Julia Child’s Boca Negra Cake

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

A Boca Negra, or commonly known as black mouth, is a cake to die for. It is probably one of those treats that bring a smile on your face when you take the very first bite. A chocolate lover’s ideal, this cake call for twelve ounces of chocolate (bittersweet). Since you are going to taste every ounce of chocolate you use, choose wisely! Opt for the type you love. Boca Negra is supposed to serve at room temperature or a little warmer. It is as moist, dark and dense as the chocolate you use for making it. If you are a big fudge lover, this cake can fulfill your craving when served chilled. The white chocolate cream is just divine. Normally, it is prepared a day ahead and can be used in other desserts as well. Neither the cream nor the cake is too big of a challenge for beginners.

Ingredients:

• White Chocolate: 12 ounces (finely chopped)
• Heavy Cream: 1 cup  
• Granulated sugar: 1 1/3 cups
• Bourbon: 1/4 cup
• Bittersweet chocolate: 12 ounces (coarsely chopped)
• Unsalted Butter: 1 Cup (divided into ten sections, room temperature)
• All-purpose flour: 1 1/2 tablespoons
• Eggs: 5 large (room temperature)

Directions:

Take a small pan and pour heavy cream into it. Heat the cream until small bubbles appear on the corners of the pan. Put chopped white chocolate into food processor’s work bowl and pour the cream over it. Process the mixture until it is smooth. Add the bourbon to the mixture and taste it. Put some more if you want. Take white chocolate cream into a container and chill overnight.

Place a rack in the oven’s center and preheat your oven precisely at 350 F. Take a 9 inch round pan and butter it slightly. Line the pan’s bottom with waxed paper and butter it. Put this pan into a roasting pan and set it aside.

Put the chocolate in a bowl and set aside. Take a saucepan and mix one cup of sugar with the bourbon. Cook the mixture over medium heat. Do not forget to stir it occasionally. Let it cook until the mixture comes to a boil and sugar is dissolved. Pour this syrup immediately over the chocolate you set aside in a bowl earlier. Stir it with the help of a rubber spatula until it is smooth and chocolate is entirely melted. Take the butter pieces and stir them into the mixture one by one. Make sure that the butter piece is melted before you add another.

Put the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar and eggs in a bowl and whisk them until the mixture thickens. Add the eggs into the chocolate mixture and beat it with the whisk. Next, whisk in the flour until it is well blended. Pour the batter into the cake pan and scrape it with spatula. Put some hot water in the roasting pan. The water should be at least one inch up the sides of cake pan.

Bake the cake for 30 minutes. Remove the cake from oven and invert it onto a plate. Serve the cake with chilled white chocolate cream!

It will make about 12 servings.