Argentinian chocolate cake with dulce de lece

[jennahan]

A friend of mine told me about a cake she had at an Argentinian friends house that I must make (i'm seriously obsessing about it!)

Her description is of a moist chocolate cake with a caramel middle layer (i'm thinking it must be dulce de lece) encased in a smooth covering of thin dark chocolate (I think that it is just melted chocolate spread smoothly and allowed to harden.

I'm not much of a baker, so recipie ideas would be much welcomed. For example, how would one make a dulce de lece soft enough to frost a cake with? What is the best way to do the chocolate frosting? And does anyone have a surefire moist chocolate cake recipie?

Thanks!

[ALTAF]

Hi,

i'm searching too for dulce de leche recipes. I found some at the kitchenlink.com and i have not tried them yet.

[Swisskaese]

This might be the recipe, but my Spanish is not good enough to translate it.

Torta Flor de Chocolate

[ldubois2]

Might be the recipe but the overall review of the people who made it was poor. Doesn't look like it would be worth the effort to translate. It had a 2.4 rating out of 5...if I am translating the rating correctly.

[Apicio]

I tasted this chocolate cake when I visited Buenos Aires last April. There was nothing extraordinary about the moist chocolate layer nor the chocolate frosting but I suspect that it was the dulce de leche filling that made it trully special. Argentinians tend to embellish almost every dessert with their merited famous product. They top their creme caramel with a scoop of it and they also have a napoleon-like dessert filled with a layer of dulce de leche that they call Alvear. Very impressive. You can find dulce de leche in most latin or central american food stores. If you are sensitive to the gamy flavour of goat’s milk, try obtaining the Argentinian brands which are made from cow's milk. You won’t have any problem about the spreadability of this ready made ones. It’s when you make your own by boiling unopened condensed milk that you run into the hard-to-correct too runny consistency.

Look for a chocolate cake that uses chocolate or cocoa that is readily available where you are such as Cadbury's. Do not be taken in by exotic imported and expensive ones. You will be paying through your teeth just for the tasteless cachet.

[CanadianBakin']

I've never had the dessert you speak of but I do have a surefire moist chocolate cake recipe. Double Chocolate Cake from epicurious.com. I've never had it come out dry, I've used it in various sizes of pans and it's always rich, chocolatey, moist and delicious. As for the dulce de leche, I simmer a can of sweetened condensed milk for about 2-1/2 hours in a large pot of water with the lid on, over med-low heat. You could try simmering only 2 hours to see if it would be a bit thinner or perhaps just warm it a bit before spreading on the cake to make it easier and then it will cut nicely when it's reached room temp. The recipe I've linked to has a ganache recipe for coating it which I haven't tried yet but it might work for you.

[jennahan]

Thanks for all the help so far. Apicio said that I should be able to spread the dulce de lece straight from the jar, but the one I purchased from my grocery store here in london is quite thick, so I think I'll nuke it for a couple of second just to melt it. I'm going to try the epicurious chocolate cake recipe. I'm going to pass on the ganache, because I think I recall my friend saying that the cake was encased in chocolate, not frosted.

To all those who tasted this cake, is the dulce de lece both in the middle and top?

[Apicio]

Yes Jennahan, warm up the jar if it is too thick. The jar I have has to be chilled so as not to be too runny. The version I tasted had a filling on top and between the layers. And yes, it was encased with a chocolate glace. I think that you will have to chill this to firm up the top layer of dulce de leche (just like a butter cream topped cake) before applying the chocolate glace.