You can make upside-down cakes with all kinds of fruit, but you just can’t beat our take on the classic.
Rich and buttery with big almond flavor, this cake is mixed in seconds in a food processor, but it tastes fancy and sophisticated, and it keeps for days.
Stack cakes aren’t traditional layer cakes—they look more like a stack of pancakes piled up with a sweet filling between the layers.
Using a good-quality olive oil makes a difference in this cake, which is dense and moist and just the right amount of sweet.
We have about 10 chocolate cakes in our repertoire, from Cynthia's Chocolate Cake made with cocoa and buttermilk, to the decadently rich Ballymaloe Chocolate Cake made with the very best chocolate money can buy, lots of ground almonds, and a silky chocolate frosting. But if I had to choose just one, it might have to be this recipe given to me by my sister Blathnaid Bergin. It is deliciously chocolatey, yet light and rich at the same time. You can serve it very simply with the chocolate ganache poured over the top or spruce it up for a birthday cake.
This cake was the first thing I learned to bake with my grandmother. It was, and still is, the best cake I have ever tasted. The Scharffen Berger chocolate we use at the bakery puts a new spin on a nostalgic cake, and a hint of strong coffee adds another flavor dimension. Topped with a decadent buttercream frosting, this cake is everything you want a chocolate cake to be, and a sweet finale for any occasion.
If you can melt chocolate and stir, you can make these cakes, and no commercial mix has chocolate as good as this. Quality chocolate is like breeding: it always shines through. Gooey chocolate pockets stud the cakes, while the cake itself is nearly as dense as fudge.
This is a cake that should come with a warning: Only proceed if you love molasses. If you do love molasses and its dark, bitter sweetness, then proceed immediately, and with haste. This cake is dark, fudgy, damp and rich. It's like a chocolate cake for people who don't like chocolate.
Kentucky Apple Stack Cake--Traditional Version
This rich, intensely chocolate cake is the perfect dinner party dessert because it is both so easy to make and seriously delicious. Like a little black dress, the recipe can be improvised on endlessly to create different effects. Add exotic flavorings such as freshly ground pink or black peppercorns, ancho chile, Mexican cinnamon, curry powder or garam masala (about 1/4 teaspoon); dried, unsprayed lavender flowers or herbes de Provence (1/2 teaspoon, crumbled), or ground Earl Gray tea (2 teaspoons). Or stir 3/4 cup coarsely chopped nuts such as roasted pistachios, hazelnuts or pecans into the finished batter. For chocolate almond cake, add the barest whisper of almond extract (a scant 1/8 teaspoon) and chopped toasted almonds (Spanish Marcona almonds are sensational).