Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Most Clicked On Recipe On Epicurious Is...

THIS chocolate cake, we learned this morning on The Today Show. It has everything a chocolate cake should have: big high layers, LOTS of thick sweet icing and a moistness from the buttermilk in the batter.

It IS an interesting recipe. There's a lot of chocolate in it. 3 oz. of chocolate get mixed in with quite a bit of coffee (1 1/2 cups), which Tanya Steele, Editor-In-Chief of Epicurious.com, says adds a complexity to the cake. (Ina always adds coffee to chocolate.)

Plus it uses unsweetened cocoa powder, NOT Dutch process. Dutch process cocoa is less bitter, but less rich tasting, so for a really deep dark rich cake, you want a good quality NON Dutch process cocoa.

No everyday buttercream for this cake either. It's iced with a rich ganache that has a not-everyday addition of corn syrup.

The baking temperature and time are unusual, as well. It's cooked low at 300°F. for 60 to 70 minutes.

It looked good. The Today folks, crew AND hosts, were practically salivating over the cake. The next time a chocolate cake is called for - maybe a sunny Wednesday afternoon - I will definitely be making it.

AFTERWORD:
After reading Rachel's comment, I want to know what is YOUR most used Epicurious recipe? OR if you didn't get it from Epicurious...your most used downloaded recipe?

As with Rachel, for me the Triple Pudding Pie is up there, but I think I got that from Bon Appetit first, not the website.

I guess my most used recipe from Epicurious is this Sun-Dried Tomato Tapenade on Polenta Triangles. I never make regular tapenade anymore, I always make this one. And whenever I need polenta as a base for something, I use this recipe.

But to be honest, THIS is my go-to recipe for any occasion. It IS AWESOME.

13 comments:

The Short (dis)Order Cook said...

Interesting. I made a cake very similar to this one for my mother-in-law's birthday a couple of years ago. I'm not sure it's the exact same recipe, but mine had buttermilk and coffee and a ganache frosting.

No one ate it. Even my husband's chocloate-loving-but-picky-about-everything-else brother and nephew who barely ate any dinner. I had 9 guests for dinner and I cleared the table of 8 pieces of cake with only a couple of bites taken out of them.

Well, I liked it and I was the 9th plate that was licked clean by the end of dinner.

My most used Epicurious chocolate recipes are Triple Chocolate Pudding Pie and Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse Cake (it's made with Nutella and mascarpone - the two best ingredients on earth).

Emily said...

Ooh, good idea. I will have to remember this recipe.

I don't have a go-to chocolate cake recipe. I just experiment. I have a good one, that I made up. Maybe I'll send it you. It has mascarpone cheese, espresso and amaretto. It's top secret.

Unknown said...

Hi Sue! I found your website a couple of months ago and have been reading avidly ever since, being a complete foodie and devoted food network addict. I couldn't help but respond to this post, since there is a recipe on Epicurious that I use every single week. Szechuan Sesame Noodles is so quick, and so good. The sauce comes together in the time it takes to cook the pasta (I usually use fettucine, because it's what I have on hand.) It's so easy to add cooked chicken or veggies to it as well. Yum! Thanks for the great posts!

The Short (dis)Order Cook said...

Ha ha! Good one for the most clicking on recipe. I think I'm going to start clicking on that one more!

Emily said...

Very Sex & the City. Sounds good.
I could easily drink too many of those.

I can't think of a recipe! I'm trying.

Sue said...

Hi Rach,
I'd like the names and numbers of those people that didn't eat your cake and I'm going to call them and scold them!

Hi Em,
You don't need recipes. You have magic in your fingertips...or somewhere.

Hi Kristen,
Welcome!

Isn't it great when you find a recipe that you use over and over? I used to think that a cookbook would be worth whatever I paid (before cookbooks cost 50 dollars) if I got just one or two recipes that I made all the time.

Shortie,
It's a good one!

Em,
Well, get on it!

Jennifer said...

I've looked at Epicurious but never tried any recipes from them. That cake looks divine. We have a chocolate death cake we bought from Costco the other day and trust me, you can only take it in small doses it's so rich! Oy!

Carol Ott said...

I made that cake once and didn't care for it. It was...okay. But it didn't compare to my grandmother's devil's food cake, which takes far less time to make.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sue, does your polenta cook in 10 minutes? Mine takes at least 30 mins if not more. I haven't follow this particular recipe but I will try soon. It sounds yummy!

Anonymous said...

I like Ina's chocolate cake very much...so what else is new?
I also don't use epicurious much _ or at all. I like recipezaar for a weird reason. I always get good recipes there. To the Short (dis)order cook: Your guest probably loved the dinner so much they were full!!

Sue said...

Jennifer,
I don't think Chocolate DEATH cake sounds that good.

Carol,
Interesting. But I think Grandma's recipes are always better.

Sue said...

Hi Kathy,
I use regular cornmeal for polenta - yellow or white, and it does take just 10 minutes.

I really like Epicurious, probably because of all the Bon Appetit recipes. Those are the best! I often use Recipezaar's recipes for reference. They're good.

Ina's chocolate cake IS sooooooooo good.

Anonymous said...

Rather useful idea