Palm Beach Chocolate Tube Cake

Palm Beach Chocolate Tube Cake
Source: Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.), pg. 52.

This recipe contained no introduction and when I looked it up on the Internet, I kept seeing another recipe for a chocolate cake from The Silver Palate Cookbook, published in 1982. I have that book and pulled it off the shelf and took a look. Sure enough, the recipes appears identical. The Silver Palate calls it "Decadent Chocolate Cake"with the only notable exception being the frosting, which the Silver Palate had done differently (more on that later). Maida Heatter's book was published in 1974. Hmmm....

Regardless of who came up with it first, it is a scrumptious cake - dense, moist, richly chocolate - heaven!

Now, about that frosting. Maida's recipe calls for only three ingredients - semisweet chocolate, sour cream and 1 egg. After reading the recipe, I decided to skip it since it calls for a raw egg. That doesn't bother me that much but Michael will not touch anything with raw egg. I did want to use sour cream because sour cream chocolate frosting is both our favorite frosting. I remembered seeing another recipe in Maida Heatter's Cakes and went with it. It is fantastic! That icing goes with a different chocolate cake that I have not made yet called "American Chocolate Layer Cake". Note to self...

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2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/4 lb. (1 stick) butter
1 cup boiling water
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Adjust the oven rack 1/3 from the bottom and preheat to 350. Butter a 9-inch tube pan and line the bottom with paper (cutting around the center tube). Dust with fine bread crumbs.

Sift together the flour and baking powder and set aside.

Combine the chocolate, butter and boiling water. Melt over medium heat.

Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Reserve 2 tablespoons of the sugar.

Add the larger portion of sugar to the chocolate mixture.

Add the vanilla

Add the eggs, mixing until smooth.

In a small bowl, add the baking soda to the sour cream and whisk together until smooth.

Add the sour cream to the chocolate mixture.

Add the flour gradually, beating only until smooth. Remove the bowl from the mixer and replace with a clean bowl with clean whisk attachment.

Beat the egg whites until they have a soft shape. Add the 2 tablespoons of sugar and beat until stiff but not dry.

Add a few dollops of the chocolate to the egg whites and gently fold together.

Now add the egg whites to the bowl of chocolate and fold together.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.

Bake for 50 - 60 minutes until the top springs back when lightly pressed.

Cool the cake on a rack for about 5 minutes, then carefully invert the pan to remove from the pan. Allow it to cool completely. After it has cooled, place pieces of wax paper around the edges to prepare for frosting.

After frosting is completed, slide the paper out.

ICING

Here is the original icing recipe that accompanied the cake recipe. Like I said earlier, I did not use this one but I've included the one I did use at the bottom.

8 oz. semisweet chocolate
3/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1 egg

Melt the chocolate, transfer to a mixing bowl. Beat in the sour cream and egg until smooth.

Let stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes, until slightly thickened.

Alternate (the one I used):

Chocolate Sour Cream Icing 

8 oz. milk chocolate
6 oz. semisweet chocolate
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over barely simmering water.

Transfer to mixer bowl. Add the salt, vanilla and sour cream. Beat on low speed until smooth.

If icing is too thin, let it sit at room temperature about an hour or until slightly thickened.