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Posts Tagged ‘Alice Medrich Bittersweet’

Tiger Cake

Posted in Recipes, tagged , on January 11, 2012| 68 Comments »

♥ A recipe for Aunty Robbie ♥

. . . . .

I recently came across this intriguing recipe in Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet.

It’s a self-marbling cake, made with extra virgin olive oil, cold eggs and a little white pepper, and it’s surprisingly good.  The layers swirl together in a tie-dye fashion, giving the cake a lovely retro feel.

I baked it in a 10-cup bundt pan as instructed, but found that there was far more batter than needed.  Despite making two extra muffins, the cake still  burgeoned over the top of the pan, and I had to slice the bottom off to get it to sit flat.  If you decide to bake this, make sure you have an extra loaf tin or muffin pan on standby to take the excess batter – it’s too good to waste!

Here's the bottom of the cake that I cut off - love the 70's swirls!

This recipe had me so fascinated that I went out and bought natural cocoa. I normally only keep Dutch-process cocoa in the pantry, but Ms Medrich was adamant that it wouldn’t work in this cake!

Chocolate mixture:

  • 50g (½ cup) natural cocoa powder, sifted (I used Cadbury’s)
  • 110g (½ cup) sugar
  • 85ml (¹/3 cup) water

Cake batter:

  • 450g (3 cups) plain (AP) flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 440g (2 cups) sugar
  • 250ml (1 cup) extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used homemade)
  • ½ teaspoon finely ground white pepper
  • 5 cold large (59g) eggs
  • 250ml (1 cup) cold milk

1. Preheat the oven to 175C (350F) or 160C (320F) with fan. Grease a 10 or 12 cup bundt tin, or two 6 cup loaf tins. Line the base of the loaf tins with parchment paper.

2.In a large bowl, whisk together the chocolate ingredients – cocoa (make sure you sift it first), water and 110g sugar.  Whisk until well blended and smooth.

3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

4. In a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the 440g sugar, olive oil, vanilla and pepper until well blended.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, and then beat for a few more minutes until the batter is thick and pale.

5. Beat in a cup of flour, then half a cup of milk, then the second cup of flour, then the rest of the milk, and finally the rest of the flour.  After each addition, beat just enough to combine.

6. Using a cup measure, scoop 3 cups of the batter into the bowl with the chocolate mixture, and whisk or stir to combine.

7. Pour the two batters into the bundt pan (or loaf pans) in six alternating layers (three of each), starting with the plain batter.  Don’t overfill the bundt pan.  Any surplus mixture can ladled into muffin pans or a small loaf tin (reduce the baking time accordingly).  The batter will swirl into the most gorgeous patterns as it bakes, there’s no need to do anything further to it.

8. Bake the cake until a skewer comes out clean, which should take 60 – 70 minutes.  Ms Medrich recommends the same baking time for both the bundt pan or loaf tins, but so far I’ve only baked this cake in my Wilton Belle pan. Allow the cake to rest in the pan for 15 minutes before turning it out carefully onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Suelle at Mainly Baking makes a very similar Alice Medrich recipe – she recently posted her mocha version here.

This cake keeps well, and is better eaten on the second day.  It slices cleanly and presents beautifully, and has a gentle, old-fashioned feel to it, despite the olive oil and white pepper.   Definitely one I’ll be baking again!

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Bittersweet

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on March 29, 2010| 12 Comments »


Pete bought me Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet recently, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.  I love reading the words of someone so enthralled in her art, and so specific about her recipes.

Last weekend, I christened the cookbook by trying out three of her recipes.  You can see them all in the photo above – the Queen of Sheba torte, topped with Cocoa Bean Cream and Alice’s Chocolate Sauce.  The thing to note about all these recipes is that they are, as inferred by the book title,  dark dark dark.  The cake is made with 70% cacao bittersweet chocolate, the sauce with 75% Tanzanie origin chocolate, and the cream is infused with bitter cacao nibs and sweetened with just a whisper of sugar.  It was almost too dark for Big Boy, but Pete loved the combination.  I do think the chocolate sauce was probably overkill, but hey, I was on a roll.

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Cocoa Bean Whipped Cream

  • 1 cup (250ml) heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons cacao nibs
  • sugar to taste

Bring the cream and nibs to boil in a small saucepan, remove from heat and cover.  Allow to infuse for 20 minutes.  Strain the cream into a bowl, pushing down on the nibs to extract all the flavour.  Chill the strained cream until cold (at least 6 hours) – if it’s not cold enough, it won’t whip up.  When ready to use, whip the cream, adding sugar to taste.

This is seriously good, a subtle black chocolate flavour with just enough sugar to take the edge off the bitterness.  Slightly reminiscent of coffee cream, but much nicer.  We made this first, and then had to find a cake to go with it – or risk eating it all with a spoon!

A note to Sydneysiders – you can buy Callebaut cacao nibs at Chef’s Warehouse in Surry Hills.  They’re a fun ingredient to play around with.

. . . . .

Queen of Sheba Torte

I asked Pete to choose a cake to try, and this is the one he picked.  It’s very dark, and I personally found the brandy a little overpowering, but Pete loved it, particularly with the cocoa bean cream.  I’ve included metric conversions –  it’s so much easier to work with a set of scales!

  • 6oz (170g) dark chocolate (66% – 70% cacao), coarsely chopped
  • 10 tablespoons (155g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 3 tablespoons (45ml) brandy
  • ¹⁄8 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ½ cup (70g) unblanched whole almonds (I used unblanched almond meal)
  • 2 tablespoons (20g) plain (AP) flour
  • 4 large (59g) eggs, separated, at room temperature
  • ¾ cup (165g) sugar
  • ¹⁄8 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 375F (190C, or 175C with fan).

2. Grease an 8″ (20cm) round springform pan, and line the base with parchment paper.

3. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a heatproof bowl, either over a pot of gently simmering water, or in the microwave in 30 second increments. Stir until smooth, then stir in brandy and salt.  Set aside to cool.

4. If using whole nuts, pulse them in a food processor with the flour until the mixture is crumbly.  Or, stir together the almond meal and flour in a small bowl.

5. In a large mixing bowl (it needs to be big, as this is where the final mixing takes place), whisk the egg yolks with ½ cup (110g) of sugar until well blended.  Stir in the cooled chocolate mixture.

6. In another large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium until soft peaks form, then gradually sprinkle in the remaining ¼ cup (55g) sugar and beat on high until peaks are stiff but not dry.

7. Scoop a quarter of the egg whites and all the nut/flour mixture on to the top of the chocolate batter, and fold in with a rubber spatula.  Then gently but thoroughly fold in the remaining egg whites.  Pour the batter into the prepared tin.

8. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted 1½ inches (4cm) from the edge comes out almost clean, but a toothpick in the centre is still moist and gooey (Ms Medrich is very specific about this!).   Set the pan on a rack to cool completely (it will sink as it cools), before releasing from the pan and setting on a serving platter.  You could dust this with a little icing sugar before serving.

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Alice’s Chocolate Sauce

Ok, the cake really didn’t need this, but I was having too much fun with my new cookbook.  I found the recipe as written a little too thick, so I’ve provided the quantities I used here.  Note the absence of any sugar whatsoever – this is a seriously dark sauce!

  • 10 ounces (285g) dark chocolate (54% cacao upwards – I used 75%), finely chopped
  • 1½ (375ml) cups milk, cream or a combination of both (I used 125ml cream and 250ml milk). Note: original recipe specified ½ – 1 cup milk/cream.
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (optional)
  • pinch salt
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Over a double boiler, melt 125ml milk or cream with the chocolate, stirring frequently until the chocolate is smooth.  Now add as much extra liquid needed to achieve your preferred consistency.  If the mixture appears to thicken too much or curdle, add more milk and whisk until it becomes smooth and pourable.

If desired, you can add the butter a little at a time to adjust the intensity of flavour.  Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and salt.

The sauce will keep for a few days in the fridge, or frozen for up to three months.  I’m planning to use it as a base for dark hot chocolate!

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