July 26, 2012 American Recipes

Chocolate Yeast Cake with Brown Butter Frosting

The summer months are made for baking with fresh berries and stone fruit, but every once and a while you need a decadent chocolate break. This chocolate yeast cake had the same perfect fluffiness and softness as the fresh apple cake did.

Chocolate Yeast Cake with Brown Butter Frosting is an old fashioned cake recipe made with yeast, shortening, and melted chocolate bars. Totally decadent with a brown butter frosting. A little patience is all you need to wait for the yeast to do its magic. This lovely cake is surely one to bake to impress! I am pretty certain my Hungarian aunt used to make a very similar Hungarian cake when I was growing up.

I can’t tell you how relieved I was to bake something that wasn’t with mangoes. Maybe you also are feeling a little relief. I didn’t realize that mangoes are such a hit or miss fruit with people. Kind of like cilantro.

I really had no idea all these years until I started food blogging that people can really dislike cilantro. I happen to like cilantro. But I’ve heard some people have huge aversions to it and some even say it tastes like soap. And mangoes.

I can honestly tell you, I don’t like other mangoes. I only like my mangoes. I know. I’m sort of a mango snob. But I have yet to try a mango that is good as mine. So to all my friends that left me a comment telling me you don’t like mangoes, it’s because you haven’t tried ours yet. And if they weren’t so heavy, I would ship you some to try.

image of slice of chocolate cake on a white plate

My neighbor Rose has a humongous mango tree. It actually looks like three trees…but it’s just one. She’s never offered me her mangoes and vice-versa. I guess why bother when we both have them. But yesterday, I happened to catch her bringing some mangoes to our neighbor. She told me she had 1000's of mangoes this year from her tree (thousands!).

I had to ask her for one; I was just curious if it was as good as ours. I asked her if we have the same type of mango. She said they were different and that some of hers weigh over 3 lbs. I’ve read that there are over 100 types of mangoes. And guess what, her mango just wasn’t as good as ours. The flavor was just odd. So I know how you mango haters feel. There are just some mangoes that aren’t as nice as others.

Enough about mangoes. I got slightly off topic and really should be focusing on this amazing chocolate delight. It has been way too long since I’ve baked with chocolate. I couldn’t wait to try another Red Star Yeast recipe for our baking collaboration. My Fresh Apple Cake was a hit. It has consistently been one of my most visited posts since I wrote about it; I’m thrilled you all liked it as much as we did.

What ingredients do you need to make this chocolate yeast cake with brown butter frosting?

Here is all you need to bake this delicious cake.

For the cake:

all-purpose flour
Active Dry Yeast
brown sugar
granulated sugar
baking soda
salt
milk
water
shortening
unsweetened chocolate
vanilla
eggs

For the frosting

butter or margarine
powdered sugar
milk
vanilla

What is special about a yeast-leavened cake?

Gas forms bubbles from the yeast that is proofing your cake batter. With just a little patience to let the fermentation from the yeast take place, you'll have a totally different sort of cake than one made with baking soda or baking powder. It could take an hour or more to rise (this particular cake took about 30 minutes).

Now don't expect a crumbly cake that you get from using baking powder and soda. It is a more firm cake (but it's not a bread!).

Types of yeast-leavened cakes

You may not know that there are various sorts of cakes made with yeast.

Panettone

Panettone is what you will find all over Italy during the Christmas season. The super market shelves are jam packed with different brands and price points. My mother-in-law can't believe how hard it is to find a really nice one here and how expensive even a cheap brand is. They are sweet yeast leavened cake (not like a bread at all, in my opinion)and one of our favorite yeast cakes.

Gugelhopf -Guglhopf -Kugelhopf

The origin of a gugelhopf is as varied as it's original name. Some say it originated in Austria and there those that even say it originated in France. You probably have seen a kugelhopf baking pan (it sort of looks like a Bundt pan, but with its own unique and special design) .

There are even versions of the cake now using baking powder or soda, but if you want to make it as it was originally intended, use yeast!

Savarin

The savarin originates in France and is similar to a brioche. It tends to be more on the dry side and so is usually soaked in syrup.

Can you use shortening in a cake?

Yes, you may be surprised to know that butter or shortening can be used interchangeably in baked goods and can it's totally fine to do swap them out one-to-one.

Can you replace shortening with butter in a cake recipe?

Yes, as I was saying above, butter could be swapped out with shortening in equal amounts. The texture of what your baking may change a bit. Shortening yields higher, lighter-textured baked goods.

I don’t usually bake my cakes with shortening. I happen to always have some on hand for my pie crusts and didn’t think twice about using it for this recipe. I think the shortening adds a little more moisture to the cake.

I baked mine in my bundt pan. I love to see the frosting cascading down the sides of the cake. You can use a 13x9-inch pan if you prefer. It will still be wonderful.

recipe used with permission from Red Star Yeast

Some other yeast recipe you may enjoy:

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