Original recipe: Black Larry cake. Dark Larry Black Larry

Cooking time: 2 hours

How to make Dark Larry cake, step-by-step recipe with photos:

Step 1. Sift all the dry ingredients into a container: flour, cocoa sugar, baking soda and baking powder. Mix the mixture thoroughly so that all ingredients are evenly distributed.

Step 2. In another container, combine vegetable oil and sugar. Beat the butter mixture.

Step 3. Add eggs and vanilla to the sugar mass, beat again until fluffy for 2-3 minutes.

Step 4. Add half of the dry ingredients and mix them into the butter mixture at low mixer speed.

Step 5. Add milk and remaining dry goods. Beat the mixture again until smooth.

Step 6. Pour hot (!!!) coffee and alcohol into the mixture. Stir with a whisk or mixer until smooth.

Hot coffee is needed to activate the baking powder, so we saturate the dough with oxygen before baking. And alcohol (I used cognac) will add flavor to the cake.

Step 7. Bake the cakes in an oven preheated to 160 degrees for 1-1.5 hours.

For more even baking, it is better to divide the dough into 2 or 3 equal parts and bake them separately.

Step 8. Wrap the hot cakes in cling film and put them in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours or in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. During this time, the moisture from the middle of the cake will be evenly distributed and it will be easier to cut it.

Perfect chocolate cake

I've professed my love for chocolate many times before and for my own birthday I decided to make the perfect chocolate cake. According to my idea, the base (cake) was to be made from milk chocolate-based ganache, and the cake was to be covered with dark chocolate-based ganache. As a result, all that was left was a ganache based on dark chocolate. But I’m not giving up on the idea of ​​the cake of my dreams and its time will come sooner or later.

And now I’ll tell you and show you what happened this time.

Just when I was looking for the perfect chocolate cake recipe, well-known food blogger AndyChef posted a recipe for a new chocolate cake, “Dark Larry”. According to the description, in principle it suited me, and it formed the basis of my “almost perfect chocolate cake”.

Ingredients:

Flour - 375 g

Cocoa - 90 g

Baking powder - 10 g

Vegetable oil - 150 g

Sugar - 450 g

Eggs - 3 pcs

Vanilla extract - 5 g

Milk - 150 g

Hot coffee - 340 g

Alcohol - 75 g

1. Sift and thoroughly mix the dry ingredients with a whisk - flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda. He recommends using the highest quality cocoa, but in Yakutsk we have problems with this. I order my cocoa from the online store nevkusno.ru Barry Callebaut Belgian alkalized. The store has absolutely everything for cooks and pastry chefs. The only thing is that they have now changed the rules for the delivery of liquid ingredients; they ask you to write a statement that you will not have any complaints if your order arrives spilled, etc.

2. In another bowl, mix vegetable oil (I used odorless olive and sunflower oil 50/50) and sugar. Beat with a mixer.

3. Now add half of the dry mixture here and beat.

4. Pour in milk, hot coffee and alcohol. You can use instant if you don’t have boiled. The main thing here is that the coffee is hot. I replaced the alcohol with water, unfortunately all the cognac was used for other baked goods. You can use any strong drink that has a tart aroma.

6. I baked 5 cakes, dividing the dough into 5 equal parts. I used a 20 cm springform pan. I didn’t make a French shirt this time, just parchment on the bottom and that’s it. I read somewhere that butter prevents the dough from clinging and rising up. Oven temperature 180 degrees, bake for 25-30 minutes. Check with a toothpick.

7. Cool the cakes on a wire rack, wrap them in film and place them in the refrigerator overnight.

The cakes turned out very soft and moist in texture and moisture reminiscent of red velvet.

I took cheese cream. If you want to achieve a rich chocolate color, add cocoa and a drop of red coloring, I went a little overboard with the coloring and the cream turned out to have a red tint, you will see below.

I used the cream as a layer of cake layers, and covered the cake with dark chocolate ganache.

Ganache

1. Finely chop 250 grams of chocolate.

2. Heat the cream 33% 250 mo on the stove, but do not boil it, and pour it over the chocolate.

Another chocolate cake is on the agenda today.

I noticed this cake on the page of the popular Russian food blogger Andy Chef. The cake is very bright, it immediately catches your eye, the ingredients are the most affordable, and of course there was a chance to make a cake, there was nowhere else to go. I strictly followed the recipe, weighed all the products down to the gram to get an authentic result, and even created an accessible step-by-step recipe for my readers.

I don't bake birthday cakes often for one simple reason - they are often complex and time-consuming.

To simplify my task as much as possible and make the recipe accessible, I draw up an action plan that consists of certain stages. The cake making process consists of three stages: preparing the cream, baking the sponge cake and assembling the cake.

With the help of such a simple scheme, you can simplify the process and it will not seem cumbersome, especially since, in addition to the kitchen, there are always a lot of other important things to do.

Preparing the cake takes about 2 days: first I bake the sponge cake and make the cream. The biscuit needs to sit at least overnight, the same goes for the cream, I prepare the cream the day before and give it time to stabilize in the refrigerator. The next day I grease the cakes with cream, give the cream time to soak the cake, and only after that I decorate it. You can’t rush here and you need to wait a certain amount of time for each stage.

And now about the cake itself. The proportions are designed for 6 cake layers with a diameter of 16-18 cm, I made three cake layers, baking in a 22 cm mold. The cake layers are thick and with three layers the cake turns out to be quite tall, this was quite enough for us. So select the size of the form from the above parameters.

For the biscuit:

• 375 g flour
• 90 g cocoa powder
• 150 ml vegetable oil
• 10 g baking powder
• 7 g soda
• 450 g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150 ml milk
• 340 g hot coffee
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt
• 75 ml cognac or cream liqueur

The author suggests choosing a cream at your discretion; I decided to make the “Diplomat” cream, or as it is otherwise called the “Ice cream” cream. The cream resembles melted ice cream, has a very delicate taste and will perfectly highlight the chocolate taste of the biscuit.

For cream:

• 3 eggs
• 0.5 ml milk
• 200 g sugar
• 3 tbsp starch
• 250 g of oil
• 500 ml cream 35%
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the glaze:

• 100 g dark chocolate
• 50 g of oil

I always make the cream first and give it time to stabilize in the refrigerator.

The cream consists of four main stages:

1. Preparing the custard base
2. Whipping cream with butter
3. Whipping cream
4. Mixing cream with cream

Let's prepare the ingredients for the first stage: eggs, sugar, starch, milk.

Break three eggs into a small bowl and mix with sugar.

In a separate bowl, mix starch with three tablespoons of cold water, stir until smooth.

Pour the amount of milk specified in the recipe into a saucepan and heat over medium heat, without bringing to a boil. Pour the heated milk, one ladle at a time, into the mixture of eggs and sugar, making sure to stir so that the eggs do not curdle.

Thus, pour in 2-3 ladles of milk, stir, then pour the mixture with eggs into a saucepan with the remaining milk, add the diluted starch there, stir everything and put it back on the fire until thickened, stirring constantly. The result is a thick mass, which needs to be allowed to simmer for a couple of minutes, then removed from the heat, covered with cling film and cooled completely.

In the second stage, you need to beat the butter at room temperature into a fluffy mass, adding the completely cooled custard one tablespoon at a time. Beat the mixture until all the cream is poured into the butter and add vanilla extract at the very end.

Place part of the cream in a small bowl and paint it in the desired color, and then combine the colored part with the main cream and mix until a uniform color is obtained.

At the third stage, you need to whip the cold cream into a strong, stable foam; for this you need to take cream with a fat content of 35%. It is worth noting once again that the cream should be chilled; if possible, cool the dishes and whisks in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Fourth stage.

When we have both creams ready, all that remains is to combine them and gently knead until smooth. Then cover the dishes with a lid or cling film and put them in the refrigerator.

With a biscuit everything is much simpler, I show everything in detail and therefore it may seem that a lot of manipulations are being performed, in fact this is not the case. It took more time, letters and pictures to prepare the cream.

In order to quickly knead the dough, it is advisable to prepare all the ingredients in advance so that they are at hand.

Be sure to weigh all foods to get an accurate result.

The photographs show that everything is calculated to the gram.

Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and soda into a deep bowl and mix.

Beat eggs with sugar until white.

Add milk, vegetable oil and half a portion of the flour mixture to the beaten eggs, and mix everything again with a mixer at low speed. Then pour in hot coffee. Choose coffee at your discretion, the main thing is that it is strong. Hot coffee will brew the mixture and immediately help release the cocoa aroma.

The dough turns out a little liquid, but there is no need to add flour.

Prepare a baking pan for sponge cakes in advance, grease with butter and sprinkle with flour, line the bottom of the pan with baking paper. Depending on the diameter of the mold, distribute the amount of dough and bake one biscuit at a time in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Remove the finished cakes from the mold, transfer to a wire rack, let cool completely, wrap in cling film and put the cakes in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day we assemble the cake. Since the biscuit cakes were wrapped in cling film and spent the night in the refrigerator, the moisture from the warm biscuit was evenly distributed throughout the cake; due to this simple manipulation, they became moist, and in this case there is no need to soak the cakes in syrup.

Take one part of the sponge cake, cut off the convex top, then generously grease with cream. Place the second biscuit on top of it and so on.

When all the cakes are coated with cream, make a rough coating of the cake with cream and put it in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes, then take out the cake and smooth out all the unevenness with cream.

Place the chocolate in a small pastry bag and place it in a glass of boiling water; the chocolate will melt evenly without much overheating.

Then pour the chocolate into a bowl with butter, stir - the glaze is ready. Butter will soften the chocolate, in this case, the glaze will not crumble when cutting.

Cover the cake with icing, making neat drips.

Decorate at your discretion.

The cake is ready.

I made this cake for my son’s next birthday, so I decorated it brutally using sweets and a small bottle of my favorite alcohol.

The cake turned out delicious, the cake layers were very juicy, and the cream soaked the cake perfectly. It was very tasty for us.

Try cooking.

In fact, this is not a sponge cake, but a cupcake, but cakes with it are just fire) Tender, juicy, with a rich and deep taste. I will describe a couple of nuances of preparation, and how I use it for cakes, trifles and cupcakes. It was already in the recipe for mousse cake "" but it is so universal that it needs to be described separately =))

Precise proportions and correct technology are the most important things in a confectionery maker. Stick to the recipe and everything will work out.

Ingredients are given for the cakes 18 cm in diameter. If you have a different mold size, use the proportion based on the base area. (). I advise you to first determine how much and what you need, write it down on a piece of paper, and only then start cooking.

• Is it possible not to use alcohol? Yes, but add milk instead and don't just remove it from the recipe.
• Hot coffee is a liquid, an already brewed hot drink, and not a heated powder.
• Vegetable oil is regular, odorless sunflower oil. You can try something else, but keep in mind that some oils may impart taste and odor.
• Here milk can be replaced with cream of any fat content. The fatter it is, the denser and more manageable the biscuit will be.
• Cocoa is the highest quality, most aromatic and delicious cocoa you can find. Pure cocoa, without sugar, not Nesquik, but cocoa powder. The taste of the biscuit depends on it as much as possible. The brand I use is Callebaut.

Preparation.

0. Set the oven to preheat - for cake layers at 180°C, for cupcakes - 165°C. We brew coffee.

1. Sift cocoa, flour, baking powder and soda into a bowl. Be sure to sift to break up lumps and saturate the mixture with air (). Mix thoroughly with a whisk so that the soda and baking powder disperse throughout the entire volume and do not accumulate in one place. Here we need both baking soda and baking powder for the correct reaction. There is no need to get rid of the soda - the cake will turn out flat and hard.

2. In a separate bowl, mix vegetable oil, sugar, eggs.

If you do not take individual eggs, then first whisk them in a separate bowl so that the white and yolk are combined, and only then measure out the required amount.

3. Add half of the dry ingredients to the mixture of butter, sugar and eggs. Mix well.

4. Next, add milk, alcohol, stir well. After that, add hot coffee and stir again. The coffee needs to be hot to brew the cocoa (this will give it a richer flavor) and to start reacting with the baking powder to make the cakes fluffier.

Add milk
coffee…
mix

5. After this, add the rest of the dry mixture and stir thoroughly so that there are no lumps.

It’s quite easy to handle a small volume, but if you are preparing the dough for 4 layers, then lumps may appear at this stage - we beat them carefully, at low speed. If you start to freak out, increase the speed and wave the whisk, huge air bubbles will get into the dough, and during baking they will look like caves inside the sponge cake.

The dough turns out liquid; if the baking pan is detachable, it may leak out. To minimize losses, you can wrap the mold in foil, a silicone mold, or place it on a baking sheet - this way less leakage will occur and will not flood the bottom of the oven.

Bakery.

Cakes for cakes and pastries.

line the bottom of the mold with baking paper - end-to-end, so that the bottom of the sponge cake is smooth, without sags, which is formed by the paper sandwiched by the sides (for 3-4 passes you will need 2 circles - while one is in the oven, scrape the second one from the dough, and alternate) . Grease the edges with oil. Pour the dough into the mold - 300 g each. for 1 cake You can bake 1 cake at a time, you can pour a double portion, and then cut.

Bake 1 cake 300 gr. ∼17-18 minutes at 180°C. Check readiness with a toothpick.

Remove from the oven, run a knife along the edge, separating the dough from the pan, cover with a napkin, top with a plate or wire rack, and carefully turn over. The cake falls out freely due to the paper backing.

Next, we put another base in the mold, fill in a new portion and send it to the oven. If I bake more than 2 cakes, then I scrape the used paper from the biscuit with the blunt side of a knife and use it further. Once we’re done, we throw it all away, no need to store it for the next cake.

Cool on a wire rack.

If you are collecting a cake- as soon as the cake has become slightly warm, wrap it in film and put it in the refrigerator to rest for at least 3 hours. Better for the night. I usually bake the cakes in the evening, assemble the cake in the morning, and by evening it’s ready to eat. This helps the moisture spread from the center to the edges - the biscuit becomes uniformly moist, crumbles less, and squishes a little - sometimes this is enough to avoid cutting off the top, but use it as is.

For 1 cake ∼10 cm high you need 3 layers (∼1.7 cm each). Usually I bake 4 due to my crankiness and the possibility of ruining at least 1... If everything goes smoothly, then this 1 cake goes to trifles))) This is how the cake turns out:

If you collect trifles- You can also put it in the refrigerator, but I usually don’t bother. As soon as the cake has cooled down, cut it into layers of 5-10 mm - it’s a big deal, they can break, etc., it’s not a big deal, we’ll still break them further and put them in the molds overlapping.

From 1 cake of 300 grams you get 6 jars of cake, volume 200 ml (jar height about 6.5 cm, shape of a truncated pyramid). We spread a layer of cake + a layer of cream 2-4 times, depending on the height of the biscuit pieces. You can pour ganache on top - it perfectly complements the taste of the cakes.

Cupcakes.

Pour the dough into molds with paper liners - it’s a thousand times more convenient. I do this with a piping bag and a couple of IKEA clamps to keep the dough from spilling out. The result is much cleaner, there are fewer smudges, and the volume of dough in the mold is more accurately controlled. Be sure to pinch the bottom of the bag before pouring the dough into the bag to prevent it from leaking out.

Fill the cups 2/3 full. Bake small cupcakes at 165°C for about 15 minutes. Check readiness with a toothpick.

Base diameter ∼4 cm, dough height ∼6 cm. With this size for 1 piece. takes ∼38 g. test. This means that the proportion of 1 cake is enough for ∼8 pieces.

P.S. It is better not to store the dough - knead it and bake it immediately, otherwise all our shamanism with hot coffee and activation of baking powder will be ineffective. I bake 4 cakes in a row, one after another, and it retains its volume well, so there is no need to knead it separately each time.

P.P.S. And the cake, and trifles and cupcakes can be complemented with a classic one. Yes, I want you to go to this page, so I’m pasting a link to it for the fourth time =D

My first naked cake. Inside is Chef Andy's Dark Larry, buttercream with cherry syrup, fruit.
The chocolate smudges didn't quite work out. When the chocolate cooled down, everything seemed to be still very liquid, I wanted it thicker. So I waited.
Well, I’m not upset, it’s still an experience. And what a delicious experience. They gobbled it up quickly.

On the next one I was much more pleased with the smudges.



Cake for husband's anniversary. Inside - "Hummingbird" from Andy Chef and butter cream flavored with "Tarragon" syrup.
My husband loves this lemonade very much, but I can’t stand either lemonade or the seasoning.
Well, I thought that everything in the cake was delicious. But noooo. I think I don’t like tarragon even more now
Someone spotted the inscription here. The husband was pleased

Third cake for my aunt's anniversary. Inside - Red velvet; cream: butter, condensed milk, cocoa, cognac (maybe this cream has a name, but I don’t know it); and the outside is buttercream with orange juice.

My ordered condurin just arrived. I did everything as the chef explained - I blew it off the brush. But it still didn’t turn out very neatly.
Kondurin was blown away not one grain of sand at a time, but in groups at once. You can see this in the photo. Can anyone advise what's wrong and how to deal with it?

There was no time to tinker with the inscription. Guests arrived and we had to finish it quickly.

And this cake is made to order. A friend asked for it for her son. Inside is Chef Andy's "Chocolate Passion Cake", peaches, buttercream with peach syrup, letters and numbers made from fondant. 2.5 kg.


I was very worried. As always, I started making the cake three days before the event. But I conceived a new cream, not yet tested.
As a result, the cake began to blur. And there were days left.
That night I made new cakes. Cream in the morning. At lunchtime, while my son was sleeping, I decorated it.
What a race... What a nerve... And after I gave the order, it was as if my wings had spread...
But now I’ve decided that if there are ever more orders, no experiments. Only proven recipes!!!
Fortunately, the next day was my birthday. And I collected all the leftover cakes and made myself a cake.
So, everything that is done is really for the better.
The photo shows that I made the figure as I came up with. I have several stencils for letters.
But for numbers, there is only one and very tiny one. I just can’t find anything worthwhile.
If anyone has purchased number stencils from online stores, please share the links. Especially if with aliexpress.

All cakes are frosted with buttercream according to Chef Andy's recipe. Here is his recipe. Maybe it will be useful to someone.

Place soft butter (150 g, 82% fat) and powdered sugar (125 g) into a mixer bowl.
If you doubt the quality, it is better to sift the powder in order to get rid of pieces that will then crunch on your teeth.
Beat this mass for a very long time at maximum mixer speed.
A hand mixer may take about 12-15 minutes. The idea is to get a snow-white mass.
Continuing to beat the mixture, pour in milk (50 g) in a thin stream.
It’s better to do this in portions, for example, pour a teaspoon at a time, beat for 30 seconds and pour in another portion. Room temperature.
If there is any syrup, add it (all 50 g or part).

I'm really looking forward to your advice! Thank you very much for your attention!