This Well-known Singaporean Chocolate Cake Requires Little Extra Than a Bowl and Whisk

Final October, on a go to house to Singapore, I listened to my aunt gush about Lana Truffles, a famed Singaporean cake store that has been in enterprise since 1964. Although I had by no means tasted their truffles, I’d heard loads of nice issues concerning the bakery and its fudgy chocolate cake. For a few of my associates, celebrating their birthdays with the favored chocolate cake was a household custom spanning many years. Shocked that I’d by no means tasted this iconic deal with, my aunt purchased a cake for me to strive. Regardless that it was a blisteringly sizzling day—temperatures in Singapore sometimes vary from 86 to 95ºF (30 to 35ºC)—the confection was pristine. The frosting hadn’t melted and the ornamental ripples in it remained immaculate. 

I took a chunk of the cake. Its tenderness and intense chocolate taste shocked me: It was like consuming a bar of darkish chocolate, however in cake kind. The frosting, particularly, made the dessert really feel each acquainted but utterly totally different from another chocolate cake I’ve had up to now. The frosting curiously toed the road between ganache and gel: It was set sufficient that it didn’t depart a multitude even after I picked up a slice with my hand, but nonetheless managed to have a creamy, melt-in-the-mouth high quality. As soon as I acquired again to the Netherlands, the place I reside as we speak, I used to be desirous to recreate the dessert in my house kitchen.

Key Methods for Making the Cake

Handle the warmth fastidiously when making the frosting . By way of my testing, I discovered that for one of the best frosting, that you must convey the cornstarch, sugar, and water to a bubble—which helps the starches gelatinize—then instantly take away the pot from the warmth earlier than whisking within the gelatin and chocolate. I discovered that if I allowed the frosting to boil vigorously after including the chocolate, it grew to become stiff and grainy—not the shiny, barely-set impact of Lana Truffles’ chocolate cake. That is seemingly as a result of the chocolate overheated; when the ingredient reaches 145ºF (62ºC), it begins to grab and break. The ensuing frosting is simply thick sufficient to drape over the cake, and because the combination cools, the gelatin units it, leading to a pristine chocolate frosting that stays intact even in sizzling and humid tropical climate. 

Use Dutch-process cocoa powder and occasional. To recreate the unapologetically wealthy and intense taste of the dessert, I used satan’s meals cake—which has a dramatically darkish crumb, deep chocolate taste, and is splendidly tender —as my place to begin. There are two broad classes of cocoa powder: pure cocoa powder and Dutch-process cocoa powder. Pure cocoa powder is of course acidic and has a pH between 5 and 6, however Dutch-process cocoa powder is washed with a potassium carbonate resolution that neutralizes the cocoa’s pH to seven. This produces a barely darker cocoa powder that provides baked items, together with this chocolate cake, a deeper brown hue. Right here, the addition of espresso enhances the cocoa powder’s fruity, bittersweet notes, leading to a deeply chocolate-y dessert.

For the straightest edges, bake the cake in a Pullman loaf pan. Utilizing an oblong pan with straight edges not solely replicates the look of the unique Lana Truffles creation, but in addition creates a neat cake that’s straightforward to evenly stage and drape in frosting. For those who don’t have a Pullman loaf pan, you need to use a daily 9- by 4-inch loaf pan—however as a result of a daily loaf pan is far shorter than a Pullman loaf pan, you’ll need to take away a half cup of cake batter earlier than baking, which can stop the batter from spilling over the perimeters because it bakes. (That half cup of batter makes for a really single-serving cake. Simply place it in a greased ramekin and bake till simply agency to the contact, 15 to twenty minutes.)

Ideas for Nailing the Chocolate Pudding Frosting

Bloom your gelatin. Blooming gelatin—sprinkling gelatin powder over chilly water so it may totally hydrate—prevents it from clumping up and helps it dissolve evenly into no matter it’s added to. 

Incorporate cornstarch and gelatin into the frosting. In my analysis, I used to be shocked to study that the frosting wasn’t a ganache or buttercream, however moderately a starch-thickened one which’s ready on the range. To make it, you cook dinner a mix of cornstarch, sugar, and water till it simply bubbles, then take away it from the warmth and whisk in bloomed gelatin and chopped darkish chocolate till easy. 

On-line sources suggest utilizing mung bean starch to organize the cake’s frosting; the ingredient is often used to make kueh, little snacks and confections broadly eaten all through Southeast Asia. Since mung bean starch is just not as available as cornstarch in lots of nations, together with the US, I experimented with each. Whereas the frosting made with mung bean starch was barely lighter in texture in comparison with cornstarch, there have been very minimal variations, and I’ve no hesitation in recommending cornstarch on this recipe.

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