I also looked at David Lebovitz’ version of Flo Braker’s Devil’s Food Cake:
I decided to get the Braker cookbook: Baking for All Occasions, as an ebook loan from my library to compare with David’s, thought I’d rather use Cake Flour as she required.
Does anyone know if there’s a mistake in the cookbook? I don’t see any cocoa listed. The 1st ingredient listed is 3 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped, which you melt in a bowl on top of boiling water, not touching. She never states when to add it. David uses unsweetened chocolate in his icing.
Maybe I should stop worrying and just make the first recipe above.
Flo Braker’s all-American chocolate cake is basically my favorite chocolate layer cake and there is no cocoa in it. It’s different from the devil’s food recipe.
There is an error in Baking for All Occasions regarding the chocolate, so I always link to this blog whenever I rave about it:
I’ve never made cupcakes with it, so I can’t say anything about timing.
For a more typical chocolate cake (the standard runny batter, oil-based kind most American chocolate cakes are like) this one is great and has cupcake directions.
So is Stella Parks’ devil’s food cake.
Alice Medrich also has really good chocolate cupcakes, both made with unsweetened chocolate or with cocoa powder.
I’m sure it’s a good recipe, though a lot of people find buttermilk chocolate cakes can sometimes be mild in chocolate flavor. If I make one with buttermilk there’s usually coffee in there. I’d double the salt, too.
I love the Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake, made with coffee instead of water. I prefer it to their Black Magic Cake, although that one is also good.
Chocolate and orange is the only one I like. Well, I like white chocolate with citrus, too. But for example there was the time I tried out Suzanne Goin’s lemon tart that has a layer of chocolate on the bottom and it was just a perfect way to ruin a lemon tart. Flo Braker’s lime bars with milk chocolate glaze were less objectionable, but just didn’t really make sense together. They were edible, but neither component improved the other.
The famous Doberge cakes with half lemon and half chocolate are something I doubt I’ll ever try.
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BarneyGrubble
(Beethoven and Latina singer fan in Ottawa)
13
There was a Canadian chocolatier (who unfortunately had financial troubles) called Bernard Callebaut, who used to make dark chocolate with a marzipan filling that had a bit of orange, and I used to really enjoy them.
A local chocolatier (Stubbe Chocolates) does the same thing, but without the orange, and those are my favorites. I asked him about including orange; he said that he used to, but they didn’t sell.
I really enjoy marzipan with chocolate; if I could only splurge on a chocolate tempering machine I could make them myself.
