Image: Bruce Wolf
FOR THE PAST DECADE, Valentine’s Day has meant curling up with my husband and a chocolate cake, which I always bake. If my cakes have occasionally been dry, well, that’s what whipped cream is for.
Two years ago, perhaps on the heels of one of those dry cakes, my husband bought our cake. Did I take umbrage? A little—until I tasted the layered chocolate-buttermilk wonder filled and frosted with a lustrous chocolate ganache. It had come from Criollo, a bakery (now closed) in Northeast Portland, and was so moist and light that I had to have the recipe. Fortunately, owner and baker Melissa McKinney was willing to part with it.
“I’m a big believer in sharing recipes,” said McKinney, now the pastry chef at Roux. “Besides, every baker in Portland already has it.”
To hear McKinney tell it, the cake started its life at (now defunct) Ron Paul Catering & Charcuterie. “I was sous-chef there in 1995, and Melissa Carey-Ragland, who now owns Lagniappe on Alberta St, was the pastry chef. She taught me how to make it.” Carey-Ragland got it from the pastry chef at Zefiro.
When McKinney joined the pastry team at Bluehour in 2000, she found pastry chef Mandy Groom Givler, who later baked for Ripe, making the cake. “They were also using it at Bittersweet, which makes wholesale desserts; at Rivers, which is now Aquariva; and they make something similar at Elephants Delicatessen. And I make it at Roux, special-order,” she says. “I’ve frosted over 15,000 of them in the past 10 years.”
So what gives this recipe such staying power? It’s the oil, says McKinney. “Oil makes a moister cake, and allows it to last a week, whereas a layer cake made with butter becomes dry the next day.” Plus, the hot coffee elevates the cocoa’s depth and complexity. The cake is versatile as well: The batter can be stored in the fridge for several days; stout can be used in place of coffee; it can even be made vegan (McKinney suggests using egg replacement and vanilla soy milk). And the layers can be filled with whipped cream and fresh berries instead of ganache.
When I ask McKinney how the cake might best be presented on Valentine’s Day, she thinks for a moment, and then suggests, “Naked?”
Chocolate-Buttermilk Layer Cake
Once you pour the hot coffee into the batter, don’t be alarmed by its thinness. “It’s definitely the thinnest cake batter I’ve ever worked with,” McKinney says. As for the frosting, there’s no need to use fancy chocolate, she says. “I just use semi-sweet chocolate chips and it comes out perfect.”
Makes a single 9-inch layer cake
INGREDIENTS
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2½ cups sugar
- 1 tbsp + 1½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
- 11/3 cups canola oil
- 1½ cups buttermilk
- 3 large eggs
- 1½ cups freshly brewed, extra-strong hot coffee
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 24 oz semisweet chocolate chips
- 1½ cups heavy whipping cream
(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch cake pans with nonstick spray, and line the bottoms with parchment paper. (2) Place flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, mix on low to combine. (3) Keeping the mixer on low, add oil, buttermilk, then eggs one at a time. (4) Add hot coffee in a thin stream, pouring down side of bowl. Add vanilla and mix until batter is smooth. (5) Divide into pans and bake until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs, about 30-35 minutes. Let cool in pans for at least 20 minutes. (6) Create a double boiler by filling a saucepan with 2 inches of water and bringing it to a boil. Place chocolate chips and cream in a stainless steel mixing bowl and set on top of simmering water. Allow mixture to melt—do not stir right away. When chocolate has melted, stir it with a whisk. Allow to cool at room temperature. (7) Remove cakes from pans. Place one layer of cake on a serving plate. (8) Trim the top with a serrated knife to make it even, place a scoop of ganache in the middle and smooth it out to the edges using a palette knife or spatula. Trim the top off the other layer and place the untrimmed side down on top of the frosted layer, pressing gently. (9) Spoon more ganache on top and smooth it around the sides, adding more ganache as needed to cover. If you need to apply a second coat of ganache, put the cake in the refrigerator for no more than 15 minutes to set before adding a second coat.
Published in the Our City & Its Money issue of Portland Monthly.
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