Fudge Mocha Cake for Myself
aka the perfect chocolate cake for cozy nights in
My dining room is a sea of cookbooks, scattered about on multiple shelves organized by topic and author, and most recently, moved just slightly higher than the reach of a certain toddling one-year. I’ve always been really selective about the cookbooks that I purchase and add to my collection, usually seeking out new cookbooks at the library, checking them out and giving them a little trial period in my kitchen to determine if they are ones that I will return to again and again. Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh is my comfort cookbook. I bought a copy back in 2017 when it was first released, right around the time that I was leaving the classroom and jumping into a career in food. While Yotam Ottolenghi has become a household name from his many well-known restaurants and beautiful books, it was Helen Goh who quickly became my favorite recipe developer. She began running the kitchen at Ottolenghi, eventually transitioning into their lead recipe and product developer, all while continuing a career as a psychotherapist. I remember listening to a podcast with her where she spoke about her desire to work in both pastry and psychotherapy and how giving up one or the other felt like giving up a piece of herself. As a young 20 something feeling torn leaving a career in education for the pastry kitchen, her story felt familiar and personal and she immediately felt like a kindred spirit.
Helen’s recipes, showcased throughout the pages of Sweet, may have taught me more about baking and pastry than actual pastry school. I spent hours pouring through the pages, perfecting my meringue techniques with my pals Yotam and Helen’s clear guidance. I found myself exploring ingredients that I was previously unfamiliar with and using their inventive flavor combinations as jumping off points as I began to gain more and more confidence in the pastry world. My copy is smudged and dog-eared and I can still pick up the book and flip to a specific page or section just from memorization.
This cake is a rendition of the second recipe I ever made from that book, the “take-home chocolate cake”. I made it for myself for my birthday one year, topped with the ganache and espresso mascarpone including the version in Sweet. It was dense and fudge-y and my ideal chocolate cake. I’ve returned to it many times over the years, often when I want to make something for just me. Something comfortable and cozy that feels like pulling on a pair of your favorite sweat pants and curling up on the couch. I’ve made the slightest of adaptations to their original recipe (converting the self-rising flour to all purpose and incorporating a bit of yogurt for a little extra moisture) and topped this version with my thick, swoopy chocolate ganache buttercream. This cake is best enjoyed day of with an afternoon cappuccino or a post-dinner glass of wine and your favorite book.
fudge mocha cake
makes one 9” cake
(cake recipe barely adapted from Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh)
Ingredients:
for the cake:
226 g (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
7 oz dark chocolate, finely chopped
2 tsp instant espresso dissolved in 1 cup boiling water
250 g granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
113 g (½ cup) whole milk plain yogurt
250 g all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
30 g cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp kosher salt
for the frosting:
2 oz dark chocolate
2 oz heavy cream
113 g (1 stick) butter, soft
170 g (1 ½ cups) powdered sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
flaky salt, for finishing
Procedure:
to make the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a 9” round cake pan with parchment paper.
Cube the butter and place it in a large, heatproof bowl with the chopped chocolate. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil and then dissolve the instant espresso in the hot water. Pour the hot espresso over the butter/chocolate and let set for 2-3 minutes before whisking until smooth and melted.
While the chocolate mixture is cooling, whisk the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.
When the chocolate has cooled slightly, whisk in the sugar, followed by the eggs, vanilla, and yogurt, until the batter is smooth and homogenized. Add the dry ingredients and whisk again until just combined and no dry spots remain.
Pour the batter into your prepared cake pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, until the top is set and a knife or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely in the pan.
to make the frosting:
Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a low simmer. Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and let rest for 2-3 minutes.
Starting in the center of the bowl, begin whisking vigorously until the ganache is emulsified, smooth, and glossy. Let cool slightly.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder until smooth. Gradually stream in the cooled ganache and mix until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
Spread the ganache frosting over the cooled cake and sprinkle the top with flaky salt. Serve cake immediately.
and on a related note…
Earlier this week, I was reading Wil Reide’s newsletter A Grumpy Line Cook’s Rant About Social Media Chefs. In it, he talks about all of the different types of food “content” that you find scrolling through your TikTok and Instagram feed, everything from outlandish “recipes” posted just to garner as much attention (positive or negative) as possible to the millions of takes on various food trends that ebb and flow as recipes go viral. The entire article is worth reading, but he ends his rant discussing the role that publishing houses play in choosing to publish books written by creators with little experience or authority but thousands of followers, and shares that he longs for cookbooks with depth and voice and experience. He says, “But I think food and recipes and sharing how things are made is serious work. Not all books can be published. And I can’t help but feeling those we do publish should be genuine cultural artifacts with potential relevance for decades from now.” I agree.