Chocolate Cream Topped Chocolate Chiffon Cake

So this is another one of those special cakes that takes a little more effort but looks beautiful and celebratory. It is rich in chocolate flavor but light and fluffy yet has this delicious rich chocolate topping that you don’t make separately, it’s actually part of the cake.

In fact it’s another one of the wonderful recipes (slightly tweaked by me) in Sara Finkel’s cookbook Classic Kosher Cooking.

So let’s get started. First separate the eggs and whip the egg whites with half of the sugar. Make sure you divide the sugar in half 3/4 cup only for egg whites, since you will need the other half with yolks and chocolate to make the topping. So don’t put all the sugar in whites. And preheat the oven to 350 F.

You can put the sugar straight into the bowl with the whites and then whip together till stiff and glossy like so:

You will know they are whipped properly when the whisk beaters leave marks and when you pull the beaters up it leaves a stiff peak. Good. Scrape out and set aside in a different bowl. Onward. Put your egg yolks in the same mixing bowl (not together with egg whites, in mixer that’s already dirty, that’s the beauty here, no need to clean the bowl) add the rest of the sugar.

Whip the egg yolks and sugar till light and fluffy. The pic below is from a different cake, mea culpa forgot to take a pic but this is how it looks as you beat up the yolks and sugar. No need to beat till pale. WARNING! Don’t by accident add flour or baking powder to this. This is the beginning of your topping mixture and doing so ruins the topping. Don’t say I didn’t warn you in advance!

Take the chocolate and margarine and melt together (I do it in a microwave, 1 minute, stir stir stir another 30 seconds, another 30, just till melted) in a separate bowl just till smooth and glossy.

Now pour into egg yolk and sugar mixture in the mixer and whip together briefly till thick. Scoop out a cup of this mixture and set aside. That’s your topping so don’t forget to do it!!

Here’s how the topping looks when scooped into the cup.

It looks glossy and shiny at first and then gets a bit firmer and less glossy. No worries, it’s supposed to. Set aside for when cake is completely cooled as the topping. Back to our cake batter in the mixer.

Add the flour, baking powder and salt into the rest of the chocolate mixture, adding the sweet wine as well. Mix well.

Okay, now I’m gonna have you do something I don’t normally advocate for chiffon cake but it works. Scoop 1/3 of the whipped egg whites into the cake batter and like you are pulsing it, turn the mixer on and off and on and off just till egg whites are mixed in and then take the rest of the egg whites and do the same, just pulsing briefly till they are mostly incorporated, scraping the a spatula to make sure the batter and whites truly are mixed together. Don’t be overly zealous since we don’t want to utterly deflate the egg white. Light of hand here. The batter should look like a light mocha. That’s correct. Take a 9 x 13 rectangular pan and line with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the pan, smoothing it into the corners and lightly smoothing the top.

Bake in hot oven for 30-40 minutes (peek after 30 and check with toothpick) and once toothpick comes out clean, remove and cool in pan completely on wire rack. At this point, I take a nice rectangular platter and turn over the pan and flip onto the platter, carefully removing parchment paper.

Remember our topping? K. I pressed lightly so you can see how it thickened up and is perfect for spreading. Remember, only on a cold cake or your topping melts into the cake.

Now you take it and spread only on the top of the cake, not the sides (you won’t have enough even if you want to but it’s plenty, no worries) and spread evenly over the top. To get the pretty effect, just take a fork and turn tines down and gently drag through topping lightly making lines in it. Easy but really pretty. And there you go, chiffon cake with creamy topping. Yummmm.

Chocolate Cream Topped Chocolate Chiffon Cake

6 eggs separated
3/4 cup sugar for egg whites
6 ounces (approximately one cup) semi-sweet chocolate, either chocolate chips or disks or chopped chocolate
1 cup margarine
3/4 cup sugar for egg yolks
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons sweet red wine or orange juice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Separate your eggs and put the whites into mixer with 3/4 cup of sugar. Whip till whites are stiff and glossy and whisk beaters leave marks in the whites. Scoop out of mixer, put in separate bowl and set aside. In same mixer (no cleaning of bowl needed) put egg yolks and 3/4 cup of sugar and whip till fluffy. In a separate bowl, put chocolate and margarine and melt (I do it in the microwave. 1 minute, stir, 30 seconds, stir just until melted) stir till smooth and glossy. Put the chocolate mixture (just make sure it’s not hot, check with a finger if luke it’s fine) and pour into egg yolks and sugar. DO NOT PUT FLOUR OR BAKING POWDER IN THERE this is your topping mixture about to happen. I personally have made this error at least twice when absent minded and was seriously annoyed at myself, hence the warning. K. Whip egg yolk/chocolate mixture together. Remove one cup of mixture for topping. Set aside. Now add flour, baking powder, salt and sweet wine and combine. Add the 1/3 of the whipped egg whites mixture and pulsing the mixer on and off, almost like a food processor, just till combined. Scrape sides and bottom with a spatula and add rest of egg whites and pulse again and scrape again. It will be a mocha color. Pour into prepared 9 x 13 pan lined with a piece of parchment paper. Place in hot oven 30-40 minutes or till toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely. Really, if you try to put the topping on a warm (or worse, hot) cake it will melt into the cake. Take a platter big enough to hold the cake and place on top of pan. Flip out onto platter and peel off parchment paper. Take the cup of topping and gently smooth on top part of cake only. There’s not enough frosting for the sides so don’t even try. Create a pretty decoration by taking a fork tines down and gently dragging through topping in lines.