Tablea Chocolate Cake

Disclaimer: I'm a home cook wannabe, not a photographer :-) My photos below will show you why.

This is my second recipe from the September 2011 issue of Yummy magazine. This month's issue is all about Filipino food - yes, I know, it can be boring. But, tablea? Never boring! Give me anything chocolate and I'm awake LOL!

First off, the Filipino dishes are not bad at all! I tried the Fishtek Tagalog and the kids loved it! A simple and tasty dish. The Prawns in Aligue is next in my list.

Most important is an article on tablea desserts! I'm super tempted to try the Tableche Flan with Kahlua but (1) I don't have Kahlua, and (2) I don't have enough eggs at 12mn! Yes, I cook at odd hours of the night/morning.

I went with the Tablea Chocolate Cake from Chef Aileen Anastacio and I was not disappointed! The cake was super-moist. It stayed that way even after 1 day in room temperature and 2 days in the ref. The chocolate taste was right on spot - not too sweet in the right gooey-ness. This is the type of chocolate cake you'd get from a good restaurant. The entire cake was finished in one day (and this is a double layer 8 inch!) and a slice was left in the ref for my husband. It was that good!

Chocolate Tablea Cake
Yummy Magazine September 2011

• 1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used unsweetened Hershey's cocoa powder)
• 3/4 cup tablea chocolate, chopped finely (I didn't chop and I didn't have a food processor, so I grated the tableas)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup butter, cubed and softened (I used unsalted)
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk

For the icing:

• 20 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped finely (I used chocolate chips)
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 2 tbsps corn syrup

The recipe called for 2 9-inch round baking pan. I only have 1 9-inch so I used 2 8-inch round baking pans instead.

Grease the pan with butter. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan and parchment. I already used flour when I remembered I should have used cocoa powder instead in dusting the pans. This is so that you don't get white spots when you take your cake off the pan.

Instead of chopping the tablea, I grated them. This gave me a fine powder which was easier to melt in water.

Place cocoa powder and grated/chopped tablea chocolates in a bowl. Pour boiling water and stir until chocolates are melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one a time beating well after you add each one. Add the vanilla.

Slowly add the cocoa mixture and beat well.

In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and salt.

Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until well blended.

Pour the batter into the pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center. Toothpick should come out clean.

See all that flour on the sides of the pan? That should be cocoa powder :-(

Cool in a wire rack for 10 minutes.

You can prepare the icing while your cakes are baking.

Place the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over medium heat.

Stir constantly while chocolate is melting. Be careful not to burn your chocolate. Do this for about 20 minutes or until the chocolate is thick.

Remove from heat and stir in corn syrup. Transfer to a bowl and let cool in the ref for about 2 hours. Check and stir the mixture every 15 minutes.

Remove one of your cake from the pan and transfer to a cake turntable.

Place your icing in the middle of the cake and spread evenly on the layer of the cake. Note that I didn't even bother leveling the cake. I want this messy and gooey LOL


Remove the other cake and place on top of the first layer.

Place more icing on top of the cake and around it. Don't care about keeping the cake neat. Chocolate cakes are not meant to be neat LOL

Went all downhill from this point LOL

Go ahead, you can lick all those chocolate icing

Sliced - but just one layer - let's keep our blood sugars low :-)

Pawis rating: 2 of 5 suprisingly easy! Taste factor - 10 of 10 - a definite must-try!