Objective
Make the chocolatey masterpiece found on Art of Dessert called Chocolate Wasted Cake.
Review
I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous about this recipe. I was worried that it was too good to be true. Rianne's pictures of the cake are absolutely beautiful. Could I throw together candy and drizzle chocolate all over it and end up with something presentable? Or, would it look like a 5 year-old decorated it? In spite of my fear, Kristen had made it clear that the only thing that would satisfy her was chocolate, and preferably, chocolate with her chocolate. What choice did I have?
Cake
Before embarking on the Chocolate Wasted Cake journey, I read through the recipe. This is something I rarely do, but decided that with this cake, it would be unwise to start without a game plan. I quickly noted that the wet ingredients in the cake were milk, butter and honey. No eggs? Hmm. This seemed odd. I quickly scrolled down the page to the comments, where I found dichotomous reviews. Of those who actually made the recipe and weren't just commenting on looks, people either loved the cake or hated it. One comment even talked about being an experienced baker of 40 years and throwing this yucky cake in the trash. I decided not to let a few naysayers deter me from making what could be a chocolate lover's dream.
I have to admit, I didn't make the batter. It was sometime around midnight and I felt rushed to get the cake in the oven so I wouldn't be up all night waiting for it to cool. I was fortunate enough to have a lovely assistant who did most of the footwork. I don't actually remember what I was doing while he measured and poured and manned Betty (I think my Kitchen Aid is going to be called Betty. I'm hesitant to commit, because I also kind of like Debbie. I may be biased, but I love names with double letters that end in 'y's, which is probably why Betty has more favor than Debbie. Kitty was also in the running, but I got pooh-poohed because Kitty is apparently a name better suited for a cat).
Anyhow, I had very little trouble making the cake. I divided the batter between three 9-inch cake pans, that I sprayed with oil and floured. I should have let the cake pans cool to the touch before flipping the cakes onto a rack to cool (but let's be real, it was well after 1 a.m. at this point and I surely wasn't going to wait any longer than I had to). Additionally, it might have been worth cutting out circles of parchment paper to line the pans, as that's never a bad idea for easy removal and cleanup.
An important consideration for anyone making this cake, is, do you like cake? For me, the answer is no. This is unfortunate because cakes are fun to decorate and are ideal for events and celebrations (I seek out events that are appropriate for me to bring a themed cake). I think I finally realized that what I dislike about cake is the texture. It's light, airy and spongy. I'm a brownie girl. Dense, moist and fudgy are in my vocabulary. With that in mind, I loved this cake. That tells you that if you like a nice moist, airy cake, then this isn't the recipe for you. Go ahead and make chocolate sponge cake layers and then proceed with this recipe, or use whatever chocolate cake recipe you know you like.
Frosting
The following morning, I stayed home from work to finish the cake for the graduation BBQ that night. My lovely assistant quickly got to work on the frosting. Two words: Incredibly Delicious (um, in reference to the frosting). As he was licking off his fingers, the guy who doesn't like chocolate admitted that the frosting was delicious. It was light and very creamy. I used Ghirardelli cocoa powder and was quite pleased with the result. I plan to use this frosting again for other instances when I want chocolate frosting that isn't thick and fudgy buttercream.
Assembly
This was another "Abby-style" recipe. I had intended to drizzle the cake layers with amaretto, but blatantly forgot. Instead I slathered frosting between the layers and frosted the top and sides. We discussed the possibility of lifting up the layers and trying to add the liquor, but decided against it. It was already messy enough with cake crumbs mixed in with the frosting in the center, I didn't want crumbs all over the outside too. However, the wonderful part about frosting this cake is that it doesn't have to look pretty because it's going to be covered anyway!
That's when the real fun began! I started by mixing bag of Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips (they are larger than semi-sweet) and a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. At first I was trying to put them on piece by piece, but quickly discovered the quickest way was to pat a handful of chocolate chips onto the side. The not-so-wonderful part about decorating this cake is unwrapping all of the candy (and again, my lovely assistant gets a huge thank you for doing the legwork). We used Whoppers, Kit Kat bars, Twix and Hershey's Milk Chocolate Kisses. We arranged the candy on top, trying to fit as much as possible. I ended up slathering the bottom of the Kisses with frosting to stick them to the top of other candies.
Finally, I used a fork to drizzle the top with a criss-cross pattern of melted chocolate, then poured the rest of the melted chocolate along the edge so that it would drip down the sides. I poured the chocolate from the measuring cup I used to melt it, but it might have been a better idea to pipe it onto the edge from the corner of a plastic bag. The drizzle down the sides was the only part I was disappointed with (the spout from my measuring cup was too wide). We put the cake in the fridge so that the chocolate could harden, and I headed to lab for the day.
Discussion and Future Directions
While my version didn't look quite as beautiful as Rianne's on Art of Dessert, it was definitely presentable. Everyone who saw it quickly gave it a "Wow!" It was a challenging cake to cut, but a long knife did the trick. Everyone who tried the cake complimented it. It seemed like people were hesitant to try it, but once they did, they enjoyed it (more than they thought they would). My favorite bites were those with cake, frosting and Twix. I liked it all, but next time, I'd add more Twix to the top and leave off the Kit Kat bars (they got a little soggy--maybe because we split them in half and it was a little humid outside). The combination of chocolate and caramel was incredible. You could use whatever candies you like best, I certainly picked my favorite!
One of the final steps of cooking is storage. I stored the leftover cake in the cake caddy in the fridge overnight. The next day, I caught my lovely assistant (a proclaimed chocolate and cake hater) munching on the leftovers. He hadn't tried the cake at the party and was surprised by how delicious it was. He said that it reminded him of brownies instead of cake. I agree, which, along with the ridiculous candy coating, puts this cake at the top of my list of decadent cakes (plus it's a lot of fun to make and decorate)!
Supplementary Materials
Photo by Nathan Kung
