Thursday, 10 June 2010

  • Chocolate Cake. With Mayonnaise??


    Tomorrow is my boyfriend's 20th birthday (he's growing up so fast), and I decided as his lovely girlfriend that I would whip him up a cake. Personally I am a fan of everything vanilla. Vanilla ice cream (more specifically vanilla bean--that bean just adds some extra spunk), vanilla extract, vanilla, vanilla, vanilla. But Joey (that's my boyfriend) likes chocolate, so I had to be selfless and make a chocolate cake.

    Not that chocolate is an unpleasant flavor, I just happen to prefer vanilla. Chocolate and vanilla lovers are at a crossroad and most people prefer one (even if it's by a small margin) over the other.  So chocolate it is. I looked around for a recipe on Epicurious.com (A bible for cooking. I personally prefer it over foodnetwork.com....so skip on over, brethren) and I found one that looked pretty good, but it had a surprising ingredient. Mayonnaise. Yes, you heard me correctly. Mayo-stinkin-nnaise.

    Personally I would rather hurl myself off of a moderately tall surface than eat mayonnaise (that might be a slight exaggeration). Whenever my friend Kara and I come across the mayonnaise at the condiments section of our college cafeteria, we shudder in fear and run away in tears (also a slight exaggeration. Dramatization, my friends, is the key to weaving a good story). But I heard that putting mayonnaise in a cake instead of oil actually makes it really moist, and of course you can't taste the vile stuff once it's cooked into the cake. So I proceeded.


    She was just handed a mayonnaise sandwich. What to do?!

    Ingredients

    Cake:

  • 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 3/4 cups boiling water
  • 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
  • 1 1/3 cups mayonnaise (do not use reduced-fat or fat-free)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extrac
  • 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 3/4 cups boiling water
  • 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
  • 1 1/3 cups mayonnaise (do not use reduced-fat or fat-free)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 3/4 cups boiling water
  • 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
  • 1 1/3 cups mayonnaise (do not use reduced-fat or fat-free)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extrac
    • So off I went on an adventure with mayonnaise and chocolate. For this cake you are required to make three main mixtures for the batter. A chocolate mixture, a flower mixture and a mayonnaise mixture. The chocolate mixture was easy; simply boil water and mix it in with the chopped chocolate and the cocoa powder. Mix that stuff up and there you go, a beautiful chocolate soup looking thing. So I was sitting there with a vat of hot chocolate in front of me (tempting) but I had to be strong and proceed.

    The next mixture is even easier, just combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Done. Well you have to sift it in which is sort of annoying, but it's not that bad. Then the accursed mayonnaise mixture which you make by combining the brown and white sugars and the mayonnaise.

    Listen here folks, do you know how tempting it is to see a sugary mixture in front of you with this substance that looks sort of like butter and not be able to eat it? Well let me supply you with a firsthand account, it's quite challenging. The only thing that kept me from sticking a spoon in that stuff was the reoccurring thought of  that glopy, thick, foul mayonnaise cursing the sugar.



    Ruined by mayonnaise. Curses.

    So then once you finish that you alternate putting the flour mixture and the chocolate mixture into the mayonnaise mixture, using an electric beater each time to marry all of the flavors together. And I'll admit, it was certainly a ceremony. The batter was thick and rich looking and smelled divine. Try and stay strong, it will be difficult to not want to eat some right out of the bowl.

    Also, before you pour your batter into the pans, remember to grease them up. I (sadly to say) am a moron, and forgot to grease my pans, promptly remembering as soon as the first one was dripping with batter. So thinking quickly and poured it back into the bowl and washed it out. I'm so crafty.


    Don't forget the Pam, kiddies.

    Once everything was all greased up I slapped those babies into the oven for 30 minutes. After which they came out looking delightful, toothpick clean and all. Now for the frosting.


    Frosting:
    • 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
    • 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
    • 3 cups powdered sugar
    • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    Time to double boil some chocolate, chickadees. Unfortunately my mom just microwaved some low fat popcorn, so now the chocolatey delicious smell of cake has been masked by low fat corn. Uncool. Double boiling chocolate is wonderful, I just love watching it melt. And you will too, no doubt.

    Making frosting is actually a lot easier than I thought. All you do is mix butter, chocolate and sugar (add a few more ingredients) and there's your frosting. Then you frost up your cake, friends! Here's a tip, there will be a LOT of frosting, so put more frosting on the layers than you think you should or else you will wind up with a ton of frosting on the outside of the cake. Which is fine, if you want it that way, that's just something I'll do differently for next time.

    There is something so comforting about homemade frosting. It's so sweet and thick and rich and delicious. It deserves recognition for not coming in a can. In fact I have decided that after today's events I can never use canned frosting again. It just isn't the same.


    Boo.


    Yay! (Just imagine it's chocolate)

    Another tip, put wax paper on your cake plate before you start stacking your cakes because when you pull off the wax paper it will leave a clean plate. Honestly, the picture looks neater than my cake, but I think that's what gives mine some personality. Yeah, it's a little lumpy and it leans over, but it's mine.



    Here's the end result! Mine doesn't look quite as neat, I wanted to show you all but the photo uploader wasn't working! If it starts working again I'll upload it.

    http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Mayonnaise-Cake-358241

    Here's the recipe if you are interested in making the cake.

    Are there any foods that you have put peculiar ingredients in? Like mayonnaise in a chocolate cake, for instance. What are your favorite cake recipes? Or even frosting recipes?

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