We often visit Escazu to buy their bean to bar chocolates and to sample the handmade confections by Danielle Centeno, who gave us her recipe for chocolate cake. It was love at first bite, and I would proudly serve this for entertaining guests or for a romantic dinner on Valentine’s Day. If you want to use their goat’s milk bar (my favorite) instead, reduce the butter and sugar by one tablespoon each.
If you don’t often get to their Blount Street store in Raleigh, you can also find their chocolate at Whole Foods Market, Busy Bee Café, Chatham Marketplace, Krankies Coffee and many other places.
Ingredients
- 3.5 ounces Escazu Pure Chocolate
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter ½ cup coffee (Danielle uses Counter Culture Espresso Toscano)
- 3 tablespoons Junior Johnson’s Apple Pie or
- Cherry Moonshine
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour ramekins or 9-inch cake pan.
In a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter. Whisk in coffee and moonshine.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Slowly add the melted chocolate mixture to the eggs, whisking as you add until combined. Then fold in the flour mixture.
Pour into ramekins or cake pan. Do not fill ramekins more than 2/3 full.
Bake ramekins for 20 minutes or whole cake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick is clean when removed. (For a hot molten cake, remove 5 to 10 minutes before it is done and serve warm.)
Makes 6 small cakes or one 9-inch layer.
