Hi. I am making a birthday cake for a super-chocoholic. I know I’ll use Rose’s Whipped Light Chocolate Ganache from TCB for the filling. There will be a vanilla buttercream for the icing (not sure which yet, but prob classic). I usually make the Chocolate Butter Cake in TCB, but I’m wondering if Rose has another recipe that is more intense or moist? The Chocolate Butter is actually quite good, but just thought I’d see if there is something else I might try. Ideas? Thanks.

welcome to our forum Lauriegood.  from what i read you say, i would try the Deep Passion Wedding Cake, as done on the book, blindly!  doesn’t get more chocolate than this.

I can also highly recommend the Chocolate Domingo…even just dusted with powdered sugar, it was intensely chocolate and moist—a big hit even with some friends of mine who don’t even love chocolate that much!

I also recommend the dark chocolate passion cake or the chocolate domingo cake.  Both cakes have an intense chocolate flavor.

The Domingo is denser than the Chocolate Passion (a lighter texture)—perhaps that helps with your decision.

How about the cake from the Devil’s Food Cake in RHC? Does it get any more dark and deeply chocolaty than that?

My first thought was to use the Devil’s food cake from RHC, it is dark, rich and lovely.  The deep chocolate passion is great, too, but be sure to use the ganache syrup if it’s for a chocoholic. 

The main difference between the two is that the deep chocolate passion isn’t bittersweet, but rather resembles an intense, not-too-sweet milk chocolate bar (like Scharffenberger 41% milk chocolate).  The Devil’s food has more of a bittersweet edge, like dark chcoolate.  And the devil’s food is more complex, with butter and brown sugar rounding out the chocolate flavor.

I made the Devil’s Food, as well (with the whipped chocolate ganache as in RHC), and it was truly an amazing cake.  Incredibly chocolaty, moist, so wonderful.  I haven’t made any of the others mentioned, though, so I can’t give a comparison.

Remember, whichever you choose, that when you mix the cocoa powder with hot water to cover it so none of the liquid evaporates away!! 

It is appearing from this thread that you can’t go wrong with Rose’s chocolate cakes!!!

Lauriegood, if you like the from TCB then you should definitely try the cake from RHC that is called Chocolate layer cake. It’s the exact same recipe as that one, except that some oil replaces some of the butter. That’s it. Rose says that this small change makes the cake rise higher and it is moister and has a finer crumb. The flavor profile is the same. This is a technique that Shirley Corriher mentions in her book Bakewise for making cakes a little moister, and that Rose adapted for her Perferct All-American Chocolate Butter cake.

Edit: the amount of water (by weight) is basically the same, but not all of it is added boiling. That’s the other difference, because of the change….

Thanks everyone…today is the day I need to bake this cake (the party is tomorrow night) and for some reason I am just completely torn. I thought I was all set to do the Deep Passion, but I woke up this AM worried…I think I’m scared of the syruping. I have only done it once before and I think I used too much because the cake got kind of mushy…but reading the recipe and comments here it seems that if I do go with Deep Passion, I should definitely syrup with the Milk Chocolate Ganache syrup as listed with the recipe in RHC.

There’s a small part of me that says: why don’t I just stick with Rose’s All-American Chocolate Butter Cake, which I’ve made many times, and eliminate the unknown? What am I, a masochist? haha

aaaaahhhh I think I will go for it and do the Deep Passion.

HOWEVER, here’s a new question: does the syruping affect the icing later? For example, I want to ice this cake with White Chocolate Buttercream. Should I do the Dark Ganache Undercoat before the buttercream icing? Seems like that would be a nice (and chocolatey!) crumb coat. But maybe that’s overkill? Maybe I can ice the buttercream directly over the syruped cake?

I don’t know what’s the matter with me—clearly I am overthinking this!

I need to get started on this later this afternoon (I’m a late night baker haha) so if anyone happens to read this and has an opinion, let me know!

Thanks!

Laurie, I think you’ll be fine with the deep chocolate passion.  Don’t worry about syruping, it is a sponge-type cake and has a springy texture that can handle it.  As long as you follow directions, it won’t get mushy.  I think I’m in the minority about this, but I don’t really enjoy a syruped butter cake (except for the golden lemon almond, I love that with syrup).  However, I do like the deep chocolate passion with syrup, completely yummy.  And it’ll be great to add this cake to your repetoire, it really does offer a different taste and texture than a butter cake.

As for the ganache undercoat, if you want it for taste reasons or to provide a super-smooth canvas upon which place the final coat, that’s fine, but I don’t think this cake needs it.  Plus, you’ll probably want to have the white chocolate layer a tad thicker to provide coverage over the dark cake, and a layer of ganache might be getting into too-much-frosting territory. 

When you’re syruping, you can spread a little of the syrup around so that it seals and coats the edges, kind of double-duty syrup/crumb coat.  Then chill before frosting with the white chocolate.

Please post a picture, it sounds just lovely!

Okeedokee…I’m going ahead with the Deep Passion. I have high hopes…will let you all know how it turns out!

I don’t really enjoy a syruped butter cake

I’m with you on this on the whole (I think the extra sweetness covers the butter flavor), although I’m flexible—i.e., I’ll happily eat it!  The hub very, VERY strongly prefers non-syruped butter cake.