Cake Slice Baker time!
The Cake Slice Bakers bake from one cake cookbook each year. Each month we are offered three or four choices from the book and we vote on which to bake. The current cookbook is Great Cakes by Carole Walter. We have recently voted on what book to bake from in the upcoming year and I am not able to reveal it until it the group reveals it at the same time but I am so looking forward to baking from the new book. ;)
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This month we had the choice of Banana Nut Cake, Sesame Almond Swirl, Chewy Chocolate Nut Cake and Blueberry crumb squares. The Chewy Chocolate Nut cake sounded a bit different so that was our choice this month.
We start off by making the chewy chocolate nut mixture.
All I had on hand was pecan halves, not pieces. It was a bit sad to chop them up so.
Once the pecans, cocoa, sugars, salt, butter and corn syrup were all mixed up, half of it was pressed into the bottom of a springform pan. The other half set aside to be added as a layer later.
The key to a good cake batter is getting the butter sugar mixture super creamy and light.
Half of the batter is spooned over the crust layer. Then you add the chocolate in a crumble all over and top with the second half of batter.
I spooned the batter over the crumble layer but left about two tablespoons in the bowl. That way once it was smoothed out I could add more batter to that area to cover nicely.
I baked this cake for an extra 10 minutes before the tester came out clean. The cake came out very puffed up but slowly sank as it cooled down.
The instructions tell you to invert the cake onto your serving platter. That covered up the sunken top.
Upside down looked good but It didn't cut nicely. And this was at room temperature. I don't think it would fair well if chilled at all.
The cake served up ok. The cake part was light and had good flavor. The chocolate part was good also and the nuts gave the cake a much needed texture boost.
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Enjoy!
