Chocolate Cake (Hardcover)

by Michele Urvater (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
From the "mix-and-dump" variety to the exquisitely layered and filled Marjolaine, Michele Urvater's Chocolate Cake makes sure that no matter how much time you have or your level of kitchen experience--whether you prefer sweet to bitter chocolate, whether you're looking for something fancy to impress or something easy to make someone happy--you will find a chocolate cake to fit the bill in this book.

Urvater has both studied and taught the culinary arts, and readers reap the benefits of her knowledge. She begins with a clear and informative chapter on ingredients, one on baking equipment, and one on techniques, and then organizes the recipes from simple to most complex. Because they are all chocolate cakes, chapters are divided by technique. Plain and Easy Batter Cakes include easy favorites like the Classic Brownie, with its crispy crunchy top protecting a moist and chewy interior, and a Chocolate Pudding Cake, a soufflé-like cake on top of a custardy layer--heavenly when warm from the oven. A short chapter on cheesecakes gets creative with smooth and silky creations such as the Berry White Chocolate Cheesecake. Butter and Shortened Cakes start with the Dependable Chocolate Pound Cake with numerous variations, and move on to the most delectable, delicious, and easy-to-make Chocolate Banana Tea Cake. Rich and moist, studded with chocolate chips, nuts, and dried fruit, it is with great pleasure that we read that it's "fabulous for breakfast." Urvater continues to tempt with foam cakes, biscuit cakes, individual cakes, flourless cakes, and icings, and then explains a number of fancy decorative techniques like Caramel Shards and Meringue Mushrooms.

Even though everything is chocolate, the varieties are endless. With 150 recipes for desserts like Streusel-Woven Chocolate Coffee Cake, Minted Chocolate Cake, White Chocolate Flourless Cake with Lemon, and the Gianduja (an aromatic hazelnut praline and chocolate "creamy concoction"), no chocolate lover should be without this delectably chocolate volume. --Leora Y. Bloom

From Library Journal
Urvater is well known for her "Monday to Friday" cookbook series and the accompanying Food Network show. But at the age of 50, she signed on for the one-year pastry arts program at the French Culinary Institute in New York, which in turn led to this baking book. She begins with a thorough introduction covering equipment, terms and techniques, and ingredients, followed by dozens of recipes for chocolate cakes of all types, from Boozy Mud Cake and The Brownie Torte to the Marzipan Lover's Dream Cake. Recipes are graded by level of difficulty; some of the three-star recipes come from pastry chefs, but there are many that will be easy even for the novice baker. There are also delectable recipes for frostings, fillings, and sauces, as well as a detailed section on decoration and garnishes. Highly recommended. [Main Selection of The Good Cook.]
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1st edition (October 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767906071
• ISBN-13: 978-0767906074
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #932,727 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent and thorough chocolate cake book, March 18, 2002

By	Catherine S. Vodrey (East Liverpool, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Michele Urvater?s ?Chocolate Cake? is subtitled ?150 Recipes from Simple to Sublime.? It briskly trots the globe from Austria (Walnut Chocolate Torte) to France (Reine de Saba, or Queen?s Cake) to Mexico (Aztec Devil?s Food Cake) to Hungary (Rigo Jancsi). Naturally there are scores of prototypically American cakes too, from Pillsbury Bake-Off finalists to cheesecakes and beyond.

Urvater came to write her cookbook in a roundabout manner. After having spent years working as a chef, hosting television programs on cooking and so on, she decided to enroll in New York City?s famed French Culinary Institute. After having earned her FCI diploma as a pastry chef, she had a new, more specialized outlook on her work.

Despite her considerable expertise, Urvater doesn?t scare off the home cook who has never made anything other than a boxed mix before. In fact, the book is a calming presence in the kitchen. ?Chocolate Cake? is arranged so that the easiest cakes are in the beginning. One wonderful recipe called Wacky Chocolate Cake is an excellent start for any beginner, and is particularly well-suited to a child baking with minimal adult supervision (my 7-year old and 4-year old actually made it ALL BY THEMSELVES--all I did was read the directions out loud to them and preheat the oven--an added bonus of this cake is that it's eggless, perfect for times when you need to serve dessert to someone with an egg allergy or cholesterol problems). All the cakes have a degree of difficulty indicated--one star denotes easy, two stars intermediate, and three stars advanced.

Urvater is relaxed about her chocolate choices. She prefers bittersweet chocolate to any other kind, but admits that when it comes to unsweetened chocolate, ?Any one of the national brands is acceptable. At various times I have used Baker?s, Nestle?s, and Hershey?s unsweetened chocolate. I tend to buy the cheapest one.?

What kind of niche does a book like ?Chocolate Cake? occupy in a world where anyone can pick up a very decent cake at the bakery or even the grocery store? It will give pleasure to the experienced baker who wants to round out her repetoire with more dessert recipes, but it will also give confidence to the inexperienced cook who wants to make something splendid for a special someone's birthday. My only complaint is that I would have preferred more photographs--but overall, this is a super book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chocolate Cake for Dummies, June 2, 2003

By	jerry i h (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This is an excellent book for those who like to make chocolate cakes but may not be a skilled, experienced baker. If you are an average person who is trying to bake that chocolate cake at home, then I can happily recommend this book.

The most important feature of this book is that all recipes are rated according to difficulty. Those who are beginners can choose easy recipes, while those who are already adept at angel food cakes and butter cream frostings can go directly for the complicated ones. Bakers of all abilities will be able to find a recipe that fits your skill level. For example, she correctly identifies French butter cream frostings as difficult. Other recipes that are impressive and seem to be hard are actually easy to do, and this book will rate them as such.

This book has a lot going for it besides the rating system. The first 50 pages or so give you just the right amount of information so you can do the recipes. It is also very good about telling you what kind of equipment you will need for the various recipes. The recipes are clear and easy to follow most of the time. It also has a good dissertation on various types of icings and frostings, and matching them up to various cakes. The only short point here is the subject of matching up refrigerated versus cakes that can be stored at room temperature and what icings and frostings will match them.

There are a few problems, but they are minor. The description of semisweet and bittersweet chocolate is not correct. The statement that margarine can be substituted for baking in all recipes is also not correct, since the margarine can have wildly differing amounts of water that will have unpredictable results on any one recipe. The author is a trained, professional baker. This is often good, as the instructions are based on tried and true professional techniques that really work (which is sadly not true of many books about baking), but she often overestimates the abilities of beginner bakers. The vocabulary can have professional terms or techniques not otherwise explained, and the difficulty rating of some of the recipes should be increased; for example, anything that involves whipping and folding egg whites should be intermediate, not easy.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, bad Design, April 10, 2002

By	Lady Naava - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I recently purchased a copy of this book and found the recipes to be quite scrumptious. However, aesthetically it left much to be desired.

Chocolate Cake has nearly 400 pages, and only 8 color photos, jammed in the center section. This is certainly not enough for a book of this caliber. As a baker who likes to look at photos of the finished product... I was disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, I DO recommend this book. The recipes are divine. Particularly the Chestnut Chocolate Meringue Cake and the Raspberry Scented Cocoa Cake, but I felt let down by the overall lack of photos and illustrations, which usually make books like this, great.