Chocolate Sponge Cake for Passover

Sponge Cake is a staple for Passover, but have you ever made a Passover Chocolate Sponge Cake? This recipe is easy and really good. Great with morning tea or coffee, and certainly replaces matzo. Just one more chocolate option for the Passover holiday--or any time! And, it's Gluten-free! You can dress this cake up with sliced fresh strawberries and whipped cream or cut in half and fill with a light chocolate buttercream.

A few hints. Almond flour is readily available where I live, but you can grind your own. Use a hand grinder (a clean coffee grinder) or blender over a food processor to avoid making oil. I use a blender, and just do this in smaller increments, about 1/2 cup at a time. Almond and chocolate go very well together. In a pinch? You can always use matzoh cake meal (for Passover), but it won't have the same nutty flavor, but you might like it. Try using different types of chocolate to achieve the flavor you like best. Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE SPONGE CAKE

Ingredients
7 ounces dark chocolate (60-75% cacao), chopped
10 eggs, separated
3/4 cup white sugar
2 cups ground almonds

Directions
1. Melt chocolate in top of double boiler or a saucepan over another saucepan of simmering water. Set aside.
2. Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon colored. Gradually beat in sugar. Blend in chocolate and almonds.
3. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold whites into chocolate batter.
4. Spoon batter into an ungreased 10 inch Bundt pan or tall springform pan with hole in the middle.
5. Bake at 350 for 1 hour, or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Remove from oven, invert pan, and cool about 40 minutes before removing from pan.

Chocolate Bunny Cake for Easter

Williams Sonoma Chocolate Bunny Cake

I blogged about this wonderful Chocolate Bunny Cake last year for Easter.  It is the ultimate Bunny Centerpiece.

This Chocolate Easter Bunny Cake Recipe is from Williams Sonoma's Kitchen. I've mentioned before that there are so many great places to find recipes. I actually have a different Easter Bunny 3-D cake pan for this cake, and there are lots of other bunny cake pans you can find. Double sided cakes aren't all that hard, and they're fun to make. The Wilton Cake Pan with the Eggs is the one in the recipe (first cake pan photo). If you use the second cake pan, skip the directions for the cake egg. You can make your own chocolate eggs or decorate with jellybeans or any great chocolate Easter eggs.
  
Other alternatives: Bake a chocolate cake and cover with a buttercream 'fur' frosting!

The following recipe from Williams Sonoma is for the ultimate Easter dessert: a bunny-shaped cake coated with rich chocolate ganache. Of course, you can also make a chocolate cake! I do.

CHOCOLATE BUNNY CAKE

Wilton Bunny Cake Pan

Ingredients
For the cake:
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 tsp. salt
20 Tbsp sweet butter
2 cups sugar
5 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 tsp. Madasgascar vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

For the ganache:
1 lb. dark chocolate (65-70%), chopped into small pieces
6 Tbsp sweet butter, at room temperature
2 cups heavy cream
1 jelly bean

Directions:
1. Have all ingredients at room temperature.
2. To make tcake, position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 325°F. Grease and flour bunny cake pan; tap out excess flour.
3. Over sheet of waxed paper, sift together tflour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
4. In the bowl of electric mixer fitted with flat beater, beat butter on medium speed until creamy and smooth, about 30 seconds. Add sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, stopping mixer occasionally to scrape downsides of the bowl. Add eggs a little at ime, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla just until incorporated, about 1 minute.
5. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with milk and beginning and ending with flour. Beat each addition just until incorporated, stopping mixer occasionally to scrape down sides of the bowl.
6. Spoon batter into prepared bunny pan, spreading batter so sides are higher than center. Bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 35 to 38 minutes.
7. Transfer pan to wire rack and let cake cool upright in pan for 15 minutes.
8. Invert pan onto rack and lift off pan.
Let the cake cool completely, at least 2 hours, before serving or decorating.

Williams Sonoma Bunny Cake Pan

To make the chocolate ganache:
1. In metal bowl, combine chocolate and butter.
2. In small saucepan over medium heat, bring cream just to a boil. Immediately pour cream over the chocolate and butter. Whisk until they melt and mixture is smooth.
3. Transfer 2/3 cup of ganache to small bowl and let cool to room temperature. Keep remaining ganache warm and fluid by placing bowl over but not touching barely simmering water insmall saucepan.

To assemble and decorate cake, wash and thoroughly dry pan, then return both halves of the cooled bunny cake to pan. Level cake by using serrated knife to gently saw off the part of each cake half that rose above edge of pan.

Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, making sure it covers the edges of pan, and set a wire cooling rack on the sheet. Place both cake halves, cut side down, on the rack. Remove any crumbs that fall off cake onto baking sheet. Slowly pour warm ganache over the halves, coating them completely. Tap the baking sheet to allow the excess ganache to drip off. Place the rack on another baking sheet or a piece of parchment paper. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the excess ganache from lined baking sheet back into the bowl. Reheat over simmering water if not fluid. Set rack on lined baking sheet again and place egg cake halves on rack alongside the bunny. Pour warm ganache over eggs.

NordicWare Bunny Pan

Cut a jelly bean in half and attach halves to the bunny to create eyes. Place baking sheet with rack still on top in refrigerator until ganache sets and cake halves are firm enough to handle, at least 30 minutes.

Place 1 Bunny cake half, cut side up, in the center of a large piece of aluminum foil. The ganache on this side of the bunny may smudge a little. Using small offset spatula, spread 1/2 to 2/3 cup of the room-temperature ganache over cut side. Slide metal spatula under other cake half and carefully place the cake half on top of the other one. Press down on jelly bean eye to help secure the halves. Use foil to help turn the bunny upright, then squeeze bunny on jelly bean eyes, feet and tail to secure the halves. If there are any gaps in seam, place a little warm ganache on small offset spatula and fill in  gaps. Dab warm ganache on areas where you squeezed cake and on any other exposed areas. Soften any smudged areas by heating gently with culinary torch.

Carefully slide large metal spatula under base of the bunny and transfer to platter. Usingspatula, transfer egg halves to the platter.

O.K., this isn't the easiest of Bunny Cakes, which is why I have the Williams Sonoma photo of the perfect one! However, you can do it, and it will taste yummy--and look good, too!

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Hot Buttered Rum Sauce

As if I don't already have enough Flourless Chocolate Cake Recipes, my friend Laura-Kate Rurka, mystery writer and fantastic baker, made yet another cake from a different recipe for the Literary Salon the other night for authors Hilary Davidson and Brad Parks. The cake is gluten free, so it was just perfect. Hilary has Celiac Disease and hosts the blog: Gluten-Free Guidebook (on the road with travel journalist Hilary Davidson). Brad Parks, as far as I know doesn't care about gluten, but he did sing for his supper--or in this case, his cake! What a great voice. Be sure and check out both of these mystery authors.

This recipe is also perfectly timed for Passover which starts this Friday night, so if you're celebrating Passover--or just want another Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe, this one is terrific--and easy! What is the 'crowning' touch on this recipe, though, is the sauce... a warm rum sauce that sinks into the rich dark cake, giving it a unique moistness and taste. The recipe for the cake is adapted from Tyler Florence of the Food Network. It's his Cracked Chocolate Earth Flourless Chocolate Cake. The Rum Butter Sauce is from the Jr. League Centennial Cookbook that accompanies a 'floured' Cake. Works well with the Flourless one. All I can say is YUM!

Cracked Chocolate Earth Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 stick sweet butter
9 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
2 cups heavy cream, cold 

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

Put the chocolate and butter into the top of a double boiler (or in a heatproof bowl) and heat over (but not touching) about 1 inch of simmering water until melted. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl until light yellow in color. Whisk a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs - this will keep the eggs from scrambling from the heat of the chocolate; then whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared pan (spray the bottom with nonstick spray) and bake until the cake is set, the top starts to crack, and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, 30 to 35 minutes (and then check every five minutes after that--don't overbake). Let stand 10 minutes, then unmold.

Hot Buttered Rum Sauce

1 Cup Heavy Cream
3/4 cup Packed light brown sugar
8 Tbsp (1 stick) sweet butter
3 Tbsp dark rum
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine cream, brown sugar and butter in a saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently until mixture boils. Boil 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and rum. Spoon warm sauce on plate and top with a wedge of cake or drizzle or pour sauce on top of a wedge of cake.

PEEPS & CHOCOLATE

Of all my childhood Spring Confection memories, PEEPS stand out. My sister and I still buy each other PEEPS around Easter, even though neither of us actually eat the sugary marshmallow-y creatures any more--or at least I don't. She buys me purple rabbits; I buy her classic yellow chicks --the original PEEPS. You see where this is going? I'm a purist.

Last year I mentioned the opening of the Oxon Hill (MD) PEEPS Store (near D.C.) PEEPS are their own industry, and the Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine and many local papers have PEEPS diorama contests. Certainly a good use for this national favorite.

And then there's the ultimate in the ever improving PEEPS: Chocolate-Covered PEEPS, available from the original company in both Dark and Milk chocolate. These are not the small peeps packed together in rows. No, these Chocolate Peeps come in individually wrapped packages. Sadly, the cool sparkly coating of sugar is missing, and I think it would have been a nice buffer between the chocolate and marshmallow to make it stand out from the rest of the chocolate marshmallow candy.

Anyway, the large singular chocolate covered PEEPS has a yellow-colored marshmallow center. Chris Schneewiss, brand manager for PEEPS at Just Born, said, "These PEEPS® will please loyal fans and entice newcomers, perhaps becoming our biggest hit ever." I beg to differ. With so many wonderful chocolate marshmallow treats out there from various chocolatiers who make their own marshmallows, why would I want this new PEEP that's not a PEEP.

So, let me tell you what I think. First the chick is not sitting, as in chicks all in a row. Well, he's by himself, and he's on his side, kind of, and well-articulated. It's the elastic quality of the "old" peeps that's all the fun for me--pulling them apart.

Each individual Peep, then, of the Chocolate Covered Peeps has chocolate covering a yellow marshmallow center. Probably because of the 'outcry', this year there's also a three pack of PEEPS Chocolate Covered Chicks (both dark and milk chocolate), as well as the Dark and Milk Chocolate PEEPS Chocolate Dipped Mousse Flavored Marshmallow Chicks! These come in a three pack! Oh yes, there's also the 'unadulterated' PEEPS Chocolate Mousse Flavored Marshmallow Chicks and Bunnies.

O.K. should I be holding PEEPS up to a higher standard? Maybe not. After all, it's all about childhood memories. Maybe I personally don't want Chocolate Covered PEEPS when I can create new memories with quality chocolate and marshmallow combinations. But, if I were a kid again, I bet I'd love them! So I'm not dismissing them altogether. The price can't be beat, and they're available at your local drugstore or supermarket.

And, just as an aside, Jacques Torres makes fabulous chocolate, and they sell Chocolate-Covered PEEPS. Their name: Chirp'N'Dales. They are adorable. Also, Asher's Chocolates makes Milk Chocolate Covered PEEPS.

Other great uses for PEEPS:

1. Make PEEPS S'Mores, especially with the chocolate covered ones
2. Plop a Chocolate Covered PEEPS down in your Hot Chocolate or Coffee
3. Decorate cakes or cupcakes with PEEPS
4. Create Your Own Diorama

Want to make your own Chocolate Covered PEEPS using the original PEEPS? Here's how:

1. Melt good dark chocolate or milk chocolate (about 8-16 ounces, depending on how many you plan to make
2. Remove PEEPS from package. I would use Chicks since they're the original, but the other shapes (rabbits, etc) work well.
3. Grasp the individual Chick PEEP gently by the head and dip--or use a two fork process or a special dipping tool.
4. Two choices: Either cover the entire Peep or just dip one end as you would strawberries. Be sure and let any excess drip off.
5. Place on wax paper covered cookie sheet. Continue process.
6. As a colorful bonus, roll in sprinkles (as you would truffles), starting with the coolest one.
7. Pop into refrigerator for 20 minutes to harden.