Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake

The chocolate tweed angel food cake is the only cake I've made that was an utter failure. So I decided I'd better use this Free Choice week to redeem myself. I have made one plain angel food cake that turned out great (for Angel Food Cake Any Way You Like week), but the tweed version still eluded me. Now that I've made three angel food cakes, I can say that they are very, very easy. From now on, I'll make them whenever my stash of frozen egg whites needs to be used up. Unfortunately, I must have used that stash for something else, because I rooted around in the freezer and found a lot of interesting--mostly unlabelled--stuff (is that veal stock or chocolate ganache?), but no frozen egg whites. So I cracked eight eggs. Now I have eight egg yolks.

The first time I made an angel food cake (the failure), I was worrying about never having done it before. The second time I made it (the non-failure), I was worrying about the failure. It took the third time for me to figure out that it's just a lot of beaten egg whites with flour, sugar, and flavorings whisked in. This time--because it's chocolate tweed--the flavoring was grated chocolate.

I went whole hog on Green  Black's. For the cake, I used a deep 85% chocolate (I was supposed to use unsweetened). For the whipped cream, I used 60% chocolate with hazelnuts and currants (I was supposed to use plain chocolate and ground almonds). For a person like me--who tries never to veer from the recipe in the slightest--these minor changes were exhilarating. I felt like I was in college, sneaking out of the dorm.

Here's what I still don't get the hang of: you're supposed to "sperad a thin layer of batter onto the sides of the prepared pan to ensure smooth sides." I did this, but apparently I didn't do it well enough because I still had some holes and bumps on the sides.

The cake will "sink to almost level with the pan when done." Check. "The surface will have deep cracks, like a souffle." Check. I let it bake for another two minutes, just to be safe. I put the pan over a funnel and let it cool. The cake did not fall out of the pan. This means that it's a success, no matter what it tastes like.

My junior-sized, eight-cup angel food cake pan (for which I used half a recipe), is only one piece, so you really have to have faith that the cake will somehow extricate itself from the ungreased cake pan. Surprisingly, it did.

If you're feeling critical, you can look at this picture and see that the sides aren't smooth. If you're feeling happy, you can look at the picture and see all the grated chocolate.

I believe that this is the first time I've ever sliced an angel food cake into three tiers. And people say there are no thrills left after you're 65.

What could be better on a chocolate tweed cake than chocolate tweed whipped cream? Also known as chocolate-spangled whipped cream.

My only question now is what I'm going to do with all those egg yolks.

TASTING PANEL

Karen: "It's really delicious, and I don't even like angel food cake. It tastes like real cake--it doesn't have that nasty artificial taste that angel food cake usually has. And it's just the right amount of chocolate. I didn't think I'd be able to finish it, but it was so good."

Jim: "Angel food cake usually tastes kind of gummy to me, but this cake has a nice texture. The little bit of grated chocolate adds a lot of flavor."