and made a screen drop from the ceiling. No big deal.

Molten Chocolate Cakes (Paleo, Gluten-free)

November 14, 2013 By Becky 11 Comments

These molten chocolate cakes are ridiculous! They are rich, adorable, and delicious. They’re the kind of dessert that seems so fancy that it doesn’t occur to you to make it at home. Guess what, though? These little cakes are super easy. Spend 15 minutes or less throwing the ingredients together and 15 minutes waiting for them to bake, and you’ll have four perfectly-portioned, restaurant-style desserts. Can you think of a better way to spend half an hour on a dark, cold evening? I know I can’t.

My favorite part about these is all the different layers of chocolatey textures. The outer edges are crispy, and right next to that is a layer that goes from chocolate cake to gooey brownie as you move toward the center. Finally, there’s the lava–the decadent heart that gives this dessert its name. To be honest, it’s all almost too much. ALMOST. I recommend serving these with a little whipped cream or ice cream to balance out the rich chocolate flavor. I had mine with some vegan pumpkin ice cream, and it was perfect.

These cakes are adapted from Taza Chocolate, and inspired by my visit to Taza’s Day of the Dead celebration a few weeks ago. I also used my new favorite Rodelle extracts in this recipe. If you don’t have chocolate extract, don’t worry–your cakes will still be very chocolatey without it. That being said, you should probably pick some up. It’s really fun to have on hand.

I used a tablespoon of Jamaican rum in this recipe. You could also try red wine, which is what the original recipe calls for. Since the center of the cake is not fully cooked, some alcohol might remain after baking. If that’s not your thing, you can use a tablespoon of coffee instead, which will also intensify the chocolate flavor.

I substituted my three favorite gluten-free flours (almond, tapioca, and coconut) for the all-purpose flour in this recipe, and the resulting cakes tasted pretty much exactly like their gluten-laden cousins to me. This is an ideal recipe to make gluten-free since it calls for such a small amount of flour relative to the total quantity of ingredients. That means that if you’ve been wanting to try gluten-free baking but have been worried your desserts would turn out funny, this is a great place to start! Try serving it to some unsuspecting guests, and I bet they won’t notice a thing.

Chocolate Cake with Peppermint Ganache (Paleo, Gluten-free, Dairy-free)

October 21, 2013 By Becky 10 Comments

Ben and I celebrated the two-year anniversary of our first date yesterday. In addition to being an important relationship milestone, I thought having an anniversary was a great excuse to bake. I asked Ben what dessert I should make for our special day, and he said, “Why don’t you make a cake?”.

It was such a brilliant idea, not only because cakes are the most majestic of all the desserts, but also because I have not posted any cakes on this blog yet. I’ve posted lots of cupcakes (too many, some might say), but no actual cakes.

I set off in search of a great paleo chocolate cake recipe to use, since I haven’t really made any paleo chocolate cupcakes that I could adapt (although these muffins came pretty close). When I found this recipe from Zenbelly Catering, I could tell it was a hit from the dozens of raving comments. Food blogs are the best! Try to find that many (or any) reader responses to a recipe in an actual print cookbook.

All those readers were right–this is an awesome cake! I made a few changes to the cake recipe, including adding some coffee to deepen the chocolate flavor. Don’t worry, the cake won’t taste like coffee (or coconut, or almonds–the flavor is pure chocolate!).

For the ganache, though, I wanted to try something a little different, so I added peppermint extract. If you don’t like mint and chocolate, you can just leave that out. Ben and I both loved it, but we are the kind of people who drink hot chocolates with peppermint schnapps all winter long. (Is it time for those yet? Almost? They are basically the only thing I like about cold weather).

I wanted to make a whipped cream filling as suggested in the original recipe, but my coconut cream didn’t have enough time to set up in the fridge. Make sure you click on over to the original recipe if you want to try the cream layer for your cake–it sounds amazing! I’m all over that for our third anniversary, or the next time another cake-worthy occasion comes along.