meredithla

Oooooh, I love anything with the chocolate/cinnamon/chili or cayenne combo. Vosges Chocolate makes an Aztec cocoa that I would mainline if it were possible.

Thanks Michelle! I'll try this one as well. We'll be eating a lot of chocolate cake at our house...

I think I'll try the Brachman Blackout cake recipe and one off of the Hershey site--the Especially Dark Chocolate cake. I have some Black cocoa as well as Dutch-processed and regular. I'm thinking of blending the black and dutch-process to get a darker color and deeper flavor. I'll report back on what I find. Thanks for the help everyone!

Yes, the Scott Wooley Clark cake. I do like that one very much but not what I'm looking for this time. I want a more open crumb although still a bit dense.

I am looking for a recipe for a really tall, dense chocolate cake with dark, fudgy icing--much like the Cheesecake Factory fudge cake/blackout cake. My soon to be 4-year-old daughter wants this as her birthday cake. Chocoholism starts young in our family! I've tried many cakes on the chocolate cake thread that I loved but they don't seem to fit the "fudge cake" bill. Do you have a recipe that might be what I'm looking for? Please don't make me sell my other child to pay for a Cheesecake Factory cake....

Kim, I too used the Libby's recipe. I didn't use all of the batter called for on my second attempt. With a thinner cake it rolled up without cracking at all.

The link is taking me only to the home page. Is it any of their pastry brushes or a specific one? I'd like to order one.

I've made 3 pumpkin rolls since reading this thread. The first was too thick and cracked. The next two were thinner and I took Wendy's advice about only rolling when assembling it. I also put the chopped nuts on the outside layer of the roll which helped keep a buffer between the parchment and the cake when I was ready to unpeel the paper. I filled them with a rum cream cheese frosting. Excellent!

I find that I have to use so much more butter/cake release, etc. with the silicone. If I can't find a brush with bristles that stay put I may just have to suck it up and use the silicone.

Can anyone recommend a pastry brush that won't shed it's bristles? I use them to apply my grease to baking pans and end up trying to pick loose bristles out. I've tried a silicone brush and hated it. Any suggestions?

Timely advice, Wendy! I tried a pumpkin cake last night. It rolled up fine to cool but cracked hours later when I unrolled it to spread the frosting. Mine was definitely too thick. I'll try again this weekend with less batter and rolling it only after frosting.

Val, I'd love to try making a pumpkin roll. Do you have a recipe you can share?

That's what I found so interesting about doing this. I, too, thought there would be a clear winner but there wasn't. And I'm certainly not saying my results are definitive. I have a small home-based custom cake business and wondered if I could find the best chocolate cake recipe to use. My lesson learned was taste is individual. I also believe with cake it very much involves sense memory--what taste brings you back to your childhood? So I won't have my one "go to" recipe. I will choose which recipe to use based on the texture I need, the assembly method and the fillings and icings, etc. It was fun for my tasters too who realized "I can't believe how different chocolate can taste!"

I used Hershey's cocoa on all of the recipes except for the Martha Stewart cake which called for Dutch Process cocoa. There I used Droste. All other ingredients for each cake were from the same source and I made them all on the same day.

I invited 11 people over to taste 5 different chocolate cake recipes to see if there was a clear favorite. They were all tasted plain with no icings. The recipes I used: #1-Hershey's Cocoa cake recipe (on back of cannister) #2-A pre-measured (yup, that means mix) doctored up with some coffee, sour cream-THANKS K8! #3-Colette Peters Bourbon Chocolate Cake #4-Martha Stewart's Dark Chocolate Cake #5-Scott Clark Wooley recipe using Neil's modifications (see Wooley chocolate cake thread) There was no runaway winner. The results were: 1st-Hershey's recipe with 4 votes 2nd-Pre-measured recipe with 3 votes 2nd-Martha Stewart's recipe with 3 votes 3rd-Colette Peters' recipe with 1 vote 4th-Wooley recipe with 0 votes Full disclosure: On the Martha Stewart recipe I over-filled the pans and then over-baked them. My feeling is this would have been the favorite based on taster's comments had I not overbaked it. Comments were "Great flavor, doesn't need icing, dark & fudgy, tastes most like what I think chocolate should taste like" but also "dry, too dense, heavy". On the pre-measured cake comments were "would make great cupcakes, most typical birthday-cake tasting, like kids' cupcakes". Wooley comments were "too dry, crumbly, more adult-tasting cake". The Colette Peters was my personal favorite until I tasted it against the others. I chose the Hershey recipe for it's moistness, lightness and great chocolate flavor which was what others commented as well. In a few weeks I'm having the same group over for a white cake & yellow cake taste-off. I'll post those results as well. Meredith

Here's another question for everyone...in the past when I've made chocolate icing it comes out a much lighter color than I like, tastes a little bitter and looks almost grainy. Still chocolate, but not that appealing to me. Possibly because my recipe used cocoa powder and powdered sugar. How can I make that dark, fudgy icing on fudge cakes or blackout cakes? Smooth, really dark, really fudgy?

This one sounds like it will be my personal favorite. I'll definitely try it.

I was thinking the same thing. I think we might have a tasting panel for her.

You can do a light, whipped chocolate ganache -- think chocolate whipped cream, all grown up. I have a few different recipes and will be happy to post proportions, if you like. You can also use standard poured ganache (or glaze) with no buttercream underneath. Or, rolled chocolate fondant, which tastes like tootsie rolls. ← Yes, please post proportions!

I have a friend who wants a chocolate cake for her baby shower with a chocolate frosting that is not buttercream. She doesn't like buttercream. Any ideas? I thought chocolate ganache but isn't that usually poured over buttercream for a smooth finish? Hmmm...javascript:emoticon(':hmmm:')

I agree! Thanks for the info.

What is your best cake recipe that can stand to be cut and shaped without being too delicate and crumbling? I've used pound cake in the past. Is there something lighter but still sturdy?

This has been so fascinating! On the cake formula, just mix everything together? Do the egg whites get beaten and then folded in or just added like all other ingredients?

I wanted to compliment Steve Klc on his demo. I saw many of them on Tuesday and yours was the most informative and interactive. You clearly have a gift for teaching as well as pastry!

I hear ya, my sister! It's just so good (and expensive) that I want to share it with others. Have milk jam, will travel.