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  • Chocolate Lava Cake

angel food cake

Angel Food Cake
Yield: 1 – 8” cake
Ingredient    Amount
  • Egg whites, room temperature        1.5 cups (about 12 eggs)
  • Vanilla        1 tsp
  • Fresh lemon juice        2 tsp
  • Sugar        1 cup (200 g)    
  • Cream of tartar        1 tsp
  • Salt        ½ tsp
  • Cake flour        1 cup sifted (130 g)
  • Sugar        ½ cup (100 g)
                (last 2 ingredients  sifted together)Method: Cold Foam (preparation time: 45 minutes + baking time)
  1. Combine egg whites with vanilla and lemon juice and beat until soft peaks (for about 5 minutes).
  2. Sift together first 1 cup of sugar, cream of tartar and salt, add gradually to egg whites ¼ cup at a time and beat until mixture forms a wet peak.
  3. Sift second sugar and flour together and carefully fold ¼ at a time into whites.
Baking Instructions:
  1. Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes or until cake "bounces back" on top when touched by your finger.
  2. When done, turn pan over on a rack, allow to cool before removing from pan.
Note:    Butter and flour the bottom but not the sides of the pan for angel food cake. Cake flour is specially milled flour and is low-gluten and slightly acidic and is stocked in most grocery stores. You can remove 2 tablespoons from 1 cup of all-purpose flour and replace it with corn starch, and sift the two together several times for a reasonable facsimile, although it’s not quite the same. 


Chocolate Buttercream (Italian Meringue buttercream)
Yield: 2+ lb.
Ingredient    Amount
  • Sugar    10 oz.
  • Water    3 oz.
  • Egg white    5 liquid oz.
  • Butter    1 lb.
  • Bittersweet chocolate, melted    3 oz.
Method: Foaming
  1. Separately cream the butter in mixer until light and soft. Set aside.
  2. In a clean, completely dry bowl beat the egg whites on high until frothy; add 2 oz of sugar and whip until soft peaks form. Set them aside for a moment.
  3. Place the other 8 oz sugar and water together in a pot. Place over medium heat, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Raise heat to high and cook till 240F. Washing down sides of pot with water throughout this process.
  4. At 230F begin whipping egg whites again, whip them to med/ soft peaks.
  5. When the sugar reaches 240F slowly begin pouring the hot sugar syrup into the soft peak egg whites. * Machine is on 2nd speed! After all the sugar is added, turn machine up to 3rd speed, and whip till cool – this can take about 10 minutes.
  6. Slowly add the creamed butter to the meringue with the machine running on 2nd speed using the whip. After the butter is all added, add melted cooled chocolate. Turn the machine up to 3rd speed for about 5 minutes, until light and airy.


Buttercream: The basic ingredients in most buttercream are butter, sugar, salt, and eggs. Making slight changes to the basic recipe and adding different ingredients changes the properties of the buttercream. Color, texture, shelf life, and flavor are slightly different with each type of buttercream. The four main types are American, Swiss Meringue, Italian Meringue, and French Meringue.
The most basic type of buttercream is American buttercream. This is the frosting you on the cakes at your local supermarket. Because its main ingredients are butter or shortening and sugar or other sweeteners, American buttercream has a very long shelf life.
To fix a meringue-based Buttercream: Italian Buttercream is a simple "water and fat emulsion". Sometimes the emulsion breaks, resulting in a buttercream that looks broken and curdled. Don’t throw it out if it looks lumpy or if it is too soft or too stiff, fix it.   
Buttercream is cold and broken: Separately melt about 25% of the mixture, return it to the remainder and then rewhip -- it should come right together. OR, if the mixture is warm and broken, simply chill the buttercream in the refrigerator until the mixture is cool and then rewhip.

Buttercream that has become too runny: (1) It can become soupy and runny if too warm. Place mixing bowl into an ice bath and whisk briskly until the icing becomes cohesive and silky Or, you can refrigerate it until well-chilled. Then, re-whip, if necessary; (2) It can become too runny from not enough confectioner's sugar, meringue or egg white powder. Add more, a little at a time, to stiffen it.

Buttercream that has become too stiff: (1) It can become too cold: wrap a steaming hot dishtowel, turban like, around the mixing bowl. When the sides of buttercream begin to melt a bit, whisk or stir with a wooden spoon until it becomes satiny and shiny; (2) It can become too stiff and difficult too spread if too thick: thin with light corn syrup or heat it slightly.


Photo from seelensturm