The techniques and recipes used by Chris Kimball and the Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country team continue to impress me. Every issue of the magazine that I get, and every show I watch, teaches me at least a handful of new best practices that can be widely applied to my cooking and baking — and that is something I can't say for even the cookbooks and magazines that I actually like and use a fair amount.
The latest project that caught my eye was the Cook's Country Chocolate Blackout Cake (complete the free registration to access the recipe). I haven't made a layer cake in at least 10 years (the last time, I was definitely in middle school or my first year in high school), and I LOVE chocolate cake, so I thought why not?
I followed the recipe exactly, and it was pretty easy to put together the individual components and then assemble the cake. I have to admit a few criticisms though of the final product though, which is a little shocking given that it is from Cook's Country. First, I didn't fully like the flavor of the cake, it almost seemed a little bitter — I think the problem may have been my use of an instant coffee from Whole Foods to brew the coffee instead of a better coffee bean, or it may have been the usage of dutched cocoa powder — my first time cooking with a dutch-processed cocoa. Second, I didn't like the usage of a pudding-like frosting — I prefer more traditional frostings, so my favorite pieces of the cake were those in which I scraped away the pudding a bit. With those two personal criticisms though, several people who ate the cake said it was either the best or among the best they had ever had, so I'd recommend it to those who are looking to make an easy, first layer cake. This approach is definitely much easier than what I did over 10 years ago that prompted me to take that long break from making layer cakes!
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