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Chocolate by Katelyn Williams
Human & Rousseau
R380 recommended selling price
208 pages
What’s the festive season without tons of decadent chocolate? Award-winning food stylist and the creator of popular baking blog TheKateTin.com has released a luscious book with the most sumptuous chocolate recipes you’ve ever tasted. Think white, dark and milk chocolate recipes for dipping, drinking, spreading and eating, as well as brûlées, puddings, biscottis, brownies, slices, cookies and cupcakes. This is the ultimate cookbook for all those coco fanatics. She shared her signature cake recipe with us below:
RECIPE FOR SIGNATURE CAKE
SERVES: 10 to 12
TIME UNTIL YOU CAN EAT IT: 1 hour
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: easy
INGREDIENTS
400g (500ml) soft brown sugar
270g (450ml) cake flour
80g (200ml) cocoa powder
15ml (1 tbsp) baking powder
15ml (1 tbsp) bicarbonate of soda
2 large eggs, at room temperature
250ml (1 cup) buttermilk
15ml (1 tbsp) vanilla extract or essence
250ml (1 cup) hot espresso
70g (70ml) smooth peanut butter
125g (125ml) salted butter, melted
CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM
Egg whites from 3 eggs, at room temperature
225g (280ml) white sugar
125g quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa), finely chopped
10ml (2 tsp) vegetable or canola oil
500g (500ml) unsalted butter, cubed and softened at room temperature
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C for fan-forced). Prepare 3 springform cake tins (22 cm each).
Mix all the dry ingredients together. Whisk the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla, and add to the dry ingredients. Combine the coffee, peanut butter and butter, and add to the mixture. Mix well. Divide between the three cake tins and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting and allowing to cool completely. Level off the tops of the cake with a sharp knife.
To make the buttercream, fill the bottom of a saucepan with water and bring it to a gentle simmer. Place the egg whites and sugar in a bowl that fits over the saucepan and stir gently with a whisk (don’t whisk to aerate the mixture). Keep stirring until the mixture reaches 60°C on a sugar thermometer or until the egg whites are hot to the touch. Transfer the hot mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer and, using the whisk attachment, whip the mixture on high until light and fluffy. Continue whipping for a good 10 minutes or until the meringue is cool to the touch. In the meantime, melt the chocolate and oil together until smooth and set aside to cool.
Slowly add the butter, one block at a time, to the buttercream until it is thick, glossy and velvety. Check the temperature of the melted chocolate and oil – it should be cool to the touch – then whip it into the buttercream. Store the buttercream at room temperature until ready to use. Assemble the cake by layering the buttercream and sponge layers alternately, then frost the outside of the cake, scraping any excess off with a palette knife, to reveal the sponge layers. Serve drizzled with melted dark chocolate, if desired.
TIP: Never make buttercream using salted butter as the salt content is too high and the buttercream will be inedible.
