25/99: Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake

Today was a very special day for three reasons.

1. Success: I had a test on Organic Chemistry and did great on it.

2. Celebration: It was the last day of class in one of my classes and though I loved the class and am partially sad to see it go, it means that the end of the semester is near.  And the end of the semester means no more chemistry. ever. again.



3.  Reunion: my sweet parents decided to drive all the way up from Jackson to come have dinner with me.  Of course this, if not the two items above, definitely warranted a new cake.

So today I had time on my hands, a lack of stress, and visitors.  It really couldn't be a better day for baking!

So out comes Rose's Heavenly cakes.  I know I have a list of upcoming cakes that I haven't been faithful to but know that they are coming! I just had to pick something special for today.  The last couple cakes that I have made for them haven't been entirely memorable so I wanted to make something they really enjoy. Mom loves chocolate and especially dark chocolate and raspberry.

I considered the moist chocolate raspberry genoise because that looks oh so good but I really didn't have time to make a recipe with 4 pages on what to do after you already make the cake. The final decision then was the chocolate velvet fudge cake. Yummy, rich, quick and no required trips to the grocery store.

First you make a chocolate mixture with cocoa and boiling water.

Once it's all stirred up, it goes in the refrigerator to cool.   

Then comes your liquid ingredient mixture. 

Followed by your dry mixture.

Then it's time for butter. Lots of butter. 

And then you add the chocolate mixture and it looks delicious. 

After I did this I got really confused because I looked at the batter and it was incredibly thick. Surely there should be something else to put in there to make it thinner? Ah yes, the liquid mixture. I really came close to not putting it in. I'm so glad I didn't make that mistake.

While it was cooking (for almost an hour!) I decided to make a raspberry ganache to put on top. I decided to go sans recipe and see if i've actually learned anything in the past couple of months.


I chopped up all the chocolate I had left (3 oz of 60%) and then thought that I probably needed more chocolate.  Since I didn't have any,  I added 2 oz of white chocolate baking squares.

Next I poured all the heavy cream I had left into a bowl (about 1/4 cup) and heated it up in the microwave. Once it became scalding hot, I added it to the chocolate in the food processor.

Then I added 2 tablespoons of Chambord liquor.

The result? Delicious! I was really proud of my little addition.

 Tasting comments:

It was a delicious cake- very moist and dense. I was a little confused by that because Rose said that it is very light.  I think the raspberry addition was perfect on top of it though.  Next time I make it though I think I might try to do a peppermint ganache because I think it might taste really good with some mint in it.

My parents seemed to like it as well. They said it was good. I sent the rest home with them because I'm planning on making the chocolate feather bed this weekend.

Rose's Heavenly Cakes
Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake- page 117