Cookbook Review by Tracey Zabar
It’s my birthday in a few days, and I decided to start celebrating early with this recipe. It makes a dozen cupcakes, and a half batch of the frosting is plenty to top each little cake with a tall mound of chocolate sweetness. Oh my.
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Recipe by Naomi Josepher, Jon Payson, and Georgia Freedman
From There’s Always Room for Chocolate (Rizzoli)
This was the very first recipe we created for The Chocolate Room. We decided that if we wanted to open a restaurant dedicated to chocolate, we needed to serve the best chocolate cake we had ever tasted. Our first chef, Margaret Kyle, tested every classic American chocolate cake possible, and every few days we’d meet at our apartment to try the results, gathering around the kitchen table to taste and refine our ideas. Was the cake moist enough? Was the flavor rich enough? Did the whole thing slide off the fork just so? It took weeks of experimenting, but one day Margaret presented us with the most perfect cake we’d ever had. With three towering layers of rich, moist cake, a thick filling of blackout pudding, and creamy frosting—which together boast three different kinds of chocolate—the cake was a showstopper.
Chocolate Cupcakes
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
⅓ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room
temperature, plus extra for greasing the pan
1 cup dark brown sugar
⅓ cup sour cream
½ cup cold coffee or water
One batch of batter will make about 12 cupcakes.
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line muffin tins with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla. Sift the cocoa powder into another small bowl, breaking up any chunks. Sift together the cake flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium speed for 3 minutes, until the mixture is very light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture and continue mixing on medium-low until the mixture just comes together, about 30 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to incorporate any unmixed ingredients, then beat on medium for 30 seconds more, until there are no lumps or unmixed ingredients.
4. Add the cocoa powder and beat on low until incorporated, covering the bowl with the plastic guard or a towel to keep the cocoa from flying out of the mixer.
5. Add one-third of the flour mixture and mix on low until just combined. Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and add half the sour cream. Mix on low until just incorporated, about 30 seconds, then stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom. Repeat with another third of the dry ingredients and the remaining sour cream, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the remaining flour mixture, mix until just incorporated, and scrape down the bowl again.
6. With the mixer running on low, pour the coffee into the batter in a thin stream, then mix on low until the batter is uniform, about 20 seconds.
7. Remove the bowl from the mixer and finish mixing by hand, using a rubber spatula in a beating motion and scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure that all the ingredients are evenly incorporated and that the batter is completely smooth and lump-free.
8. Fill each cup with about 1/4 cup batter (we use an ice cream scoop to portion the batter so that the cupcakes are even—and because it’s the least messy way to fill the cups). Bake for 20 minutes. Frost with ½ recipes’ worth of Chocolate Frosting, using a pastry bag fitted with a star tip or a butter knife or small offset spatula.
Chocolate Frosting
Makes 1 quart
This frosting was developed for our Chocolate Layer Cake. But we think it’s the best frosting we’ve ever tasted, so we use it on many of our cakes, including our German Chocolate Cake and Boston Cream Pie It’s built on a base of cooked eggs, which gives it a rich, creamy texture, and it has both 60% and 100% chocolate, which gives it a rich flavor and very smooth texture.
6 ounces dark chocolate (preferably 60% cacao), coarsely chopped
3 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate (preferably 100% cacao), coarsely chopped
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 ¾ sticks) unsalted butter
5 extra-large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup water
¼ teaspoon salt
Special Tool
Digital candy thermometer
Tip: If a recipe calls for half a batch of this frosting, halve the quantities listed for a full recipe, but use 3 full eggs.
1. Melt the dark chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, and butter together in the top of a double boiler, stirring to keep the chocolate from burning, or microwave them together for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each interval. Whisk the butter and chocolate briskly until they have combined; set aside.
2. Break the eggs into a medium saucepan and whisk them to break them up. Add the sugar, water, and salt and cook over medium-high heat, stirring continuously with a whisk and applying slight pressure to the sides and bottom of the pan so the mixture doesn’t stick and overcook. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the saucepan and cook, stirring with the whisk, until the mixture has reached 160°F.
3. Strain the egg mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl to remove any bits of overcooked egg, then whisk it into the chocolate mixture. Use an immersion blender to blend the frosting until completely smooth; alternatively, let the mixture cool, then blend it in a countertop blender, stopping to scrape the sides of the blender frequently. Let the frosting cool a bit, then refrigerate it until cool and fairly stiff.
Make Ahead
The frosting will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. When ready to use, let it sit out for a bit or microwave it in 10-second intervals, stirring between each interval, until it is still stiff but soft enough to spread.
