Two weeks ago I had a blind date. With a girl. This is what my best friend told me when I described to her my meeting with lovely Alanna from One Tough Cookie blog.
Back in August I got a surprising email from Alanna Lipson, my fellow Torontonian food blogger, whose recipes call my name and photographs make my fingers reach for the camera. She suggested teaming up and collaborating on something. Without any hesitation I responded yes and we started planning our meeting. We both preferred making a dessert rather than a savoury dish just because it’s more fun to photograph (let alone eat).
And just like that, I had my “blind date” with a talented photographer. We had a really fun day of cooking, photographing, eating the cake we just made and gossiping. Alanna’s presence made me look at the baking process in a different and forgotten over the past few years way. I noticed the details that I usually ignore: white puffy clouds of flour sifted into a bowl; tiny granules of Costa Rican cinnamon spilled out of the measuring dish; glistening droplets of chocolate batter rich with buttermilk and cocoa on the work surface, begging to be tasted.
We moved all the baking supplies and ingredients into my studio where the morning light, bright and soft, shone on the bowls and spoons and spices and powders with such seduction that I could not help myself but photograph. Looking for shapes, shades and shadows, it is the pictures that were the focal point of the day for me, not the cake.
But still, the cake cannot (and should not) be dismissed. It is moist, airy, intensely chocolatey with a slight buttermilk tang that cuts through the richness of the frosting and makes the cake taste light. It has a hint of cinnamon and a faint aftertaste of spicy and comforting cayenne pepper (oh, how I wished for it to be a bit spicier, a bit bolder).
I then spent a few days editing photographs and tasting the cake again in my memories. Every photographer is different, and so it was really fun seeing what Alanna did with her dark and beautiful pictures. You can see hers and mine photo styles below (my pictures have Imagelicious watermark), and please check out Alanna’s blog post about this cake too.
Oh, and I also decided to try something totally new – I created a cooking video! I made a rookie mistake and held my iPhone vertically instead of horizontally, though, but I’m quite happy with the result.
Note: this is a very photo heavy post. Recipe is at the bottom.
Spiced Hot Chocolate Cake
This recipe was adapted from Sweetapolita and flourless. cookbook by Nicole Spiridakis
1.5 cups flour (190g)
Cake batter:
Flour – 1.5 cups 1.5 cups (190 g)
Sugar – 1.5 cups (300 g)
Dark unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed) – 2/3 cup (80 g)
Baking soda – 2 teaspoons
Baking powder – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 3/4 teaspoon
Cinnamon – 1 tablespoon
Cayenne – 1/4 teaspoon *see note
Buttermilk, room temperature – 3/4 cup
Hot water – 2/3 cup
Vegetable/canola/sunflower oil – 3/4 cup
Vanilla – 1.5 teaspoon
Eggs – 2 large
Frosting:
Softened butter – 1/2 cup (115 g)
Milk chocolate, melted – 60 g
Vanilla – 1/2 teaspoon
Confectioner’s (Icing) sugar – 1 cup (100 g)
Buttermilk – 2-3 tablespoons
- Preheat oven to 350° F (180°C).
- Spray the bottom of two 8-inch round cake pans with cooking spray and line bottoms with parchment rounds. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cayenne.
- In a medium bowl or measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, water, oil, and vanilla, and then mix in eggs.
- Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients and whisk until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Divide batter equally among the two cake pans or weigh for accuracy–each pan should weigh about 385 grams.
- Bake until a wooden pick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out with a only a few crumbs, about 23 minutes (see note). Try not to over-bake.
- Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes, and then turn onto rack to cool completely.
- For the frosting, place butter in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy.
- Add the melted chocolate and vanilla, and beat to incorporate.
- Sift in the icing sugar, stir.
- Add the buttermilk 1 Tbs at a time, until desired consistency.
- Use half of the frosting between two cakes and the other half on top of the cake.
Comments
– I would use at least 1/2 teaspoon if not 3/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper next time in the batter.
– I also think that frosting would benefit from 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne to really make the cake taste like Spiced Hot Chocolate.
– My oven took about 28-30 minutes to bake the cakes. They was quite under baked after 23 minutes.
– Don’t forget to check out my Video!!!
I love this post, not to mention the photos, video and of course, the sounds of the recipe itself. This is a multi-layered post (and I’m not just talking about the cake) on many levels – food blogger commenting on her experience, documenting it, then documenting herself documenting it – love it. The photos are exquisite!
Thank you so much for such words! It was definitely a multi-layered experience!
The video turned out BEAUTIFULLY! This was so much fun to do — can’t wait for the chance to have a repeat session! Thanks for all the kind words, Julia. <3
Thank you Alanna! We will definitely need to repeat 🙂
This is so amazing! Love seeing it through "two lenses" – like you said. It’s great to see two beautiful but very distinct styles side by side, as well as the action shots! I’m so jealous of your studio light…especially on this dark and beautiful cake.
Thank you, Sofia! Yes, it was really cool seeing to unique and distinct styles for each photograph. The light was great that day, we just added some sheer curtain to the window and it was nice and soft too.
I love this!! What a fun idea to get together to bake something. Wish I was there!! This cake looks amazing and I love all of the photos. So cool to see the different style between yours and Alanna’s. I’m super jealous of the lighting in your photo studio and that you even have a photo studio! Can’t wait to try the recipe :).
Thank you! I also really liked seeing the differences in our photo styles. My studio has a really good light in the morning. We also put some sheer curtain over the window to soften the light. It was one of the requirements for when my husband and I were looking for the house – I needed a space to photograph! I suppose I should make a post and share the studio pics one of those days.
These photos are GORGEOUS. All of them. I love this so much! I wish I lived in Toronto so I could learn from you two lovelies! The lighting is absolutely beautiful. Bravo, you two! 🙂
Thank you so much!!! We both had so much fun and yes, we were lucky with the light!
Beautiful shots! And I love your props!
Thank you very much, Hilary
Lovely pictures 🙂 They are so good to look! You should repeat these pictures in all of your post 🙂 great props!
Thank you! It’s a mix of mine and Alanna’s props. I was considering stealing her cake stand 🙂
Such beautiful photos…they make me want to reach in and grab a slice. Delicious!
Thank you very much, Jo-Anna! It was a delicious cake
Love all the shots that you guys got! And my kids will be all over this cake, we’re already on a major hot cocoa kick this year.
Thank you, Katrina! It’s so comforting with the spices!
What an awesome experience. I love looking at how different the photos are, despite using the same subjects. 🙂
Thanks – that’s exactly what I loved about the project – same props, same shots, but two distinct styles!
OMG… that cake! I love the photos. Two different styles. Beautiful stuff… I just wanted to reach in and eat the icing.
Thank you so much! Yes, the icing was so creamy and luscious! Yum!
Love the addition of cayenne pepper to this. Looks delicious.
Agree – cayenne pepper gives a nice kick and makes the cake unique
This is such a cool post! Love the cake styles and all of the images are so stunning! Gorgeous!
Thanks, Valentina! it was really fun!
Spectacular! I bet the cake was nice too.
It was delicious!
Hot Chocolate and cake … two of my favorite things. I’m bookmarking this recipe to try very soon.
It is so great that the two of you got together to create something … I loved seeing the photos not only of the food but of each of you taking the photos.
Thank you so much! I also loved working on this project – great seeing it from two perspectives!
I love pairing dark chocolate with a little spice and your photos are wonderful!
Yes – classic and delicious combination!
What a beautiful cake…and such a great idea to get two different "views" using 2 different camera as well.
Thank you so much – it was great seeing the cake in two different ways!
I loved the video and the pictures. I am a big fan, so needless to say I loved this cake. I wish I could have a piece right now.
Thanks for the video comment. It was my first and I was so upset when I realized I held my phone vertically. Hopefully next one will be better
This is one SEXY chocolate cake! So glad I found our blog via FBC!
Thank you 🙂 Yes – great word to describe it – sexy!
Love these photos! And that cake…looks so freaking delicious! I wish I wasn’t heading into work right now because I would love to bake that for this week! But I guess it’ll have to wait until tonight…:) Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I hope you get to make this cake – it’s really moist and flavourful and not too heavy (surprisingly)
So pretty!
Thanks so much!
This cake looks ridiculously good! And the pics are gorgeous – well done 🙂
Thank you, Tara! The cake was really good and it was a lot of fun doing the photo shoot.
Wow, this post is STUNNING! I love the richness and depth of the images, and the cake looks fabulous. What a cool idea to collaborate on a post! You ladies really outdid yourselves. 🙂
Thank you! yes, this was a really fun collaborative project! I hope to do something like this again with Alanna.