This American chocolate cake is undoubtedly one of the most delicious cakes in the world and within the chocolate cake family there are few others as rich in taste and texture as this one, only in the refined French cuisine can we find a recipe with the same sophistication. The cake is not difficult to make and it does not need to be baked in the oven, it just needs to be cooled well. With its rich cream filling, cream topping and a “melt in the mouth” crust, this is the cake that will give even your most spoiled guests an unforgettable experience, come on!
Fanciful chocolate art
As you can see from the different images you can vary to your heart’s content in the finish of this cake, turn the decoration into your own fanciful chocolate cake piece of art by using broken hazelnuts for the garnish, pour some chocolate sauce over it, garnish with a single fruit and sprayed on cream or work with chocolate shavings and nuts.
We use chocolate cookies for the dough crust, a type that is very suitable is LU pupil pure, the biscuit has the right structure and the amount of chocolate per biscuit is perfectly suitable for our purpose, you can also use the Verkade Digestive chocolate biscuit or a comparable alternative. The original recipe uses Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers, but this typically American brand is not available here.
Rum
A dash of dark rum is used in the recipe, but you can of course also replace this with rum essence without alcohol.
Ingredients for the dough crust:
- 250 grams of chocolate cookies
- 120 grams of melted butter
Ingredients for the filling:
- 135 grams of sugar
- 40 grams of cornstarch
- 4 egg yolks
- ½ liter of whole milk
- 120 grams of dark chocolate
- 1 tablespoon of dark rum
- 2 sachets of vanilla sugar
For the topping:
- 500 ml of whipped cream
- 50 grams of sugar for the whipped cream
- 50 grams of broken hazelnuts
- shavings of dark chocolate for garnish
For clarity
To be clear: this cake does not need to be baked in the oven, the dough we make is comparable to the cookie dough that is used in most cheesecakes. We do use a lightly greased springform pan for convenience.
Preparation of the dough:
- Grind the chocolate chips in a food processor briefly until a grainy sand structure is formed,
- melt the butter in a saucepan and mix the melted butter into the ground chocolate chip cookies,
- press this mixture firmly onto the bottom and against the edges of the lightly greased springform pan,
- put the mold and contents in the refrigerator for half an hour.
Preparation of the filling:
- Stir the cornstarch into the sugar in a large pan,
- mix the egg yolks and the milk well in a bowl,
- beat the yolk-milk mixture into the sugar-corn mixture in the pan,
- heat over medium heat, stirring constantly for 10 to 15 minutes until the mixture thickens,
- note: the mixture must be close to a boil but must not boil because then the eggs will curdle,
- remove the mixture from the heat when it has become thick enough,
- melt the chocolate au-bain Marie or in the microwave,
- stir the melted chocolate, rum and vanilla sugar into the thickened egg, sugar, milk, corn filling,
- pour the warm filling onto the dough crust and immediately cover with plastic wrap to prevent a film from forming,
- when slightly cooled, put the cake in the refrigerator for 8 to 24 hours,
- then carefully remove the cake from the spring form by first cutting the edge off with a knife.
Preparation of the topping
- Just before serving, beat the whipped cream with the sugar until soft peaks form,
- if you don’t want to use a cake in one go, use a whisk bag so that the cream remains firm for longer,
- spread the cream over the cake and garnish with dark chocolate shavings and broken nuts, done!
Facts about chocolate
Chocolate is made from the seeds of the cocoa tree, these seeds grow close to the trunk of the tree in a beautifully colored fruit casing. The cocoa tree is native to Latin America. The word chocolate comes from the Aztec word ?? xocoatl ?? meaning “bitter water”, the Aztecs brewed a chocolate drink from the cocoa seeds in a distant past.
This drink was pungent and bitter, in stark contrast to the milky sweet chocolate we consume today.
The Aztec emperor Montezuma is said to have drunk about 50 cups a day of the chocolate drink. The Latin name of the cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao, means “food for the gods”. The Aztecs believed that the god Quetzalcoatl discovered the cocoa tree high in the mountains among other foods. The Maya believed that the cocoa tree originally belonged only to the gods and that the gods gave this tree to humans. Both the Aztecs and the Maya considered the cocoa drink sacred and used it for sacred rituals at births, marriages, and funerals.
Chocolate addiction
The substance Theobromine in chocolate has a positive effect on the serotonin level in the brain and therefore almost immediately causes a feeling of well-being when it is absorbed into the blood through the mucous membranes in the mouth, now you also know immediately where to treat your chocolate addiction. thank you.
Soldier’s ration
Alcohol fermented from the pulp of the bark of the cocoa tree was consumed in South America as early as 1400 BC. Cocoa was so valuable in the Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilization that it was used as a means of payment and was part of the soldiers’ ration in the American Civil War and later in World War II.
Nowadays there is a lot to do about chocolate, it is time that the poor cocoa farmers get a fair price for their product, among others the organization Oxfam Novib pays a lot of attention to this, buy “fair trade” chocolate for your cake!
