mexican spiced chocolate "homo" cakes
chili spiced chocolate enrobed chocolate layer cake, with an orange cinnamon crunch buttercream in the middle. this is my tribute to a mash up of a whoopie pie and a hoho, with some extra spiciness thrown in... thus the "homo" was born. and now for your bingeing pleasure, the recipes involved in this crazy crackfection.
wacky cake
a war time chocolate cake recipe, perfect for when eggs were scarce
1. preheat oven to 350 degrees. yields two shallow 9 in rounds, or one 9 in cake. can be doubled to make a 13x9.
2. in a large mixing bowl sift the following dry ingredients together. (if you don't want to do layers, then you can mix this decadent cake right in the pan!)
Ingredients
1 & 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp cocoa (i use black cocoa or special dark, for an extra deep rich cake)
3. make three wells in the dry ingredients and add the following:
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp vinegar
5 Tbsp melted butter or oil (if you want to keep it vegan. i like sunflower, safflower or canola)
1 cup cold water over all, and stir well - but careful not to over mix. just do it until all dry is incorporated. batter should be fairly thick.
4. if doing two layers, grease and flour the bottoms of the pans for easy removal.
5. bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes (or 35 minutes for single cake). cake should spring back when you touch the top, and fork should come out clean from the center. place cakes on wire rack to cool, before placing bottom layer on serving plate or cake stand.
orange cinnamon filling
Ingredients
1/4 lb unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar (2/3 fine, 1/3 coarse demerara or raw)
1-2 tsp fresh cara cara orange zest
1 Tbsp fresh cara cara orange juice
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
Method:
cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. add zest, juice, salt & cinnamon. beat well.
leave out at room temp until cakes have cooled fully. smear generously to cover bottom layer and set top layer on to this.
enrobing chocolate
bring all ingredients together in double boiler, to melt chocolate. i use a pyrex mixing bowl over a saucepan filled with water just to touch the bottom of the bowl. heat over low heat, whisking as it melts. set aside until cakes are cooled fully & filled (if you're doing layers).
9-10 oz bittersweet chocolate chips
2 pinches chipotle
pinch salt
pour pool of chocolate onto center of cakes and tilt plate to have it drip over edges. pop the whole delicious mess into the fridge or leave out at room temp to let chocolate set up.
cut with sharp knife (you can heat it first to help get through the shell), and serve it up.
serves 8-10 happy homos (or allies)
