Chocolate Cake w/Ganache and Ice Cream

A lot of us like chocolate cake, but it feels a bit much to make a full cake on whim for a family of three. So when Sarah said she wanted some, I figured I’d make a half-recipe. Here’s a picture of a slice:

The recipe is from the Gourmet Cookbook (reprinted here). I got around the problem of baking one and a half 8″ layers by cooking one 10″ layer (math knowledge is useful when baking) and dividing it into thirds. Here’s the recipe:

Devil’s Food Cake

• 1/2 cup boiling water

• 3/8 cup unsweetened high-quality cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)

• 1/4 cup whole milk

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• scant 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 stick (1÷2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

• 5/8 cup packed dark brown sugar

• 3/8 cup granulated sugar

• 2 large eggs

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 1 (10– by 2-inch) round cake or springform pan and line bottom with rounds of wax or parchment paper. Butter paper and dust pan with flour, knocking out excess.

• Whisk together boiling water and cocoa powder in a bowl until smooth, then whisk in milk and vanilla.

• Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in another bowl.

• Beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, then add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in flour and cocoa mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture (batter may look curdled).

• Pour batter into pan, smoothing tops. Bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean and cake begins to pull away from sides of pans, 20 to 25 minutes total. Cool in pan on rack 10 minutes, then invert onto rack, remove wax paper, and cool completely.

• Cut cake into thirds. Put one cake layer, rounded side up, on a cake plate and spread with about 1/3 cup frosting. Top with another cake layer, rounded side up, and spread with another 1/3 cup frosting. Top with remaining cake layer and frost top and curved side of cake with remaining frosting. It will look like one giant slice.

Ganache Frosting (adapted from the Gourmet Cookbook)

6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream

Microwave chocolate and 3 TBs. of cream on medium power until just melted. Gradually whisk in remaining cream. Frosting should ready to spread immediately; refrigerating it for any length of time will harden it.

Note: the cake authors recommend brown sugar buttercream frosting, which would probably be really good but would take a while to make.

Philadelphia-Style Vanilla Ice Cream(adapted from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop)

1 1/3 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup milk
3/8 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 vanilla bean, split down the middle
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat 1/2 cup of cream with sugar and salt. Scrape seeds from the vanilla bean into the pan and heat until sugar is dissolved.

Whisk in remaining cream, milk and vanilla extract. Refrigerate until cold, remove vanilla bean, then churn in an ice cream machine.

If you don’t have an ice cream machine, you can also put it in the freezer in a metal bowl and stir it every half hour until it becomes ice cream.

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A good-quality cocoa powder like Scharffen-Berger makes a huge difference in the cake. You’ll be really surprised how much more flavor it has than with cheaper cocoa.

I’ve started to like Philadelphia-style ice cream more and more lately. The flavor seems more pure without the egg yolks.