Page 102 - Chocolate Cake Doctor

84 L U S C I O U S L A Y E R S

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven
and preheat the oven to 350°F. Gener- R
ously grease two 9-inch round cake
pans with solid vegetable shortening, the Cake Mix Doctor says
then dust with flour. Shake out the
excess flour. Set the pans aside. You can alter this recipe to suit your
palate by using a devil’s food cake mix
2. Place a large mixing bowl and electric
instead of the dark chocolate fudge,
mixer beaters in the refrigerator to chill. butter instead of margarine, and black
walnuts instead of regular walnuts.
3. Place the margarine in a medium-
And you can add as much coffee
size saucepan over low heat and melt it,
powder to the frosting as you like.
or place it in a medium-size glass bowl
1
Natalie’s original recipe calls for 1 ⁄2
and melt it in the microwave on high
table spoons, but 1 tablespoon was
power for 1 minute. Fold in the graham
enough for me. If your instant coffee is
cracker crumbs and let cool, about 15
the freeze-dried granules, process it for
minutes. When the mixture is cool, fold
10 seconds in a coffee grinder or food
in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Set processor to make it finer in texture.
aside.
4. Place the cake mix, water, oil, and
eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with
press the mixture into the batter so it
an electric mixer on low speed for 1
sticks, but not so hard as to let it sink
minute. Stop the machine and scrape
into the batter. Place the pans in the
down the sides of the bowl with a rubber
oven side by side.
spatula. In crease the mixer speed to
medium and beat 2 minutes more, 5. Bake the cakes until they spring
scraping down the sides again if needed. back when lightly pressed with your fin-
The batter should look well combined. ger, 32 to 35 minutes. Remove the pans
Divide the batter evenly between the from the oven and place them on wire
prepared pans, smooth ng it out with racks to cool for 30 minutes. Run a din-
i
the rubber spatula. Sprinkle the choco- ner knife around the edge of each layer
late chip–walnut mixture evenly over the and invert each onto a rack, then invert
cake batter in both pans. Using your fin- again onto another rack so that the
gertips or the back of a spoon, lightly cooled cakes are right (topping) side up.