You know the phrase “let them eat cake”? Well here’s a new book from Elinor Klivens that believes it may as well be chocolate cakes!
I know. I know. Chocolate. Perhaps the most over discussed topic in the pantry. But this cookbook is more than just another book with chocolate in the title (Amazon lists 11,381 results to the title query ‘chocolate’). Yikes that’s a lot of calories!
Because the truth is this book is not really a book about chocolate. It’s about chocolate as a final product, a very specific and delicious final product– Chocolate Cakes: 50 Great Cakes for Every Occasion (Chronicle Books). It’s a book I think you’ll enjoy.
The author has had success with this one subject concept before. Her previous books include The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookie Book, and the even more specific– Big Fat Cookies. She’s probably working on the book Crunchy Little Yellow Cookies as we speak.
So there probably is a hungry market ready to eat this book up. But it better be very hungry because 50 chocolate cakes is a lot of cakes– especially because, as the title suggests, they are all chocolate cakes.
Fortunately for the sake of my attention span these chocolate cakes sport an amazing amount of variety. Author Klivans includes classic chocolate layer cakes to satisfy that dark craving, ice-cream cakes your kids will squeal over, and even a Chocolate Pavlova. These cakes run the gamut. There is a Chocolate-Apricot Pudding Cake, a Chinese Five-Spice Chocolate Chiffon Cake and even a decadent sounding Chocolate Marzipan Crunch Cake. I can just hear that one going in my mouth!
If you are a very skilled baker much of this book will seem familiar to you. Perhaps even a touch redundant. She has a section she calls “Quick-Start Recipes” which includes her Simple Chocolate Buttercream, a sensibly simple Ganache and even a Whipped Ganache, as well as the chocolatey staples such as Devil’s Food Cake 
and White Chocolate Cake.
But for someone like me, who is hoping to become a better baker, it is the attention to these building blocks that attracted me to this book in the first place. Because these are the practices I’d like to master. Learn good ganache technique and you will elevate your cake baking to a new level. This book presents these skills in a very straightforward way.
I also like the fact that, as I grow as a baker, there are more difficult preparations in this book. I won’t soon out grow these cakes. In fact I think this book will become a great resource for me to consult for special occasions and my more pedestrian everyday chocolate binges– because there is more than enough inspiration to keep me party planning for years.
I have chosen to make Elinor Klivans’ Chocolate & Peanut Butter Mousse Cake. To qoute the author: “We are talking serious cake here. The baked cake layer, a combination of devils food and pieces of peanut butter cups, is spooned out of the center and the cavity is filled with peanut butter mousse and pieces of the scooped-out cake. Ganache and more peanut butter pieces cover the cake. As I told you this is a serious cake.”
Chocolate & Peanut Butter Mousse Cake serves 12 CLICK here for a printable recipe
- 8 oz peanut butter cups half as wedges & half roughly chopped
- freshly mixed devils food cake batter (enough to halfway fill a 10-inch cake pan
- 6 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
- 3⁄4 c creamy peanut butter, at room temperature
- 3⁄4 c powdered sugar
- 1 c cold heavy cream
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 2 c chocolate ganache, cooled until thickened but pourable
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 10-inch round cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper and butter the paper.
Use a rubber spatula to stir the 4 oz. cup of peanut butter pieces into the cake batter. Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake until the top feels firm when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
Use a small, sharp knife to loosen the cake from the sides of the pan, and invert the cake onto the wire rack. Carefully remove the paper, then loosely place it on the cake. Let the cake cool thoroughly, then discard the paper.
To make the peanut butter mousse, in a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until smoothly blended. On low speed, mix in the powdered sugar until it is in incorporated. The texture will not look completely smooth. Set aside.
In a clean large bowl, using clean beaters, beat the cream and vanilla on medium-high speed until firm peaks form. Whisk about 1/3 of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture. Use a rubber spatula to gently but thoroughly fold in the remaining whipped cream. The mousse will be smooth. Invert the cake onto a serving plate so that it is now top up. Leaving a 1 inch plain edge along the top of the cake, use a small, sharp knife to cut out the center in one piece to create a cavity about 1 inch deep. Break the removed cake into pieces about 1 inch. Use a metal spatula to spread about 1/3 of the mousse in the hollowed out center of the cake. Put the cake pieces over the mousse, mounding them toward the center. Spread the remaining mousse over the cake pieces and cover the cake with it. Refrigerate the cake until the mousse is firm, about 30 minutes.
Use a spatula to spread the ganache over the top and sides of the cake. Scatter the remaining 4 oz. peanut butter cup wedges over the ganache. Use a large, sharp knife to cut the cake, carefully wiping it clean after cutting each slice. Serve cold.
The cake can be covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days.
SERIOUS FUN FOOD
Greg Henry
Sippity Sup
I completely agree with you about cooking with real fat, but I call that healthy. This is real food, avocado is good for you and if I ever see “light” dressing I run.
Simple is an art. You got it guy.
Yum! I love salad. This one is new! (for me that is. lol) 🙂
While you say that your recipes are simple, modern and colorful with their roots in traditional styles like it is a bad thing, they always inspire. I also visit to poach photography tricks. I am trying my best to develop an eye for it and your aesthetic is amazing. Thanks as always!
Greg — You know it and I know it…
The salad is genius…the colors in monochromatic greens are splendid.
The flavors with the sweet green beans, the pungent watercress, the mint and the lemon.…Whoa!
What more is there to say ? 🙂
Ciao, Devaki @ weavethousandflavors
I’ve seriously been craving a good SALAD for the past two weeks. The combination of ingredients is really intriguing. I’ll be reporting back after I feast on this 😀
You sure this isn’t fancy lol? It’s so green and so pretty. I don’t think watercress even exists in this town! 🙂
Laura
Quite honestly, when I come across a great salad, I typically can’t stop eating it. The mint in here would be sure to grab the attention of my tastebuds.
NOT! I’m a salad freak‑o. First of all (and I’m not trying to stroke your ego) Beautiful photo. Thanks for this recipe the combinations sound wonderful. I’ll be making this one soon.
There’s nothing better than a good salad to me, Greg, so I am impressed with this combination (both culinarily speaking and in terms of your good eating habits!). Plus, avocado makes all things delicious…
Alright, stop it.
You’re making me want to eat my veggies! This looks great. 😀
+Jessie
I feel the same way about my posts .… however, I am not just being nice. This is a very pretty dish and it truely looks like something I would eat (however, since I am being honest, Grumpy wouldn’t touch it because of the avacado). I think we really tend to project our thoughts sometimes, when really what you think isn’t what we think at all! 🙂
LOL. Did I just make any sense? 😉
I try to have at least one wow recipe a week. But it’s always surprising to me what people consider to be a wow recipe. For example. I think pumpkin mole is a wow recipe. My stats show that a less complex pasta dish — way more wow factor to me readers. It’s hard to say.
Avocado is definitely a buzzword for me though — I see it and my eyes immediately fly to the screen. This salad looks delicious.
Now who says something simple can’t be wow? Someone who can create and serve something so simple yet elegant and delicious, something simple that looks stunning on the plate, why that person is a wow person if you know what I mean. It doesn’t have to be all fancy to be fabulous! Like you 🙂
that says, POSITIVELY, this IS a WOW! It’s so hard to find interesting salads without a lot of goo poured over the top.
The combination of these ingredients/flavors sounds so wonderful — so much so I’m almost sad I’m going on vacation and I won’t be able to make it until I get back.
~Mary
That looks so simple and healthy…something I like. Even nice just to look at it…very refreshing for the eyes!
It would make your Id and Superego jealous!
But serious question for you: Why do cucumbers make some people burp? I like some cuke but even when I carefully seed and peel them and even in limited quantity, Alexis and I both are excusing ourselves the rest of the night.
I know that seems silly, but that My Big Fat Greek Salad I made last week, I cut the cuke quantities in half and it still killed us about an hour later.
Simplicity is a sign of perfection, no? This dish makes me really excited for warmer weather and the produce that comes.
with your cocktails. you see i miss fruity, flavorful drinks by the pool. they remind me of my hometown of cali (which by the way i am returning to soon…)
i am very bad at eating my veggies though, and need to follow your lead here.
(oh thank goodness an easy math question below!)
Amazing colours as usual in your picture. It just about jumps out at you. This is my approach to salad as well…see what is in season, what do I have on hand and think about how the flavours and textures go together. Simple and impressive.
🙂 We are allowed to stroke your ego, aren’t we? In all seriousness, this looks like a bowl of springtime goodness!