Wednesday, July 1


*Mexican chocolate cake*

Here is a recipe that I found about 8 yrs ago that I loved so much that I used it for the groom's cake at our wedding. I had never eaten anything quite like it with the cayenne pepper, balsamic vinegar, cinnamon and the like. The result though is a bevy of dynamic flavors that is the furthest you can get from a bland cake. Try it out! It takes no time whatsoever, and is fun for kids to assist with as it is a dump and stir type of recipe. Bon appetit!


Ingredients:
Cake:
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 c sugar
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa (I use dutch processed)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or ground Mexican chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 c cold water
1/4 c canola oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Chocolate glaze:
1 c confectioners sugar
1/2 c cocoa
6 tbsp water

10 fresh strawberries

Preheat oven to 350* Lightly coat an 8" cake round with cooking spray

To make the cake, simply dump all of the cake ingredients into a mixer and mix until smooth. Pour into a pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool in the cake pan for 10 min on a wire rack. Remove from pan and cool completely. (Note, I like to flip it out onto a piece of parchment paper to allow it to cool)

When the cake has cooled, whisk together the first three glaze ingredients. Dip each strawberry into the glaze and set aside. Pour the remaining glaze over the cake and arrange the strawberries on top. Set aside to dry, about 30 minutes.



*Variations: Sometimes I chose not to do the dipped strawberries, and sometimes I do them with alternating white and milk chocolate and instead of arranging them on the top of the cake, I circle the base of it. Today I chose to skip the strawberries alltogether and double to recipe to make 2 cake rounds that I split and made a 4 tier chocolate cake with the frosting in between each layer and then sprinkled powdered sugar over a lovely cake stensil for decoration. Simple and delicious!

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