All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [84]
Upon slicing the cake, drizzle each slice with fudge sauce and mint syrup, and add a dollop of ice cream or a quick FFFFFT! of canned whipped cream.
When bringing this cake to the office, be sure to include a handy, dandy diagram for those who will serve themselves while you’re busy actually getting some work done.
Stephen Pyles’s Heaven and Hell Cake
The Liberace of Layer Cakes
Make this cake one time and they’ll talk about it for years. It’s CRA-zy! A layer of devil’s food cake, covered with peanut butter-cream cheese mousse, followed by a layer of angel food, covered with more peanut butter-cream cheese mousse. The devil’s food layer is repeated and topped with that last layer of angel food cake. The whole thing is covered in milk chocolate ganache and refrigerated for 2 hours before serving.
It is a tall cake. It is a rich cake. It teeters on the verge of being just too, too much cake. It flips people out. It is one outrageous cake.
It is also a cake that you cannot make correctly unless you’ve baked a whole lotta cake. Trust me. Been there, done that. Was better the second time around.
Now, who’s Stephen Pyles? Chef Pyles is credited for revolutionizing Southwestern cuisine. He’s a fifth-generation Texan, and the first Texan inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. If you’re ever in Dallas, you can go to his famous Star Canyon restaurant or his latest, the eponymous Stephen Pyles restaurant. Look for the Heaven and Hell Cake on the menus.
Yes, I know: ANOTHER Texas recipe! What is with Texans and their cakes?!
Chef Pyles told me he intended the name “Heaven and Hell” to refer to the angel food/devil’s food combo, but he overheard a waitress one time telling customers “it’s heaven on your lips and hell on your hips.” He was a little annoyed with her at first until he realized it certainly wasn’t hurting sales—Heaven and Hell Cake has long been his most popular desert. And many thanks to him for allowing me to share it with you.
A couple of caveats for this Fabulously Sweet Monstrosity: It does take a while to make and it may, indeed, be too much cake for you—I mean physically, too much cake. It is so tall, it does not fit in my cake carry. I have to remove the serving plate and put the cake flat on the bottom of the carry, which only leaves me with about a quarter of an inch of clearance when the lid is snapped on. Also, a mere slice of Heaven and Hell can easily be overwhelming for the palate and bloodstream of the average cake eater: too many flavors and too much chocolate at one time! And it can be a pain to slice: Angel food tends to be spongy, and the ganache gets thick after it has been in the fridge. A regular cake knife won’t do: find a large serrated knife. Run it under hot water, and then slice through the cake. And forget about having a pristine first slice: that ain’t gonna happen!
My best advice to you is this: Bake only 1 layer of devil’s food cake and 1 layer of angel food on your first try. Just halve the ingredients for the cakes. Seriously. You can divide each layer, so you’ll still end up with 4 layers of cake, but they’ll be thinner, and you’ll make the same amount of mousse and ganache. This will keep your co-workers from going into a sugar coma after one slice. It will also make the cake more physically manageable. Later, when you’re serving hundreds daily (like Chef Pyles), or feeling particularly fabulous, put on your long sequined cape, your diamond dinner rings, break out your candelabrum, and go at it.
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YOU’LL NEED
A heavy saucepan
2 to 3 medium bowls
Two 9-inch round cake pans
A whisk attachment and extra bowl for mixer
FOR THE GANACHE
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 pounds milk chocolate, coarsely chopped, OR 2 pounds milk chocolate morsels
FOR THE ANGEL FOOD CAKE
⅔ cup cake flour
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 cup egg whites (about 8 to 10 large egg whites)
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
⅔ cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon pure almond extract