Spiced chocolate mocha cake, 2 ways
spice is nice...holiday baking round-up
Not that you needed another holiday baking email in your inbox, but I made this chocolate rye mocha (aka coffee) cake with chestnut cream and simmered spiced pears earlier this week and thought perhaps it would be a nice non-traditional addition to the seasonal mix. The cake itself, made with a small percentage of rye flour for added depth and nuttiness, is actually fairly light, so it won’t weigh down a big holiday meal - there’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a big, festive dinner or lunch and then feeling absolutely, burstingly stuffed with a super heavy, overly-sweet dessert. This unadorned cake serves as a nice alternative-it’s festive in its flavors and modest with its refinement …meaning that I intentionally left it without a top heavy load of frosting/icing/buttercream. I love a layer cake, but who’s really got time for a layer cake these next 2-3 weeks? This time of year, I lean towards cookies, tarts and notes of warming cozy spices—I grew up celebrating Hanukkah, so I don’t have that backbone repertoire of family Xmas cookies, but I’ll gladly partake in them…I can still almost taste the spiced lebkuchen and anise cookies that my old childhood friend’s mother used to bake each Christmas season. I created the double-ginger and caramelized white chocolate cookie recipe further on down below last Christmas and it’s worthy of becoming my own holiday tradition.
But first, let’s focus on this nice cake. Yes, it has a few (multiple) charming components, as most of my recipes do. By no means, do you need to make all the components just to arrive at a tasty result, the cake alone is super moist and flavorful. But should the spiced pears or chestnut cognac cream be inspiring (chestnuts are intriguing and delicious!), then by all means, please proceed with the full recipe below. I multi-tasked the heck out of this (make the chestnut cream and spiced pears while the cake is baking). And I love the base cake recipe because it’s easy and fast and does not require breaking out my stand-mixer…a whisk and 2 bowls are all you need. That’s a win for me. I’ll write more on chestnuts next week, but this chestnut cream is something I’ll make once a year and it can be used in multiple ways—it’s very special and very delicious, and textural …I like to leave mine a little chunky as in the photo below so you can actually “feel” the chestnut. Outside of this cake, if you’ve got extra chestnut cream, it would be luscious on Christmas morning french toast, it’s great lightly spooned atop chocolate mousse, would be fab piped onto little shortbread/spritz Christmas cookie sandwiches…just for a few ideas.
To adorn your base cake, you can choose your own holiday adventure — salty, tangy creme fraiche whipped cream or boozy, silky custard sauce (that basically tastes like egg nog minus the nutmeg). Both are very tasty, I don’t think you can choose a “wrong” path.
So onto the recipe…
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Chocolate Rye Cake with Spiced Pear and Chestnut Cream
Base cake recipe makes 2 8 or 9” cakes | each cake serves 10-14 / cut the recipe in half if you only want to make 1 cake!
600g sugar
350g AP flour
70g rye flour *if desired, or use all AP flour)
200g cocoa powder *if you can swing it, invest in a high quality cocoa powder, it’ll really make a difference in flavor!
2g (like 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons) ground cloves
2g (like 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons) ground allspice
2g (like 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons) ground ginger
20g baking soda (about 4 teaspoons)
8g baking powder (about 1 1/2 teaspoons)
11g salt (2 teaspoons)
4 eggs
360ml buttermilk (~1 1/2 cups)
360ml brewed coffee, that’s been allowed to cool a bit (~1 1/2 cups)
140ml (~3/4 cup) neutral oil, like avocado or non-gmo canola
5g vanilla powder or paste (1 teaspoon)
Preheat oven to 170C, fan 2. Spray two 8 or 9-inch round pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment. Spray the top of the parchment with cooking parchment.
Sift together dry ingredients (flours, cocoa powder, spices, baking powder and soda, salt). Truth: I’m usually too lazy to sift, just whisk all the dries and the cake will still be delicious. In separate bowl, whisk together the wets (eggs, buttermilk, brewed coffee, oil and vanilla. Whisk in eggs, followed by remaining ingredients.
Divide between pans and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 20 minutes rotate, and another 20 minutes.
Cool completely on a wire rack.
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The Layers
Chestnut Cream
I adapted this recipe from River Cottage, the legendary British cookbook/tv series from the 90s and aughts which somehow feels delightfully nostalgic this time of year.
250g chestnuts (or really any amount more and you’ll have leftovers - also 250g is a reasonable amount of chestnuts to have to score and peel…just enough work to make you want to pat yourself on the back when finished).
100-150g granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste or powder
25ml honey
25ml cognac (or brandy or bourbon etc)
kosher or sea salt to taste
Method
We gotta peel those dang chestnuts (please don’t curse me, I warned you!). With a small, sharp paring knife, score each flat side of the chestnut with an ‘x’. Then, pop them into boiling water for 2 or 3 minutes to soften the shell so you can peel it off. Let them cool just enough so you can touch them, then remove the out layer of peel. Remove the pan from the heat. There’s an outer layer of brown skin also that needs to be removed, usually it comes right off with the shell.
Put the chestnuts into a clean pan and cover with water. Bring them to a boil, lower the temp and simmer for 25–30 minutes, or until they’re nice and tender when pricked. Strain the chestnuts BUT but keep the cooking liquid - you’ll use some for blending.
Purée the chestnuts with a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid (25-50ml) in a mini food processor or using a hand blender. In a small pan, add another few tablespoons (25-50ml) and add the sugar (start with 100g and go up if necessary to reach a nice consistency). Add in the chestnut puree, vanilla and honey. Simmer 5-10 minutes until everything comes nicely together. Add in the liquor of choice and salt, simmer 1-2 more minutes. Blend additionally if needed. Cool and store in the fridge until ready to use.
While the cake is baking and the chestnuts are simmering, prep your pears.
Spiced Simmered Pears
2 bosc pears, thinly sliced
175ml (about 3/4 cup) water and/or apple cider
200g(about 1 cup) sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla paste/powder
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
salt to taste
a splash of liquor of choice (cognac, brandy, bourbon etc)
In a medium skillet or saucepan, simmer the water, sugar, spices and salt together until sugar has dissolved. Add the pears and simmer on low-medium until all the slices are gently poached/cooked through. Add the liquor for the last 3-4 minutes of cooking. Don’t overthink this step too much. You just want the pears flexible, a little gooey and yummy. If there’s liquid leftover, that’s great! Reserve it to pour over the cake to moisten it.
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Now for assembly…
once the cake is fully cooled, cut it horizontally into 2 layers using a serated knife (a bread knife). It may be easier to put it in the fridge before cutting.
If you have liquid reserved from the pears, use a pastry brush and soak both layers of cake, the cut sides, with it.
Then slather on a nice layer of the chestnut cream on the bottom layer. Then follow with the pear slices. Pop the top layer of cake back on and viola. Now just to choose your side car of whipped cream or custard sauce. Both recipe options are below.
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Salty Creme Fraiche Whipped Cream
Makes 1 liter of whip
460ml 38% heavy cream
60g creme fraîche
16g sugar
4g salt
Now you’ve got to pull out that stand-mixer (insert my eyes rolling a little)…unless you want to cowboy it and use a hand blender carefully not to over blend. In a stand-mixer, whip on high just until you reach good, stable peaks.
OR
Egg Nog-y Custard Sauce
250ml / 1 cup milk
250ml / 1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla paste/powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 egg yolks
7 tablespoons sugar / 84g
1 tablespoon light brown sugar / 12g
3 tablespoons cognac or whiskey / bourbon
Warm the milk and cream until just steaming.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the vanilla, salt, egg yolks and sugars. Slowly pour in the milk / cream while whisking to temper the egg yolks. Pour the whole mix back in the pot and cook over low heat, while whisking constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Add in your liquor of choice and cook 1 more minute. Pour custard sauce into a bowl and sit it the bowl into an ice bath to cool (or you can pop it right in the fridge to cool it in a pinch but don’t leave it too long or it will form a coating on the top).
Serve your cake with side car garnish of choice and enjoy. :)
A few other holiday bake options from years past…some of favorites.
Coffee-Poached Quince and Cognac Custard Tart
Double Ginger Spice Cookies with Caramelized White Chocolate
And if you’re going all out with a extra-cravable, BIG end to a BIG dinner, here’s a glorious chocolate souffle cake. Given the time of year, I’d swap the alcohol in the cake and the creme anglaise sauce for bourbon / whiskey instead of mezcal:
Happy holiday baking y’all!
I am so making this cake. Going to skip the coffee and add more BM. Thank you for the inspiration and recipes!
Looks delicious!