Because sometimes, summer is right around the corner, and you don’t want a whole cake sitting around the house for just the two of you. And because, the slices will be so virtuously small, you are perfectly justified in drowning them in booze.

Happy Spring, everyone!

Adapted from Whole Wheat Pastry Flour Chocolate Cake

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Boozy Baby Chocolate Cake

EQUIPMENT

• one 6-inch X 3-inch high cake pan (for the tall & small cake pictured here) OR one 8 or 9-inch cake pan (for a regular-sized layer)
• electric mixer (hand or stand)
• kitchen scale (makes this much easier!)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 and 1/4 oz (1/4 cup + 2 tbsp) unsweetened cocoa (non-alkalized, like Dagoba or Trader Joe’s)
• 1/2 cup boiling filtered water
• 1/2 cup liqueur, divided, such as Godiva chocolate liqueur, Kahlua, or Bailey’s Irish Cream
• 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk (2 and 5/8 oz)
• 1 and 1/8 tsp vanilla
• 4 and 1/8 oz (1 cup + 3 tbsp) sifted whole wheat pastry flour + 2 tbsp corn starch, combined (see Methods)
• 3/4 cups (5 and 1/4 oz) sugar (organic evaporated cane juice)
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup (4 oz or 1 stick) butter, softened

METHODS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Take the butter out of the fridge to soften.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa and boiling water until smooth.  Cool to room temperature.  Add 1/4 cup of liqueur to cocoa mixture.
3. Prepare the cake pan: grease, then line the bottom with parchment paper, then grease again and coat with flour.
4. In a small bowl lightly whisk the egg + yolk, 1/4 of the cocoa mixture and the vanilla.
5. Tare a large bowl on your scale; add 2 tbsp of cornstarch, then add pastry flour to bring the total weight up to 4 and 1/8 oz.  Add baking powder, salt, and sugar and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend.  Add butter and remaining cocoa mixture; mix on low speed until all of the flour is moistened, then increase the speed to medium (or high speed on a hand mixer) and beat for 90 seconds to aerate and develop the cake’s structure.  Scrape down the sides. Add the egg mixture gradually, in 3 additions, beating for 20 seconds in between additions.  Scrape down the sides and beat for 20 seconds more.
6. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth the surface with a spatula.  Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a tester inserted near the middle comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center.  The cake should only start to shrink back from the sides of the pan once it has been removed from the oven.
7. Cool the cake in the pan, on a wire rack, for 10 – 20 minutes.  Loosen the sides with a small metal spatula, if necessary, then invert onto wire rack; reinvert (using a plate) immediately and cool the cake on the rack.  For the cleanest slice, allow the cake to cool completely before leveling the top with a long, serrated knife. (I was too impatient and sliced mine while still warm; the cake crumbled more, but it was delicious eaten warm, so…).  Drizzle remaining 1/4 cup of liqueur over the top surface of the cake. Finish with a sifting of powdered sugar, a generous dollop of whipped cream, or Simple Orange Zest Glaze.

Yields one baby-sized cake (1/2 of a regular cake recipe).  Serves 4 – 6.

OPTIONS

1. You can substitute regular white AP flour (Rose recommends bleached AP flour) for the WW pastry flour, or use 4 and 1/8 oz cake flour.
2. This recipe is exactly half of a standard cake recipe. For the non-baby-sized version, double the recipe.

STORE

At room temperature for 2 to 3 days.  Refrigerated for up to 1 week.  Freeze, without glaze or added liqueur, for up to 1 year.

SEASON

Bathing suit.