64/99: Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake

 

The Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake was for a get together with RUF at Rowan Oak. I was a little late getting there but apparently that was a good thing because as soon as I arrived a man came running outside from the house to talk to us about the cake.

For those of you who aren't English buffs, Rowan Oak is the home of William Faulkner.  It has running trails all around it and beautiful grounds where people go on walks or play Frisbee.  It's a great family-friendly location.  Here's what the house looks like:

It's gorgeous, right? Anyway, the man came running out of the front door and, looking at the cake, asked us if we were having a birthday party.  We said no and then told him that we were just enjoying the beautiful day and brought a cake along with us.  We thought he wanted a piece or something.

But oh no.  We got a lecture about how Rowan Oak is a historical monument and not a state park.  Apparently people are only allowed to come to pay homage to Faulkner.  Having a cake turns the whole gathering into a birthday party and that is absolutely not allowed.  A birthday party requires  state permission which, in my opinion, is completely absurd.  I really don't think Faulkner would have minded us having a cake but we moved to the back of the property anyway to cut into it.  This little one especially seemed to enjoy it:

But anyway, making the cake wasn't difficult but for some reason it was time consuming.  It is a genoisé so of course the main ingredient in this one is egg whites.

First, you sift your dry ingredients out:

Then you grate the chocolate.  This was no small task. My roommate was still asleep so I couldn't use the food processor to do it quickly.  Using the old fashioned cheese grater, it probably took me about 20 minutes to get all 56 grams of chocolate.  My arm was killing me.

 

Then it's time to make the meringue:

 

You know those kids games where you have to look at a jar and guess how many gumballs are in it? Ok check out these eggs shells and take a guess how many eggs went into this cake.

 

Answer: the recipe called for sixteen egg whites. I bought the extra large eggs though and only went through thirteen.  Still, that's a ton of eggs.

After combining all of the ingredients (meringue, dry ingredients, chocolate), it was ready to go in the oven for about 30 minutes.

But I couldn't throw the 13 remaining egg yolks away.  That's just wasteful.  My solution: make some pasta!!  So while the cake was in the oven (and before I started on the icing) I combined the egg yolks with some flour, olive oil, and water to make a nice pasta dough.

Despite the lack of symmetry in the noodles since I had to roll and cut them by hand, the result was pretty tasty--and just in time for lunch!

 

By the time I was done eating, the cake was ready to come out of the oven.   It had to cool for a couple of hours so Rose said to put it on a wine bottle so that the bottom could cool as well:

Then for the icing:

Basically, you whip some heavy cream and then add chocolate shavings (this time I used the food processor!) and almonds.

 

In the end, the cake turned out well.  The icing tasted like cookies and cream ice cream which everyone seemed to enjoy. But as delicious as the icing was, I felt that the cake could have had more vanilla in it or something else because it didn't have a distinct flavor. On the up side, I heard compliments all around so the cake seemed to be a success!

 

Rose's Heavenly cakes- page 159