Connie Fidanque’s Chocolate Cake

From Dish Jodi:

I missed last month’s post because of a quick last minute trip to Panama City. My blonde, blue-eyed husband is half-Panamanian. His mother moved to the US as a child, and he still has tons of cousins, aunts, uncles and once, twice, three times-removed family members there. Everyone I met was related in some way. Connie Fidanque, a cousin, also has blue eyes and light hair, and was introduced to me as the best cook and baker in the country. My mother-in-law made sure I left with a copy of “Ami Manera – Recitas para mi Familia y Amigos”, the beautiful cookbook Connie’s children published for her.

As everyone — knowing my love of baking — made sure to tell me, this chocolate cake is famous. Always the hottest raffle item at charity functions and requested for every event. And man, I can see why. Not too sweet, it’s one of the richest chocolate cakes I’ve ever eaten. While it’s not really a “panamanian” food (but we head back soon, so stay tuned for some of those), I had to try this famous cake. And with holiday party season upon us, I could bring it to a party and not have to eat it all ourselves. Translated from Spanish, here ya go:

For the Cake:
8 oz Butter, at room temperature
2 Cups Sugar
6 eggs
2 1/2 C Flour
1/2 C Cocoa
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 C milk
2 tsp vanilla

For the Frosting:
16 oz Butter, at room temperature
2 Ib powdered sugar
4 heaping tbsps of instant coffee diluted in 2/3 cup of water
2 C cocoa

For the Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs, one by one until combined. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Pour into three greased and floured 9″ cake tins. bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before unmolding the layers.

For the frosting:
With a mixer, cream the butter for a minute or so, and slowly add powdered sugar alternately with coffee. Add the cocoa and beat at high speed for about 5 minutes more.

To assemble:
Slice the cake layers in half to make four layers. Put the bottom layer on your cake (I like to put wax paper squares underneath, frost it, then slide them out, leaving a clean plate!) and put a big glop (about 1/8 of your batch) on the layer, and spread evenly to the edges. Put another layer carefully on top and do the same with the frosting. After you’ve stacked all the layers with frosting, frost the top. (won’t go into to detail on that here, luckily, this is a very “rustic” looking frosting, so it’s forgiving of mistakes.)



Eat, with a glass of milk, or glass of champagne. It’s rich, you’ll need it!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Advertisements