I am not a chocolate person, I know I know that sounds completely absurd , who can not like chocolate etc etc. I do like to have a bite of good quality dark chocolate but not crazy about chocolate cookies, cakes, brownies etc. So I don’t end up making a lot of things unless kids want it or some guests are coming over.
So today is my very good friend’s birthday. Last year for her birthday her husband brought a really nice mango mousse cake, but she kept looking for chocolate. It was so funny when he hubby said well there are chocolate curls that are on top of the mousse cake, and you should have seen her face. Anyway to say the least I knew that I had to make a special chocolate cake for her this year.
Until I tasted the chocolate in a museum of chocolate when I visited Antiqua Guatemala a couple of years ago. Antigua is a beautiful city in Guatemala. I fell in love with its cobbled stone streets, to beautiful architecture to lovely doors and so much more. I loved that however small the homes might be, each of them had a courtyard, and you know I am a sucker for courtyards. My dream home will have a large wrap around porch with a beautiful courtyard.
Courtyards of Antigua 
The chocolate museum was just fantastic It was fascinating to read about the history of cacao beans and how it was used as a currency in those days, and how the chocolate was made.
So I started my research my focus was to make sure that it has rich chocolate flavor and also that I need to incorporate coffee in this. Based on what the man at the chocolate museum told me, coffee helps enhance the chocolate flavor and vice versa. I also had watched an episode of Pati’s Mexican table where she added a cup of boiling water in her chocolate cake to make it moist. So all of that combined and settled on this recipe very close to a recipe by Stella for the cake. Instead of using the Swiss buttercream, I decided to make a simple ganache frosting and it worked really well.
What I like about this recipe:
- The cake batter comes together in one pot
- You can make both the cake and the frosting base a couple of days ahead, and put it together on the day of the party
- Its rich, decadent and yet not overly sweet
So if you have a special occasion or you are in a mood for chocolate cake, this is a perfect recipe.
I also have a video for the recipe, check it out !
If you give it a try, let me know how you like it 🙂
Bourbon Cherry Upside Down cake
Decadent chocolate cake with boozy caramelized cherries
Ingredients
Ingredients
For the Cake: This batter makes three 8inch round cakes
- 340 g Unsalted butter about 3 sticks; 340g
- 1 1/2 cup brewed black coffee alternatively take 4 tbsp of instant coffee with hot water
- 90 g Unsweetened cocoa powder
- 175 g Dark chocolate roughly 72%
- 450 g light brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tsp salt
- 6 large eggs cold from the fridge
- 3 large egg yolks cold from the fridge
- 250 g All-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon Baking soda
Cherry topping
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 6 Tbsp Water
- 6 Tbsp Butter
- 25 Pitted Cherries
Instructions
Method
-
Heat the oven to 375 F
-
Line , three 8 inch round cake pan line with parchment paper
Cherry Topping
-
Mix the cherries , sugar and butter together
-
Pour in the bottom of the cake pan
-
Cook for 10 min till the sugar is little caramelized
-
Take out the pan and add the bourbon & salt
Cake
-
Pre-heat the oven to 350 F
-
Combine butter and coffee steel pot over low heat. Once melted, remove from heat, then mix in cocoa and chocolate, followed by brown sugar, vanilla, and salt. Mix in eggs and yolks, then sift in flour and baking soda.
-
Mix well till you see no dry flour spots
-
Pour the batter in the prepared pans
-
Bake until cakes are firm for about 30 minutes (a toothpick inserted into the center should come away with a few crumbs still attached)
-
Cool cakes directly in their pans for 1 hour, then invert onto a wire rack, peel off parchment, and return cakes right side up.
Tools used :
English