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Engine Co. No. 28's double-chocolate layer cake

Time1 hour 30 minutes
YieldsServes 12 to 14
Engine Co. No. 28's double-chocolate layer cake
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Is there any dessert more beloved than chocolate cake?

It’s the bestseller on sophisticated menus, and the staple of children’s birthday parties. It’s the decadent treat worth breaking your diet for, and the comfort food that you never tire of. We’ve adored it -- in all its many forms -- for more than 400 years, when the first recipes for chocolate cake were written down in northern Italy.

Back then, a torta di cioccolata might have been embellished with almonds or hazelnuts. A hundred years later, a German prince’s pastry chef added apricot preserves to make the Sacher torte. In early 20th century America, devil’s food cake was so popular that every home cook had a much-treasured recipe with some secret ingredient, be it mayonnaise or Coca-Cola. Adding a little something special to chocolate cake seems to be as irresistible as the dessert itself.

Today’s chefs are carrying on the tradition, partly inspired by a new generation of high-cacao chocolate. This extra-dark chocolate has a bitter edge that blends well with a whole range of spices, herbs and other ingredients. When you order chocolate cake for dessert, you never know what you’re going to get -- tall and fluffy or dense and fudgy, sweet and silky or chunky and bitter? -- because chefs keep reinventing this already fabulous invention.

Some tinker with the cake, some with the icing or filling.

At Engine Co. No. 28, for example, the classic double-chocolate layer cake created by founding executive chef Ed Kasky has a silky ganache filling and frosting. The recipe updates the all-American chocolate cake with the addition of a flavor-intensifying ingredient: coffee. (The current executive chef, Kenneth McCaskill, says that pastry chefs have been known to substitute espresso for even more intensity.)

This cake calls for three kinds of chocolate: cocoa powder, chopped semisweet chocolate and chopped bittersweet chocolate. It’s a moist, richly flavored cake. Enjoy it with -- what else? -- a cup of strong coffee.

The cake created by pastry chef Julie Hewitt of Restaurant Halie in Pasadena is deliciously intriguing -- a dense truffle-like cake, with a bright hint of herbaceousness.

“I was in the kitchen trying to imagine what I could combine with chocolate,” explains Hewitt, “and I was going to chop some chocolate. I borrowed a knife from a prep cook who was chopping fresh bay laurel leaves and the aroma just hit me. Then it was, ‘What if I put it in the ganache?’ ”

Hewitt, who previously worked under Sherry Yard at Spago, tweaked a chocolate truffle cake recipe to develop an almost-flourless, not-too-sweet, very sophisticated dessert. At Restaurant Halie, it’s served with blackberry compote and blackberry ice cream. We liked it naked, and thought a glass of Port would make a fine partner.

The Love Goddess Cake is a real discovery, made by Patti Peck, executive chef at Edendale Grill in Silver Lake (who credits chocolatiers Julie Lang and Katrina Markoff).

On the most basic level, it combines the light, sweet texture of a towering chocolate layer cake with a subtle kick of chile. But that description doesn’t come close to capturing the effect. On first bite, the chiles’ heat is subdued, and you get a delicate cake with a surprising depth of flavor. Then, seconds later, there’s a sensation of fireworks.

“I like the complexity of flavor,” says Peck, “The Old World ancient ingredients.” She suggests serving it with a coffee-flavored tequila liqueur to continue the roasted flavors.

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Chocolate ganache icing

1

Place the cream, sugar and corn syrup in a heavy bottomed, non-reactive saucepan and slowly bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and whisk in the chopped chocolate until it is completely melted and smooth. Whisk in the butter, one piece at a time, and pour into a bowl to cool completely. (At this point, the ganache may be kept covered and refrigerated 3 days.)

2

If refrigerated, allow the icing to return to room temperature and stir until smooth before icing the cake.

Cake

1

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2 (10-inch) round cake pans and line with parchment paper.

2

Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and set aside.

3

Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl and pour the hot coffee over. Stir until the chocolate has melted. Set aside.

4

Beat the eggs in a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the oil, vanilla, buttermilk and the coffee-chocolate mixture and mix slowly until combined well.

5

Add the dry ingredients and mix on slow speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium and mix for 2 more minutes.

6

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans. Bake until cake tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean, approximately 45 minutes.

7

Allow to cool completely, then run a knife around the edge of the pans and turn the layers onto a cake plate.

8

Fill and ice the cake with the chocolate ganache icing.