Coocoo for cocoa brownies

After four years of working at a tech company that provided me with three hot meals a day and unlimited snacks, I sometimes find myself at a loss when I arrive home in the evening and stare blankly at the raw contents of my refrigerator. So much food, nothing to eat.

I'm genuinely trying to cook more often (there may be an entree-focused blog post in my future), but around the middle of last quarter, I decided that an interim solution to this problem was to sign up for as many free-food events as my schedule would permit. Generally speaking, this translates into me eating a lot of pizza for lunch... But last Friday, I actually got dinner! The lasagna wasn't anything to write home about, but my heart skipped a beat when I saw brownies waiting at the end of the buffet.

Sadly, the brownies that night were completely mediocre. 

However, they did inspire me to bake up a batch of my own. Years of research (read: eating) have taught me that brownies vary in quality along three scales: density, taste, and texture. My ideal brownie is soft, but not cake-like, has an intense chocolate flavor, and contains just enough bite to vaguely resemble fudge, while still leaving baked-goods-style crumbs on your fingers. Here is a graphical representation, which should clear up any remaining confusion:

When I stumbled on the Alton Brown recipe that I eventually used, it felt like a "palm-to-forehead" moment. I've been a fan of Alton Brown for many years (in fact, my old roommate secured me an autographed DVD set of Good Eats, which remains one of my most prized possessions), but it has been a long while since I've used one of his recipes. When I saw the ratings for his cocoa brownies, I knew I'd found my match.

And as usual, Alton came through for me.

These brownies are awesome, and I didn't make a single substitution this time. Why mess with perfection? I did watch Alton's video, which provided more specific instructions for mixing in the melted butter than the written directions, so I've slightly altered the directions below. Additionally, I lined the baking pan with parchment instead of the traditional butter-flour combo -- it made removing the brownies a breeze, which is always a pain.

And as one last aside, bar cookies baked in a 8x8 inch pan have the added benefit of being able to fit PERFECTLY into a gallon size ziplock back. Who knew? I hope my classmates are ready for some brownies!

Alton Brown's Cocoa Brownies (source):

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar, sifted
• 1 cup brown sugar, sifted
• 8 ounces melted butter
• 11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.

Beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Sift in the rest of the dry ingredients. Slowly mix in melted butter, adding gradually so that it doesn't pool on top of the batter. Mix to combine.

Pour the batter into the parchment-lined 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.

Chocolate chip donuts: out of the fryer, into the oven

Hey kids, it's story time!

Back in elementary school, I went to after-school daycare at the local Jewish Community Center. I'm not Jewish, so I don't know how Mom decided this would be the best place for me to spend my afternoons -- I suspect it had something to do with the Center's proximity to our house, the prevalence of Challah bread, or my last name, but I cannot say with certainty. 

I liked the JCC well enough, but one thing I found very odd was that I seemed to be the only kid from my elementary school (literally, the only one) who went there.  I felt this most acutely in kindergarten, when my school was the first stop on the JCC bus route and every day I rode an enormous school bus with just one other person: the driver. This turned out to be rather fortuitous, though, because the bus driver also worked at a donut shop and sometimes brought leftovers for us kids. As the lone rider, I always got to pick first from the vast array. (As an aside, I ended up becoming friends with my driver, to the point where he gave me a pack of crayons for Christmas and I drew him a thank you card. I wonder what happened to him...)

All of this is just a long way of saying that while I wouldn't call myself a donut fanatic, and I very rarely crave donuts, I still feel like a kid when ever I go into a donut shop and get to pick whatever kind I want. And, of course, there are times when donuts can be truly and utterly divine.

I much prefer dense donuts to regular ones -- chocolate old fashions are my donut Achilles' heels (I also like blueberry cake ones, which I know is really weird, but I think it's because I just like anything with blueberries) -- so this year for Christmas, I asked for a donut pan. 

I've always been intrigued by the idea of baking donuts instead of frying them, and I've seen recipes for baked donuts floating around over the years, so the concept has been in the back of my mind for a while. When I got back to LA, a recipe for baked donuts popped up on the King Arthur Flour company blog, so it seemed the time had come to break in the new pan.

As usual, I did not follow the recipe to a T. I didn't have nutmeg, so instead I used pumpkin pie spice -- I think it still tasted good, but I guess purists might beg to differ. Additionally, I don't usually keep milk on hand because I'm lactose intolerant; I ended up using soy milk, which is a frequent substitution for me. Finally, I only had regular sized chips, and that seemed too big for the donut proportions, so I chopped up the chips into smaller bits. I also sprinkled a little bit of chocolate in the bottom of each donut mold, which tasted good but didn't turn out to be as visually appealing as I'd pictured in my head.

Here's the final product:

Verdict: I'm going to call a spade a spade on this one -- baked is not the same as fried, but you know what? They were pretty tasty nonetheless. These ones puffed up nicely, so they LOOKED like donuts at the very least, and they were not too hard or dry, which seemed like the biggest potential pitfall in my book. The texture is not quite as dense and crumbly as a cake donut, but not quite as fluffy as a real cake. One of my classmates compared it to coffee cake, which I interpret as a positive feedback. 

And the final test: will I make these again? I think so! I'm looking forward to trying other variations though -- maybe with blueberries. ;)

Here is the recipe, adapted from King Arthur Flour Company's blog (I actually made a half-recipe for 6 donuts, but here are the proportions for a whole dozen):

Ingredients
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups AP flour
1 cup soy milk
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, chopped into bits

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease two standard donut pans.

2) In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars until smooth.

3) Add the eggs, beating to combine.

4) Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, spices, salt, and vanilla.

5) Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.

6) Sprinkle some chocolate chip bits into each donut pan, and stir the remaining chopped up chocolate chips into the batter

8) Spoon 1/2 the batter into a lightly greased doughnut pans, filling the wells to the rim for chocolate chip doughnuts.

9) Bake the doughnuts for 10 minutes. Remove them from the oven, and wait 5 to 7 minutes before turning them out of the pans onto a rack. Repeat chocolate sprinkles and baking process for second 1/2 dozen. Enjoy warm; or cool completely, and store airtight.

Chocolate-on-chocolate revisited

My love affair with chocolate goes way back, but it has evolved over the years from the snack sized Crunch bars you get at Halloween (heavily influenced by Shaq's early endorsement of said candy), to the purest, darkest artisan chocolate bars I can get my grubby little hands on. 

My current favorite is the Costa Rica 70% from Dandelion Chocolate. Its toasty at first, and then gradually becomes tangy, almost citrus-like, all with a super rich chocolate base. If you ask me, it's pretty amazing that so many flavors can be extracted from a bean! If you like chocolate, even just a little bit, I highly recommend Dandelion. Hurray for supporting local businesses!

So, along with my growing chocolate obsession, my quest for the perfect chocolate-on-chocolate continues. My last attempt at C-on-C cookies was super chocolatey, but the texture left something to be desired. This time around, I got closer to perfection.

When I first took these out of the oven, they were so soft that I thought they might break if I tried to pick them up. But after I let them cool for a bit, they became cookie-chewy, which is just to say that they break easily and melt in your mouth, but don't crumble when you try to move them. One thing I really liked about this recipe is that the batter includes melted chocolate, not just cocoa powder, which gave the dough some extra chocolate depth.

As far as distribution, this batch worked double duty -- I brought them to a potluck and also gave them to a friend for her birthday. But perhaps even more interesting, I  recently discovered that leaving chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge for a couple of days before baking improves the cookie texture immeasurably -- it gives the flour time to soak up the liquids, so you get insanely tender, flavorful cookies. I've been wanting to try it with other cookies, so when I made these last week, I wrapped some extra dough in parchment and stuck it in the fridge. I pulled out the dough today and baked up the remaining three cookies. Verdict: AMAZING.

Here's the recipe, which I found on Lovin From the Oven:

INGREDIENTS

2 2/3 cups (16 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's dark)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cold egg
2 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Melt 2/3 cup of the chocolate chips in the microwave by heating in increments of 30 seconds and stirring in between. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and both sugars. Stir in the melted chocolate chips. Add in the egg and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) to the chocolate mixture until just incorporated.

Fold in the remaining 2 cups chocolate chips.

Scoop tablespoon sized dough onto baking sheets.

Bake for about 11 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

I'm mellllltttinnnggg!... Mint Melt-away cookies

My friend Ed and I have an unusual tradition where sometimes when one of us asks how the other is doing, we respond by saying "I'M MELLLLLTTTINNNNGGGG!!!", in the style of Donkey from Shrek (see: clip). Sometimes it means one of us is straight stressin', but sometimes it's just another way of saying "Good, and you?"  It makes no sense, I know, but it makes me laugh all the same.

And speaking of melting...

I got back to LA late last week, which naturally sent me into a funk about the impending end of Winter Break. I always associated minty things with pepperminty things, which in turn remind me of the holidays, so I dusted off an old recipe I came across on SquareBakery (via Pinterest) for mint meltaway cookies. 

One of the best things about this recipe is that it's ridiculously simple. The original recipe called for green food coloring, but I almost always find food coloring to be an uncomfortable proposition. With the exception of frosting, why should your food be a different color than whatever color you get when you mash all the ingredients together? I'll probably make some enemies here, but this is the same reason I don't really like red velvet cake. I mean... It's chocolate cake. Why does it need to be red? Also, have you seen how much red food coloring it takes to make it that color? Anyway, here is everything you need for these melty minty pleasures:

Amazing, right?!?...

In addition to omitting the food coloring, I also decided to pump up the mint factor by drizzling a little bit of mint glaze on top of the cookies. I didn't really follow a recipe, but roughly speaking, I took three heaping tablespoons of powdered sugar, added a dash of water (I would have used milk. but since it was my first night back in my apartment, I didn't have any on hand), and somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 of a teaspoon of peppermint extract. Use your best judgement. :)

I'm really happy with how these came out. I've always been a fan of cookies that crumble and melt at the same time -- it sort of feels like magic.

Here's the recipe, adapted slightly from Square Bakery.

Mint Meltaway Cookies

You will need:
1 C/2 sticks of unsalted organic butter
1/2 C sifted powdered sugar + 3T for glaze
2 teaspoons of vanilla
3 teaspoons of peppermint oil + 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon for glaze
2-1/4 C cake flour
1/4 teaspoon saltPreheat oven to 400 degrees

Cream butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, peppermint oil together. Stir flour and salt together and then blend into butter mixture.

Roll tablespoon sized balls of dough and press to flatten. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet (or use a Silpat!) and bake for 8-10 minutes. 

While cookies are cooling, mix three heaping tablespoons of powdered sugar with a dash of water and a dash of peppermint extract. Drizzle over cookies and enjoy!

Bûche de Noël, Part II

Christmas came and passed, and so did the yule log. What do you think? :)

In the second picture you can tell that the roll got a little bit flat/lop-sided from sitting in the fridge overnight, so I guess next year I have to remember to rotate it before cutting. Also, I couldn't quite figure out how I was supposed to get the cocoa powder onto the sides of the log, which is why there's a giant pile of cocoa on the plate. My family said I should just call it dirt and my old boss used to say, "if you can't fix it, feature it!"... But you all know the truth now.


I looked through a bunch of recipes before settling on this one: Cherry-and-chocolate
Bûche de Noël from Food and Wine. The intro blurb said this recipe is from Dominique Ansel, who is the pastry chef at Daniel restaurant in New York. Go big or go home, right? Apparently, regular customers at Daniel get a mini version of this dessert to take home during the holidays. Merry Christmas, indeed!


Some other things I liked about this recipe included the addition of kirsch syrup to make the sponge cake super moist and flavorful, the use of vanilla bean custard for the filling (instead of buttercream), and the whipped cream frosting. I was worried that using buttercream for both the filling and the frosting, which a number of other recipes called for, might make the cake too heavy, so this one seemed perfect.


I did make two small changes, but nothing too crazy. I couldn't find brandied cherries, so instead I soaked a cup of dried cherries in 1/2 cup of cognac overnight. Also, I added a bit of cocoa to the whipped cream frosting. I figured if I couldn't dust the sides of the log, at least the frosting would be brown enough to vaguely resemble wood. 


Also, the recipe didn't include meringue mushrooms, but I couldn't imagine the log without them, so I used this recipe from Saveur for those. My family loved seeing these 'shrooms come together!

Here's the recipe! (It's a long one... :))


Cherry-and-Chocolate Bûche de Noël from Food and Wine (with some edits!)

INGREDIENTS

Cake
6 large egg yolks, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
5 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Kirsch Syrup1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon kirsch
Filling
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 tablespoon cold water
1/3 cup whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup pitted dried cherries, soaked overnight in 1/2 cup cognac


Topping
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar
Unsweetened cocoa powder, for sifting

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Line a 9-by-13-inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk, beat the egg yolks with 6 tablespoons of the sugar at high speed until the mixture is pale and fluffy, and leaves a ribbon trail when the whisk is lifted, 3 minutes; transfer to a large bowl.
2. Thoroughly wash and dry the mixer bowl and whisk. Add the egg whites and salt to the bowl and beat at moderately high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 6 tablespoons of sugar and continue beating until the whites are stiff and glossy.
3. Using a rubber spatula, stir one-fourth of the beaten whites into the yolk mixture, then fold in the remaining whites until no streaks remain. Working in 2 batches, sift the cocoa over the batter and fold gently until fully incorporated. Spread the batter on the prepared baking sheet in an even layer. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the cake feels springy and dry; rotate the pan halfway through baking. Transfer to a rack and let cool completely.
4. In a small saucepan, combine the water and sugar and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to moderate and simmer just until the sugar is completely dissolved, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the kirsch.
5. In a small, microwave-safe bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let stand until softened. In a small saucepan, combine the milk with the vanilla bean and seeds and bring to a simmer over moderately high heat. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar.
6. When the milk comes to a simmer, discard the vanilla bean. Slowly whisk the milk into the yolk mixture until thoroughly blended. Transfer the mixture to the saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, about 1 to 2 minutes. Strain the custard into a medium bowl.
7. Melt the gelatin in the microwave for 15 seconds; stir it into the custard and let cool. Meanwhile, whip the heavy cream until firm. Stir one-fourth of the whipped cream into the custard until incorporated, then fold in the remaining whipped cream.
8. Run the tip of a knife around the edge of the cake. Cover with a clean sheet of parchment and a second baking sheet and invert the cake. Remove the first baking sheet and peel off the parchment. Brush the kirsch syrup evenly onto the cake to soak; reserve extra syrup for another use.
9. Using an offset spatula, spread the filling evenly on the cake. Scatter the cherries over the filling. Use the parchment to carefully roll the cake to form a 13-inch-long log with the seam on the bottom. Fold the parchment over the log so the ends meet. Using a ruler, squeeze the cake in the parchment to tighten the roll. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (I kept mine overnight in the fridge).
10. Just before serving, whip the cream with the confectioners' sugar until firm. Add a teaspoon of cocoa powder and whip until evenly incorporated. Transfer the cake to a serving platter and frost with the whipped cream. Sift the cocoa powder on top. Slice and serve.

Meringue Mushrooms from Saveur

INGREDIENTS

10 tbsp. sugar
2 large egg whites
2 pinches cream of tartar
Pinch salt
1⁄2 tsp. vanilla extract
1⁄4 cup cocoa powder
1⁄2 cup confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 200°. Combine sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan, cover, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, swirling pan several times until sugar has dissolved, 1–2 minutes. Uncover pan and continue to boil until syrup reaches softball stage or 236° on a candy thermometer, about 4 minutes more. Put egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a whisk and beat on medium speed until frothy, then add cream of tartar and salt. Gradually increase speed to high and beat until soft peaks form, about 30 seconds. Slowly pour in sugar syrup while continuing to beat until whites cool to room temperature and become thick and shiny, about 10 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Use a rubber spatula to transfer meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4" plain pastry tip. To make meringue mushrooms, hold pastry tip perpendicular to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and pipe meringue into the shapes of mushroom caps and stems of various sizes, then set aside for 5 minutes. Lightly moisten a fingertip in cold water and smooth out any "tails" left behind on mushroom caps. Bake meringues for 1 1/2 hours. Turn off oven and allow meringues to rest in oven until dry and crisp, about 1 hour. Bore a small, shallow hole in center of underside of each mushroom cap with the tip of a paring knife. "Glue" stems to caps by dipping tips of stems into icing, then sticking into holes in caps. Sift a little cocoa powder on tops of caps. Meringues can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for several days.

Bûche de Noël, Part I

'Twas the day before Christmas, and so it began.
Sara's yule log adventure, with a two-day span.


Mushrooms were first on the long list of to-dos.
If it looks like one piece, haha! It's a ruse!
Two pieces of meringue, a cap and a stem.
With some icing, too, together I'll glue them.


The cherries were soaked overnight in cognac.
And a swig for herself, she also threw back.
The syrup had kirsch, for a bit of a kick.
And the cake baked up nicely -- spongey and thick.


The first batch of whipped cream, forgotten, you see.
It turned right into butter. Whoop-si-daisy!
A new batch she started. Clean bowl, right away!
That extra carton of cream, it saved the day.


With a big sheet of parchment and a board too,
The cake got flipped over, the edges trimmed new.
She filled it with custard and rolled it up tight.
Then popped it in the fridge to chill through the night.


Merry Christmas Eve, kids! Stay tuned for part II... 

Earthquake cake

The day after final ended, I threw my dirty laundry and a cake pan in the trunk of my car, picked my parents from LAX, and headed out to Palm Springs to celebrate my brother's 30th birthday. Here's a picture from Joshua Tree National Park, which looks like it dropped straight out of a Dr. Seuss book:

I told my sister-in-law that I would bake a cake for the occasion, and since my brother recently got interested in chocolate, I settled on a dark chocolate cake with milk chocolate frosting. It's called a midnight cake, but I don't know if that refers to the dark chocolate or the fact that it tastes best at midnight.


So what did I learn from this project? Well, as I make more things that require frosting, I'm discovering that it might actually be a good idea to invest in an electric mixer. I don't mind mixing the vast majority of doughs by hand, but as it turns out, whipping egg whites to a peak is somewhat time consuming (and a good arm workout). 


Additionally, when you rent a vacation home that doesn't have a mixing bowl, you can use a giant ceramic goblet.

And finally, you really should let a layer cake cool entirely before you try to move the layers around. Things actually started out fine for me -- I cut the cake evenly into three parts, and successfully frosted the bottom layer. 

But when I tried to transfer the top layer, it split down the middle. I thought I might be able to hide the crack with a healthy dose of frosting, but alas, gravity had its day. Hence, the earthquake cake.

Tragic, I know. Luckily, you can hide these kinds of faux pas with a bit of crafty cutting. So when I enter that MBA baking contest, I will submit this photo instead:

Happy birthday, Hermano!


And here's the recipe for Midnight Chocolate Cake with Milk Chocolate Buttercream from my favorite baking cookbook.


INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup (60 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 ounce (28 grams) unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (240 grams) boiling water
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (225) grams cake flour (I used pastry, because that's all the local grocery store had)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups (330 grams) packed light brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces at room temperature
1/4 cup (60 grams) creme fraiche
2 eggs
2 egg yolks


Milk Chocolate Buttercream
12 ounces (340 grams) milk chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup (120 grams) heavy cream
1 1/2 (300 grams) granulated sugar
3 egg whites
3 cups (6 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 2-inch chunks
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt


DIRECTIONS
- Position rack in the center of the oven, and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8-inch cake pan


- In a small heatproof bowl, combine the cocoa powder and unsweetened chocolate. Pour the boiling water on top, then whisk until the mixture is completely combined and smooth. Let cool to room temperature, about four hours at room temperature or 1 hour in the refrigerator, whisking every 15 minutes if refrigerated. 

 - Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a handheld mixer) (OR YOUR OWN ARM), mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, and brown sugar on low speed for about 10 second, or until mixed. On low speed, add the butter and continue to beat for 30 to 40 seconds, or until the butter is thoroughly combined and the mixture resembles dough.

- In a small bowl, whisk together the creme fraiche, eggs, and egg yolks until well mixed. On low speed, slowly pour the egg mixture into the butter-flour mixture and mix to combine. Turn up the mixer speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes, or until fluffy and light. Stop the mixer a few times and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure the egg mixture is thoroughly incorporated. Turn down the mixer speed to low and slowly pur in the cooled chocolate mixture. Mix for about 10 seconds to combine. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and then mix on medium speed for about 30 seconds, or until the chocolate mixture is thoroughly incorporated. Pour the better into the prepared pan. 


- Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 1/2 hours or until the top springs back when pressed in the middle with a fingertip. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.


- To make the buttercream: While the cake is cooling, place the milk chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, scald the cream over medium0high heat (bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan, but the cream is not boiling). Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 1 minut, then slowly whisk the chocolate and cream together until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Let sit at room temperature for about 1 hour, or until cool (Or, refrigerate until cool, about 30 minutes, whisking every 10 minutes).

- In a small heatproof bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg whites to make a thick slurry. Place the bowl over (not touching) simmering water in a saucepan and heat, whisking occasionally, for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the mixture is hot to the touch.


Remove from the heat and scrape the mixture into the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment (or use a hand-held mixer). Whip on medium-high speed for 6 to 8 minutes or until the mixture becomes a light, white meringue and is cool to the touch. Turn down the speed to low and add the butter, a few chunks at a time. The mixture will look chunky and funky and curdled at first, but don't worry. Increase the mixer speed to medium and watch the whole thing come together! It will be smooth and silky in 2 to 3 minutes.


- Change to the paddle attachment and add the cooled chocolate mixture, vanilla, and salt. Beat on medium speed, stopping to scrape the bowl once or twice to loosen any butter clinging to the sides, for 1 about 1 minute, or until the whole mixture comes together in a smooth buttercream.  You should have about 5 cups.


- Remove the cooled cake from the pan. Using a long, serrated knife, trip the top to level it (it will have rounded a bit in the oven). Then split the cake into three layers. Place the bottom layer, cut-side up, on a cake plate or cake pedestal (if you ahve a revolving cake stand, use it). Spoon about 1 1/2 cups of the butter cream on top and use an offset spatula to spread it evenly into the edges.


- Carefully place the second layer on top, spoon about 1 1/2 cups of the butter cream on top, and again spread it evenly to the edges. Place the third layer, top-side down, on top spoon about 1 cup of the buttercream on top, and spread it over the top and down the sides of the cake, smoothing the buttercream as well as you can and covering the entire cake with a thin layer. 


- Spoon the remaining frosting on top of the cake, and spread it evenly across the top and won the sides. This is the finishing layer of frosting. If desired, spoon any remaining frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a small round or star tip and pipe a decorative line along the top and/or bottom edge of the cake.