5/26/11

chocolate cake w/ olive oil and sea salt


One of the great joys of blogging is the down time I have with scoping out new favorite bloggers. Granted I don't get a lot of down time, but when I do my ideal situation: 6pm or 7pm, dishes are done, everyone is fed, jazz on the internet radio--time to look at other food blogs and food writing websites. I get great inspiration from other food blogs; love seeing new photos, new techniques, other bloggers taking some old recipe, jazzing it up with a new twist or several twists. Honestly I get all my inspiration if I come across a really good food photo. For me inspiration starts with the eyes, then the stomach, then seeing if the flavors I want to add in will match/coexist happily. This chocolate cake with olive oil and sea salt was inspired by sprinklebakes.com When I saw that she had done a sea theme by baking the cakes in shells I was hooked. I didn't use seas shells because I wanted to make sure I liked the whole baking sweets with olive oil first. Admittedly I was very skeptical about using olive oil in anything sweet or baking related. Not any more. The olive oil really does pair very nice with dark chocolate. Not sure about milk chocolate, so stick with the 70% (or higher) dark chocolate. The next time I make these I will try them with the sea shells and the added extra touch of drizzling them with a last coat of olive oil before serving.
Have a good Memorial Day weekend everyone! What are you doing?


chocolate cake with sea salt & olive oil
adapted from sprinklebakes.com
print recipe

Cook notes: I wanted to try and make brownie-like cake. See my changes. And I used a chocolate Ganache instead of the chocolate sauce. This is a very moist cake; it was very hard to cut these into perfect little squares for the photo. If you want to make this the original way please visit sprinklebakes.com

Cake:
7oz. dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter (14 tbsp. or 1 3/4 US sticks)
4 medium eggs
3/4 cups granulated sugar
Scant 1/2 cup all purpose flour (I used 1 cup flour)
1 1/2 ts baking powder
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Brush the entire bottom and sides of a brownie pan (8x8 or 9x9) with generous amount of olive oil; set aside.

Melt chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water.
Add butter and stir until butter is melted and well combined with the chocolate.
Remove bowl from simmering water and let stand until later needed.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs and sugar together and mix on high speed until mixture turns pale and doubles in volume.
Decrease mixer speed and add the flour a little at a time, then the baking powder.
While mixer is running, pour the chocolate mixture in a thin stream into the egg and sugar mixture.
Mix until well blended. Pour batter into brownie pan
Bake for 25-30 minutes. When cake is done, it will form a brownie-like crust on top and a toothpick tester should come out clean.

(Instead of the chocolate sauce I used a dark chocolate Ganache: 1 cup of dark chocolate melted with 1-2 TB of heavy cream whip until nice & glossy)

Chocolate sauce:
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup half and half
3 TB sugar
2 TB unsalted butter
4 oz. dark chocolate
1 ts vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, stir together cream, half and half, sugar and butter.
Place pan over medium-high heat and stir to dissolve the sugar and melt butter.
When sugar and butter has melted, add chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth.
Add vanilla extract and whisk again.
Remove from heat. Let the mixture stand for a few minutes and then whisk again.
(This is a good all-purpose chocolate sauce and can be stored in refrigerator for up to two weeks.)

Assembly:
Spoon a small amount of chocolate sauce/or ganache over cake, smoothing it to the edges with the back of a spoon. Lightly sprinkle cakes with sea salt (don't use a heavy hand with this if using coarse salt).
Drizzle cakes with olive oil. (I did not do this)

40 comments:

  1. I like baking muffins with olive oil, and this sounds just as delicious. Love the gooey glaze on top. Hope you have a good memorial too.

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  2. This looks like chocolate heaven! I should send the picture to my FIL. He'd have a meltdown ;). I use olive oil in the pumpkin bars I make- fantastic! Yayy for memorial day! This weekend I am finishing baby shopping with My mama (and we're taking Body Step), walking the bridge into Charleston with a friend and having a date night with Josh

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  3. This cake looks amazing! I love your adaptation.

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  4. i really hope my memorial day weekend brings me something like this!!!

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  5. i really hope my memorial day weekend brings me something like this!!!

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  6. I love heather, she has the best ideas and I have made a few of her things. I cant stop thinking about this recipe.

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  7. I just tried olive oil in my favorite zucchini muffins this morning. I LOVED the change. I'll definitely be doing that again. Your cake looks beautiful!

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  8. Mmm, I love using sea salt in baked good recipes - I think it complements chocolate and caramel SO well.

    I agree with you on the down time for reading blogs and finding new ones. I haven't had as much lately, and I miss it!

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  9. These are a must try for me, since I adore olive oil cakes of all kinds!!!

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  10. I want this now. Right now!! Have a great weekend. I'll be relaxing!!

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  11. This looks downright scrumptious! Salt and chocolate are such a delicious couple. :)

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  12. Ohhh yeah...I saw these in the shells! This sounds amazing. Chocolate makes me happy

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  13. Just popped over from twitter when I saw the mention - WOW, lovely adaptation! Love the ganache on top. So glad you enjoyed the recipe!

    xo

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  14. I haven't done the baking with olive oil thing yet either...but it's in the works/percolating around in my brain. And can anything with 70% chocolate in it taste bad? If so, I've yet to discover it.

    This looks almost fudgy. AKA perfection.

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  15. That looks just incredible! So moist and chocolatey. Plus, the olive oil is a health bonus.

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  16. OMG! Being a choca holic I just had to try this. So AWESOME and I am so glad that I stumbled into you and your blog! Now, I'm going to enjoy trying to get this all over my insides! Forget the sharing with others.......Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

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  17. that melty ganache with a little bit of salt? wowsa. i've got a bachelorette party, dog-sitting, and work this weekend...

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  18. Oh. My. Goodness. This looks amazing! I recently got some Himalayan pink salt from Sustainable Sourcing https://secure.sustainablesourcing.com and I'll have to try it out in this recipe. Thanks for sharing!

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  19. I love soft serve ice cream with olive oil & sea salt so I already know how good they both are in sweet application! Dark chocolate with then sounds heavenly

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  20. Girl, you definitely have a knack for photographing melted chocolate. Every time I'm cruising your blog and my boyfriend sees your header, he drools for melty chocolate cookies! These look ridiculous!

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  21. Wow this look so amazing! :D

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  22. I am literally salivating over these. They look so sinful!

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  23. I just found your blog...I'm drooling looking at all the wonderful recipes!!

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  24. This cake looks awesome, I love the combo of olive oil and chocolate in baked goodies.

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  25. It looks awesome (and just say it on tasetologie :))

    I have never baked with EVOO (well wait, maybe in a pinch) but no noteworthy results. Need to try it again with this recipe!

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  26. I have made olive oil citrus cake before, but I have never used olive oil in making a chocolate cake. I adore fudgy brownies, and am not a fan of chocolate cake unless it is pretty dense and almost brownie-like, so this looks perfect for me! I also would choose ganache over chocolate sauce. The darker the better!

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  27. I rarely use olive oil to bake but this cake looks so rich and delicious!

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  28. I love salty/sweet combinations. The cake looks rich and decadent! Delicious Dawn.

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  29. ah, moistitude. this is neither here nor there, but i recently saw someone put a dash of olive oil and a pinch of salt on her chocolate ice cream. i'm still not convinced...

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  30. Man, this makes me hungry!!!! :)

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  31. Those look extremely tempting and luscious! A wonderful twist to a classic.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  32. That looks so delectable. And olive oil in chocolate cake- I love it!

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  33. I've been lurking for a couple weeks, and LOVING your sweet blog. Your photos amaze me and inspire me so much. Way to go girlfriend!

    Blessings,
    Sasha

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  34. This looks and sounds fantastic!! I have made a blueberry olive oil cake before but Chocolate...YUM!!

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  35. The cake itself looks scrumptious, but you have such a way with that chocolate sauce! It looks so inviting - "Let me enrobe you with my smooth, luscious, chocolate-y self...!" Mmmmm....

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  36. I have not had great luck baking with olive oil. Granted, I have never done a chocolate dessert with it, but my attempts have come out greasy. This looks incredible though and I'm sure it was delish!

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  37. A touch of Italian!! I like the "Olive Oil" added...

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  38. And one of the greatest joys of blogging for me is having met people like you. Love you mama!

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  39. These look fudgy and delicious. Love the addition of sea salt. Salt makes everything better! =P

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