Chocolate Eclipse Cake!

Unless you've been living in a vacuum, you know that North America will experience a total Solar Eclipse on Monday, August 21. Yes, the path of totality will differ in different areas, but unless you're sleeping, you can't miss it. The moon will cover the sun, and you will be able to see the corona. Remember to wear special glasses!

What better cake to celebrate the Solar Eclipse than Mollie Katzen's Eclipse Cake! It's a big chocolate pudding cake that feeds a lot of people, so if you're having an Eclipse Party, it's perfect! It's fun to make..and watch come together..and it's delicious. Note: This cake tastes better the longer you wait to eat it, but I know that might be difficult. Your kitchen will smell divine! Try to wait at least 1/2 hour. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Molly Katzen's Chocolate Eclipse Cake
from Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu Cookbook

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 ounces (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate
2 cups buttermilk*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
21/2 cups unbleached white flour
21/4 cups (packed) brown sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
21/2 cups boiling water

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.
Melt  butter and chocolate together.
In separate saucepan, heat buttermilk gently until just a little warmer than body temperature (don't boil or cook it). Remove from heat, and combine with chocolate mixture and vanilla.
In large mixing bowl combine flour, 1 cup of the brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well (use your hands, if necessary) to break up any little lumps of brown sugar, making as uniform a mixture as possible.
Stir in chocolate chips, if desired.
Pour in wet ingredients, and stir until well combined. Spread into prepared pan.
Combine remaining 11/4 cups brown sugar with the unsweetened cocoa in a small bowl. Sprinkle this mixture as evenly as possible over the top of the batter. Pour on the boiling water. It will look terrible, and you will not believe you are actually doing this, but try to persevere. Place immediately in the preheated oven.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the center is firm to the touch. Cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Invert each serving on a plate so that the fudge sauce on the bottom becomes a topping. Serve hot or at room temperature, with vanilla ice cream.

* No buttermilk in the fridge? Mix 2 cups whole milk with 2 tsp vinegar

Chocolate Honey Cake for Rosh Hashana

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, starts tonight, so I wanted to post one of my favorite recipes for Chocolate Honey Cake. This is a great and easy honey cake to make for a Sweet New Year! Recipe is from Molly Katzen's The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. I've been making this Chocolate Honey Cake for years.

The flavor will change with the honey and chocolate you use. I use local honey that is gathered from Claremont Canyon, right near my house, but any honey will work! Molly Katzen has a hint about baking with honey. Because baking cakes with honey can be tricky (it is much heavier and wetter than sugar), you have to take extra care that the texture of the finished product be light enough and has "enough crumb." To accomplish this, whip the honey separately at high speed with an electric mixer, until it is opaque (about two minutes). This incorporates air into the honey, increasing its volume, and drying it out some, so it can make a good cake. Please don't skip or skimp on this step.

CHOCOLATE HONEY CAKE

Ingredients
Nonstick spray for the pan
1/2 cup canola oil or softened butter
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup light-colored honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened DARK cocoa
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips 

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F (325°F for glass pan). Spray medium-sized loaf pan with nonstick spray. Melt butter and chocolate together over simmering water (double boiler or a saucepan over a saucepan). If using oil, melt chocolate alone, then remove from heat and stir in oil.
Place honey in medium-sized bowl, and beat at high speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in vanilla.
Sift together dry ingredients in separate medium-small bowl. Beat melted chocolate mixture into honey-egg mixture. Fold in dry ingredients and chocolate chips, and stir until well combined. Spread into prepared pan.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean.
Cool before slicing.