Saturday, March 28, 2009

Food Blogger on her way to STARDOM!

If you haven't picked up this yet....WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Paperback? Run out now and purchase..."A Homemade Life -stories and recipes from my kitchen table" This is the new release, hot on the shelf from Molly Wizenberg, a food blogger aka Orangette. I just finished reading it. Each chapter ended with a recipe. Of course it's a recipe that echoes what the chapter was about. If it was a childhood memory of something her mom cooked, or a re-creation of a restaurant dish she loved, the foods that friends and family cooked, etc.

Her writing just flows....Molly gets so honest in her thinking and writing about her food influences, the loss of her dad, her travels, the foods she eats, the meeting of her husband Brandon. Definitely a great book to cozy up with a cup of tea and one of her macaroons.


I thought the very last recipe in her book would be perfect for K-man's birthday. Something chocolate, decadent, birthday worthy and simple to whip together!


The very last recipe in her book is called:

The Winning Hearts and Minds Cake (or Molly's Wedding Cake)

7 ounces best-quality bittersweet chocolate
1 ¾ sticks (7 ounces) unsalted butter cut into ½-inch cubes
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar (she put 1 c. + 2T in her book)
5 large eggs
1 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and butter an 8-inch round cake pan. Line the base of the pan with parchment, and butter the parchment too.

Finely chop the chocolate in the microwave, stirring regularly to combine. Add the sugar to the chocolate-butter mixture, stirring well, and set aside to cool for a few moments. Then add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each addition, and then add the flour. The batter should be smooth, dark, and utterly gorgeous.

Pour batter into the buttered cake pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until the center of the cake looks set and the top is shiny and a bit crackly-looking. (I usually set the timer for 20 minutes initially, and then I check the cake every two minutes thereafter until it’s done. At 20 minutes, it’s usually quite jiggly in the center. You’ll know it’s done when it jiggles only slightly, if at all.) Let the cake cool in its pan on a rack for 10 minutes; then carefully turn the cake out of the pan and revert it, so that the crackly side is facing upward. Allow to cool completely. The cake will deflate slightly as it cools.

Serve in wedges at room temperature with a loose dollop of ever-so-slightly sweetened whipped cream.

At first, I was not going put her recipe up so you'd go out and buy her book....then I remembered two things:

a) Molly is against 'top secret' recipes she feels that all recipes should be shared.
b) Her recipe is on her website. All of them are. LOL.

....as you can see I used my heart pan...very appropriate I thought!

Lastly, can I just say OMG....I will never make another chocolate cake....this one is just amazing, you can taste the butter, the fudgy consistency, clean, not grainy, smooth. K-man said this was the best cake he's ever eaten! Well, I gotta go clean out my recipe boxes of all other chocolate cake recipes....bye!

4 comments:

Ginger said...

What the heck? You are killing me here!! That cake looks like you would find it in a gourmet baking shop. K-man really liked it??? Oh, and happy birthday to K-man!!

Donna-FFW said...

Hey no fair! Looks fantastic and thank you for the heads up on the recipe!!

Ashley said...

*gaah!* you're totally making me regret that I gave up chocolate for Lent.. 2 weeks to go... then I'm making this!

Anonymous said...

Hi! Found your site through FoodGawker and was really glad I saw this recipe. I made this cake for my boyfriend for his birthday (he is a HUGE chocolate cake fan) and his expression when he first took a bite was priceless! This recipe was not only quick and easy, but yields fantastic results. He told his family I baked him a cake that was "as good as the best chocolate cake from a restaurant." Thanks!