Do you ever watch America’s Test Kitchen, or Cook’s Country? I do, and really enjoy them. You learn some interesting things. The only frustration, for me, is that since I don’t subscribe to the magazine, I can’t access the recipes online.
Well, last Saturday, Cook’s Country featured a chocolate cake called Tunnel of Fudge Cake. I had to make this cake! This meant that I opened up a new file on my computer and transcribed the recipe as I watched; pausing and rewinding as required.
And since we were invited to a friend’s house tomorrow night, I was provided with a reason to make this cake. Yay! I prefer to make things like cakes and pies when we’re having company, or when we can bring it somewhere to share. Cookies I can make and freeze the batter, a cake will just go stale here. Or, even worse, get eaten!
I made the cake tonight. It’s a fairly simple recipe, just many steps. And it involves four five bowls. So, I make the cake, and get it into the oven. As I lick a bit of batter off my finger before loading the dishwasher I think to myself “that cake looks pale and tastes terrible”. I was a bit worried as I did some chocolate and cocoa substituting; I hoped I hadn’t messed up any of the science.
Ummm. What’s that? In the bowl to the left of the sink? Oh! That’s the sugar, cocoa and salt mixture. Huh. Wonder if the cake would be darker AND tastier if that were in the batter versus on my counter?
I have never in my life taken the cake batter out of the pan and tried to add another ingredient. I had no choice. I was out of some of the ingredients!
The good news is that the cake batter DID taste much better once I had added the rest of the ingredients. And since it was a dry mixture that needed to be added, I felt that I could incorporate it properly and have no negative side effects (fingers crossed).
The ironic part? When I took the flat beater off of the stand mixer to remove the bowl I intentionally didn’t put it in the sink, where it would get dirty. I felt like I had just “missed” something. I then went through the recipe to make sure I included all of the ingredients. And I had. Just not incorporated them all.
Update on cake, after tasting:
Super rich. Too much chocolate for me. I think I’d like it better with a confectioner’s sugar glaze on top, rather than a fudge topping. Small slices are the way to go. Although, even though we all said “too rich”, we also all pretty much cleaned our plates. :O)
I watched that episode and toyed with the idea of making the cake. Thank you for going through it for me,lol.