Frank's Recipes! Grand Marnier Chocolate Cake with Shiny Chocolate Icing

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Grand Marnier Chocolate Cake with Shiny Chocolate Icing

This excellent dense chocolate cake may be made using different liqueurs for flavors of chocolate with orange, raspberry, coffee, mint, almond, cherry, hazelnut or extracts and with or without nuts and zests. See the variations below.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (Valhrona is our favorite)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
zest of one orange, finely chopped*
1/2 cup sugar for the batter
2 tablespoon sugar, for the egg whites
3 eggs, separated and at room temperature
2 tablespoon Gran Marnier**
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar pinch of salt
1/2 cup sifted cake flour
1/2 cup grated chocolate for garnish
One 8 inch cake pan, prepared by buttering the sides and bottom, placing a piece of parchment paper on the bottom and buttering the parchment.

It is very important to have all baking ingredients at room temperature and the chocolate warm when mixing them into the whites as ingredients blend easily together when warm.

Melt the 4 ounces of chopped chocolate in a small saucepan over very low heat.

Cream room temperature butter, grated zest of orange and 1/2 cup of the sugar in mixing bowl until soft and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and Grand Marnier. Add the warm (not hot) melted chocolate.

Whip the egg whites until foaming. Add the cream of tartar and salt and continue whipping until soft peaks are formed. Add the sugar and whip until stiff peaks are formed. (A copper bowl may be used to whip the whites but the cream of tarter must be eliminated)

Stir a spoonful of whites into the chocolate to lighten it.

Beginning with another scoop of whites and alternating with flour fold both mixtures into the chocolate until just blended.

Place the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake at 325o for about 25 minutes. The center of the cake will be moist and leave damp crumbs when pierced with a toothpick. The outside edge will be dry 2 to 3 inches from the edge of the pan.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool for about 30 minutes on a wire rack. Unmold on a wire cooling rack. Remove the parchment paper. The bottom of the cake will become the top. After the cake cools brush loose crumbs from the sides. Meanwhile prepare the Shiny Chocolate Icing.

Glaze the cake with the Shiny Chocolate Icing. Begin by pouring the glaze on the top of the cake. Spread with an icing spatula so that the glaze just runs down the side of the cake. Press grated chocolate on the sides of the cake while the icing is still soft. Allow the icing to set in a cool room or in the refrigerator. Carefully, using a wide flat turner, move cake to a cake platter. Cake may be refrigerated in an airtight container but must be served at room temperature.

The flavor of chocolate is masked when served cold. It is very important to serve this type of cake room temperature, not directly out of the refrigerator.

*Variations

Raspberry: Replace the Grand Marnier with Chambord in both the cake and icing. Decorate the top rim of the cake with fresh raspberries and then using a pastry brush glaze them with a mixture of 2 tablespoon red currant jelly and 1 tablespoon water that have been melted together. Omit the orange zest.

Hazelnut or Almond: Fold in at the end 1/3 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts or almonds and replace the Gran Marnier with Frangelico (hazelnut) or Amaretto (almond). Garnish sides of cake with additional toasted and chopped nuts. The orange zest may be left in or taken out.

Coffee: Add 2 tablespoon coffee liqueur or 1 teaspoon instant espresso dissolved in 2 tablespoon water to the batter and 1 tablespoon to the icing. Garnish with grated chocolate on the sides of the cake and with a rim of pure chocolate/coffee beans around the top rim of the cake. Omit orange zest.

Plain chocolate: Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract to the cake batter. Do not add vanilla to the icing.

Extracts: If you prefer the use of extracts over liqueurs you may add almond, mint, or orange extracts instead. It is important to taste the batter for depth of taste as every extract has a different strength.