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Chocolate Chicory Buttermilk Cake

September 11, 2018 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIf you have but one chocolate cake in your repertoire this should be that cake. Dense, devilish and coated with mocha buttercream icing it’s dessert for grown ups. The addition of a couple of teaspoons of very finely ground coffee & chicory to the icing adds visual and aromatic interest. Best of all the rich flavor comes from Hershey’s dark powdered chocolate – no expensive chunk chocolates that require melting here.

People in Louisiana love their coffee and chicory and everyone loves chocolate so I can’t think of a special occasion where it will disappoint. If you don’t have coffee with chicory, the regular kind will do just fine.

This recipe is pretty straightforward, the only variable consisting in whether you decide to use buttermilk, yogurt or sour cream. If you can find a good rich buttermilk use it. My luck in finding that has been poor these last few years. Seems as if most of what is available is skimmed and watery so I tend to use the yogurt, which, if you buy it in the small individual cups, is exactly the right amount. Interestingly, even though the yogurt and sour cream are thicker than the buttermilk, that thickness doesn’t seem to affect the final product. So whichever you decide to use, half a cup does the job.

Here’s the uncut version:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAand the cut:

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Chocolate Chicory Buttermilk Cake
 
Print
Author: Carine Clary
Cuisine: Southern
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • Make a liquid out of the following:
  • 1 cup hot water
  • ½ cup Hershey's powdered dark chocolate
  • 2 teaspoons instant coffee/expresso
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup buttermilk (or full fat plain yogurt or sour cream (the small individual yogurt is about ½ cup)
  • Mix together:
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1¼ cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • Stir together:
  • 1⅓ cup all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • For the icing:
  • 2 sticks of unsalted butter
  • 2 cups of powdered sugar
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 tablespoon each coffee liqueur, vanilla, and very strong coffee with chicory (or instant expresso)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Mix the hot water, chocolate powder, coffee, vanilla, sugar, and buttermilk.
  3. While that is cooling beat well the butter, then add the sugar and the eggs.
  4. Now start alternatively adding the dry ingredients with the liquid to the butter/sugar/egg slurry till they are fully incorporated.
  5. Pour into 8" greased and floured cake pans (or, if you're having a Martha moment, you can do the paper lined version...) and bake for about 35 minutes.
  6. For the icing beat the butter till very light and add the powdered sugar.
  7. Mix the yolk, coffee liqueur, vanilla and coffee and add gradually to the butter mixture.
  8. If desired add a couple of teaspoons of very finely ground coffee with chicory.
Notes
If you freeze the layers for about an hour the cake will be easier to frost and will pick up fewer crumbs.
3.3.3077

 

Filed Under: Cakes, Christmas, Desserts, New Year's, Revillon, Southern Tagged With: chocolate buttermilk cake, chocolate buttermilk cake with coffee and chicory icing, chocolate cake, chocolate cake with mocha icing

Wacky Cake

December 30, 2015 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWacky Cake – it’s crazy good. And fast. And easy.

Are you culinarily challenged due to a complete lack of experience & skill in the kitchen? And are you expected at least occasionally to present a homemade offering at family gatherings? Does this frighten you? Well, fear not. This may be the one cake that you can make with no skills and few dishes. An easy little something to make for New Year’s.

The provenance of Wacky Cake is said to date to World War II when milk, butter, and eggs were rationed. This cake has none. What’s surprising is the richness and flavor it achieves without any of them. It can be mixed and served in the same pan and is good with a dusting of powdered sugar & a side of vanilla ice cream or a quick chocolate icing.

To get started you need an 8 X 8 pan. It can be metal or glass and it doesn’t even need to be greased. Mix the dry ingredients right in the pan or a bowl if you prefer. They may be whisked together or you can mix with your hands. I do it by hand to make sure that the chocolate powder is completely incorporated. Make a well in the center.

Next you mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl and pour them into the middle of the flour. Gently whisk out the lumps and put in a preheated oven. Once it’s done serve it World War II style as you see in the picture below with an austere dusting of rationed sugar or you can whip up quick post war batch of icing.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis icing is equally easy. You just melt the butter, chocolate and powdered sugar in a double boiler, let it cool to room temperature and then beat it until fluffy.

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIf you don’t have a double boiler fill a pan with about an inch of water then find another pan or pyrex bowl that fits over it. The steam from the boiling water underneath in bowl one will melt the ingredients in bowl two. Hence the name “double” boiler.

Once this is done, so are you. It’s all ready to enjoy as an after dinner desert or in front of the TV watching a rerun of ‘The Dirty Dozen.’

Wacky Cake
 
Print
Author: Carine Clary
Cuisine: Southern
Ingredients
  • Dry ingredients:
  • 1½ cups all purpose flour (or cake flour)
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup cocoa (Hershey's dark)
  • ¾ tsp. baking soda
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • Liquid ingredients:
  • 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 cup cold water
  • Optional Icing:
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1⅓ cup semi sweet chocolate chips
  • ¼ cup confectioners sugar
  • for mocha icing add 1 tsp. of instant coffee or espresso
Instructions
  1. For the cake:
  2. Preheat oven to 350.
  3. Mix dry ingredients together in a square 8 X 8" pan
  4. Mix liquid ingredients together in a bowl.
  5. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid.
  6. Whisk out the lumps & bake till a toothpick comes out clean, about 30 to 40 minutes.
  7. For the icing:
  8. Melt butter, chips & sugar in a double boiler.
  9. Let completely cool then beat until fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
3.4.3177

 

Filed Under: Cakes, Desserts, Revillon, Southern Tagged With: chocolate cake, no eggs, vegan

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About Me

Hello, I'm Carine Clary and I'm the FrangloSaxon.

And is that a word? In a word - Yes! It reflects my French connections in the south part of the state and the Anglo Saxon ones on the Arkansas state line. I grew up eating & loving all the foods of Louisiana and the idea is to collect lots of them right here on this website.

What you'll find here is food that reflects everybody's cooking. Creole we know. Cajun we know. But how about Croatian or Vietnamese....or Italian or German....or the underestimated plain Southern food they do so well in the upstate parishes?

They're all part of who we are so pull up your chair and join me for some good eats!

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