Quest Cake #2

If you read my blog entry from a few days ago you know I'm in search of the perfect chocolate cake recipe. I tried another recipe from the Chocolate Cakes - 50 Great Cakes for Every Occasion book. This one is called "Pound of Chocolate Cake" and has in it, you guessed it, a pound of chocolate that is covered in chocolate ganache.

I adjusted the recipe slightly. The recipe asks you to bake the cake in a square pan but I used a springform pan instead (my perfect chocolate cake is supposed to be round, don't know why I have that idea in my head but it is). It also calls for 13 oz. of semisweet chocolate but I didn't have quite enough so I used about 9 oz. of semisweet and 4 of bittersweet. The recipe says to butter the pan but I went ahead and dusted it with cocoa powder as well.

The cake turned out well, better than well, actually. The center was moist and dense - nearly perfect in texture. Rose, my daughter, says it's better than the first chocolate cake recipe I tried. Ryan, my son, thinks the first one was better. My mom likes this second try better. Not sure what anyone else in the family had to say but on day two the cake is nearly gone so that's a sign that people liked it!

A slice of "Pound of Chocolate Cake" - note the rich, dark, moist center. Yum!

As for me? Well, I think that the cake was, perhaps, a little too chocolaty. I'm wondering if I used all semisweet chocolate like the recipe said if that would have helped. Still, I'm thinking all the chocolate needs to be offset with something a little on the sweet side. The recipe suggests serving the cake with ice cream, which I did. That bit of sweetness helps the cake but I want to find a chocolate cake that stands on its own without ice cream.

So, even though I may make "Pound of Chocolate Cake" again, I'm still on a quest for the perfect chocolate cake recipe. Maybe a chocolate cake with a bit of raspberry flavor mixed in? Or topped with a raspberry sauce of some sort?

Hmmm. I'll keep trying recipes and I'll keep you posted on my findings. I like this kind of research - but I definitely need to ride my bike more to offset the taste testing.