The Robert Redford Cake

The Robert Redford Cake (source: Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982. pg. 178.)

The recent death of Robert Redford reminded me that I had never made this cake. The cake has a confusing history. Maida herself first saw the recipe in the magazine Chocolate News. It was a recipe from Hisae restaurant in New York City and named for the actor who loved the cake. Later, Maida was in NYC and visited Hisae and ordered the cake. She knew immediately that it was different from the one in the magazine. She got the recipe from the restaurant and it is the one in her book. She never solved the mystery as to why they were different.

Flash forward some fifty years later, and when you do a search for "Robert Redford Cake", you get something very different from this recipe. Most likely, search results give you a popular layered dessert with a shortbread-like crust, a filling made with sweetened condensed milk, and a pudding layer sprinkled with a toffee/butterscotch sprinkling. I remember the recipe well. Every time you attended a function where people brought desserts, it was sure to be there. It was then called "Better Than Sex Cake". I know my mother made it, but she would never have called it that.

So this cake, entirely different, is a chocolate honey cake with a velvety, nutty texture and subtle chocolate and honey flavor. It is delicious and reminds me of some of the wonderful tortes that I've made in the past. The technique is a little different from most of her other recipes. I wasn't sure about the icing, which is more like a pudding, but it tastes wonderful. Maida says to make individual servings of the whipped cream to go with each slice of cake when serving.

6 1/2 oz. (1 1/4 cups) blanched hazelnuts or almonds

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

6 oz. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

1/2 cup honey

10 large eggs, separated

1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 375. Butter a springform pan (or 10 x 3" round pan) and line the bottom with parchment or baking paper. Lightly dust with bread crumbs.

Blanch the almonds or hazelnuts and grind them in a food processor to a fine powder.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and let it come to room temperature, stirring occasionally (I used an ice-water bath to speed this up).

Beat the butter until softened.

Gradually add the honey and beat until smooth.

Add the egg yolks, a few at a time, and blend well.

The mixture will appear curdled.

Add the chocolate and mix well, scraping the bowl as necessary. The mixture should now appear smooth.

Add the ground nuts.

In a separate, clean bowl, whisk the egg whites. Add the salt and beat until the egg whites form soft peaks.

Fold one-third of the egg whites at a time into the chocolate mixture until fully incorporated. This makes a lot of batter. (A stand-mixer bowl is adequate but if you are using a hand mixture, you will need a large bowl.)

Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350. Bake an additional 40-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean (40 minutes worked for me). After turning the oven off, allow the cake to sit in the open oven for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

During cooling, the cake will shrink a little.

After cooling, carefully remove from the pan.

ICING

3/4 cup heavy cream

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

In a heavy saucepan, heat the cream until a wrinkled skin forms on top.

Reduce the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and smooth.

Transfer the icing to a bowl to cool completely (again, an ice-bath helps). Occasionally stir. The icing should gradually become slightly thicker.

Pour the icing over the top of the cake and smooth.

The cake can be served immediately or later. Serve with whipped cream.

WHIPPED CREAM

For every cup of heavy cream, add 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar or granulated sugar or one tablespoon of honey and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Use a chilled bowl and whisk to beat the cream until it holds a soft shape.