Chocolate Pecan Cake With Tropical Fruit Custard Sauce Recipes

OLD SOUTHERN CHOCOLATE PECAN SHEET CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease bottom and sides of a 9x13-inch pan.
• Mix 2 cups white sugar, flour, and salt in a mixing bowl.
• Combine water, vegetable shortening, margarine, and 3 tablespoons cocoa powder in a saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Pour liquid into flour mixture and stir well. Return saucepan to stove and set it aside.
• Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk in a large liquid measuring cup and stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Pour egg mixture into cake batter and mix until fully combined. Transfer batter into the prepared pan.
• Bake the cake in preheated oven until cake springs back when touched lightly with a finger or a tester comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
• While cake is baking, prepare icing using reserved saucepan. Combine confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, butter, milk, vanilla, and pecans in saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until hot but not boiling. Pour icing over hot cake immediately after it comes out of the oven. Allow cake to cool completely on a wire rack.

DARK CHOCOLATE PECAN CAKE

Steps:

• Line a 5-3/4x3x2-in. loaf pan with parchment; coat with cooking spray. In a small saucepan, melt butter; stir in brown sugar and cream. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves. Pour into prepared pan. Top with pecans. Cover and refrigerate., In a small bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with water. Beat just until combined. , Pour over pecans. Bake at 325° until a toothpick comes out clean, 25-30 minutes. Cool completely in pan., In a small bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beat until stiff peaks form. Remove cake from pan; split into two horizontal layers. Place bottom cake layer, nut side up, on a serving plate. Spread with half of the topping. Top with remaining layer and topping. If desired, garnish with chocolate curls and chopped pecans.

CHOCOLATE-PECAN CAKE WITH TROPICAL-FRUIT CUSTARD SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Butter the inside of a nine-inch cake pan. Place a round of parchment or waxed paper, cut to fit, in the bottom of the pan. Butter the round of paper. Add about one tablespoon of flour to the buttered pan and shake it around to coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Shake out excess.
• Combine the cream and four tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. When the mixture simmers, add all the chocolate and stir around the bottom and sides until melted. Remove from the heat and let stand.
• Break the eggs into a heat-proof earthenware or metal mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar and vanilla. Place the bowl over - not in - a basin of simmering water, beating the mixture vigorously with a wire whisk.
• After about one minute, when the eggs are warm and not overly heated, remove the bowl from the basin and beat with an electric mixer.
• Continue beating until the mixture is tripled in volume and reaches room temperature, about 7 to 10 minutes.
• Scrape about one-third of the chocolate mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add about one-third of the egg mixture and blend well with a spatula. Add the remaining egg mixture and fold it in. Fold in the remaining chocolate mixture and stir in the pecans.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth over the top.
• Place the cake pan in a larger pan and pour boiling water around the cake pan. Place in the oven and bake 45 to 50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Remove the cake from the oven and let it sit in the water bath about 30 minutes. Remove the cake from the water bath and wipe off the bottom of the pan. Invert the cake onto a platter, remove the round of paper and let stand to room temperature. Serve with tropical-fruit custard sauce.