“The Bear” Chocolate Cake. Of course you watch The Bear, and of course you remember the chocolate cake subplot of the first season. Well, here it is, straight from the baker who created it, although I have re-worded it with my own clarifications, explanations, and notes. It’s a fantastic if complex recipe for the best from-scratch cake I’ve ever made.
“The Bear” Chocolate Cake
Course: DessertDifficulty: Difficult4
servingsIngredients
- Chocolate Mousse
8 oz. (1⅓ cups + 4 tsp) 64% cacao dark chocolate, finely chopped
2.5 oz. (5 Tbs) unsalted butter
6 oz. (10 large) egg yolks, at room temperature (1 hour)
1.8 oz. (1/4 cup) sugar, divided
4.3 oz. (4 large) egg whites, at room temperature
4.25 oz. (1/2 cup) heavy cream
- Cake Layers
10.63 oz. (2½ cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
4.38 oz. (1¼ cups) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1½ tsp baking powder
2½ tsp kosher salt
5 large eggs, at room temperture
1 lb + 5.8 oz. (3 cups) granulated sugar
9.5 oz. (1¼ cups) brewed coffee, at room temperature
6 oz. (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pans
1½ cups crème fraîche (about 12 oz.), at room temperature
- Icing
1 lb. + 8 oz. (6 cups) powdered sugar
4.88 oz. (1½ cups) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 lb. oz. (2¼ cups) unsalted butter , softened
4 oz. (1/2 cup) heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
- Make the chocolate mousse.
- Bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in a small saucepan. Reduce heat to med-low (setting 3). Place a medium-size heatproof bowl over pan; add chopped chocolate and butter. (Make sure bottom of bowl does not touch water.) Cook, stirring regularly, until mixture is smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove chocolate mixture from heat. Let cool, uncovered at room temperature, until just warm to the touch, about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk together egg yolks and 2 Tbs sugar in bowl of a stand mixer. Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water, turn the heat to low (setting 2), and whisk constantly until mixture registers 140°F on an instant-read thermometer, 3-4 minutes. Remove bowl from heat; transfer to a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium-high speed (setting 6) until mixture is very pale yellow in color, thick, and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Fold egg yolk mixture into cooled chocolate mixture.
- In the spotlessly-cleaned-and-fully-dried bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a clean whisk attachment, beat egg whites on medium-high speed (setting 6) until foamy, about 15 seconds. Gradually add remaining 2 Tbs granulated sugar in a slow, steady stream, beating on medium-high speed (setting 6) until stiff peaks form, 2-3 minutes.
- Fold egg white mixture into chocolate mixture in three additions. Working quickly, rinse out and dry the mixer bowl and whisk, and beat the cream on highest speed until medium peaks form. Fold in whipped cream just until mixture is combined and no dark or white streaks remain. Cover and chill at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours.
- Make the cake layers.
- Pre-fit three magic strips to 9-inch round cake pans. Remove the strips from the pans and soak them in cold water, keeping them submerged. Coat the pans with butter. Add a layer of parchment to the bottom of the pans, and butter that, too. Dust pans with flour. Preheat oven to 350°F (see notes).
- Beat together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder in a stand mixer on lowest speed, 30 seconds; beat in salt on low speed (setting 2), 60 seconds. Transfer to a medium bowl and set aside. Whip the eggs with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on medium-high speed (setting 6) until light and foamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add granulated sugar; whip on medium-high speed (setting 6) until very pale and voluminous, about 5 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. (Mixture should fall off whisk attachment in ribbons and remain suspended briefly on the surface before sinking back into the batter.) Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer running on low speed (setting 2), add flour mixture in three additions alternately with coffee and melted butter, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat until nearly combined, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Add creme fraiche; beat on low speed (setting 2) just until combined, about 30 seconds, folding by hand toward end if needed.
- Divide batter evenly among prepared baking pans (about 1 lb. + 7.5 oz. (3 cups) per pan); tap baking pans a few times on work surface to evenly spread batter and eliminate any air bubbles. Bake in preheated oven until a tester comes out clean, 30-35 minutes. Let cake layers cool in baking pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove cakes from baking pans and let cool completely on racks, 1½-2 hours.
- Make the icing.
- Sift together powdered sugar and cocoa in a medium bowl. Set aside. Beat butter with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed (setting 4) until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add powdered sugar mixture, beating on low speed (setting 2) just until combined, about 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as meeded. Increase mixer speed to medium (setting 4) and beat until fluflfy, 2 to 3 minutes. Gradually add cream and vanilla, beating on medium-low speed (setting 3) until combined and stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
- Assemble the cake.
- Place one cake layer on a cake plate. Spoon half of chocolate mousse (about 2 cups) onto center of cake, and spread evenly, pushing it to about 1 inch shy of the edge of the cake. Top with second cake layer and repeat process with remaining chocolate mousse. Top with third cake layer. Spread icing into the crevices along the side of the cake, then frost the side, and then frost the top. (You may not use all the icing.) Chill until set, about 15 minutes.
Notes
- Substitutions: 5 oz. (1 cup) bread flour and 5.63 oz. (1¼ cups) cake flour for the all-purpose
- Oven: before you prep the pans, check to see how they’re going to fit in your oven. The pans shouldn’t touch the oven walls, nor should they touch one another. You may have to bake them on two racks, in which case you’ll need to rotate them about half-way through.
Intro
This is the best cake I’ve ever baked, by leaps and bounds.
Social Learning
Chocolate Notes
- I never really know what kind of cacao percentages I’m going to find at the store. The recipe asks for 64%; I found 63% one day, but usually I can’t … so I usually make this cake with 70% – which I can almost always find – and it’s fine.
- I used Guittard Cocoa Rouge for the frosting. I was on the fence about it, but wow is it delicious and what a gorgeous color!
Cake Notes
- Do not skip the parchment! I’m a parchment disbeliever, but this cake needs it, or you’ll be so, so sorry.
- For the coffee, I used two double espressos, and added water.
- It won’t look like much batter in the pans, but the cakes will rise surprisingly high. If they pull away from the sides of the pans in the oven, they might be overbaked. However, they will pull away as they cool.
- If you use magic strips, you won’t have to level the cakes. My strips are adjustable. The adjustment is made with something similar to a large, heavy-duty safety pin. That’s why I have to fit them to the pan during prep. Once fitted, I remove them in order to have them soak in cold water as I get started on the cake batter. They float, so I have to lay a dinner plate over them to keep them submerged. The smart thing to would be to slip them onto the pans just before pouring in the batter. If you forget that, though, you can lay a strip on the countertop and coax a batter-filled pan into it, maybe with the aid of a butter knife. If you don’t use magic strips, I would strongly recommend leveling the cakes instead of just “making it work.”
Mousse Notes
Prepping the mousse requires you to separate some eggs. Once you’ve separated the first four, set the whites aside and continue separating. That’ll give you the four whites you need. If you forget to do this … well that’s why I included weight measurements.
The Backstory
So, it’s a cake from a TV show. You’d think that on the show, they could make a cake out of foam, and frost it with colored plaster, and who’d know the difference? You wouldn’t think they’d go out, find a baker who makes not just cake, but a real standout cake, standing out even among professional bakers, and use that cake for the show.
But of course, when I read that that’s what they’d done, and I realized that the baker who made the cake works just a very short drive away from where I live, I had to go there and have a slice! Loaf Lounge looks like just another nice, neighborhood cafe … Chicago has a lot of them. However, everything I’ve ever had there completely floored me (I’ve been back many times), and I can definitely not say that of almost any other cafes or bakeries I’ve ever been to. This cake is no exception.
Now, the recipe that I followed was published by the baker. Nonetheless, it produces a cake that’s slightly different from the one they serve in the bakery. The crumb in the version they serve at Loaf is a bit tighter than mine, and it’s frosted with a ganache, not a buttercream. But those seem to be the only differences, and I actually think I like the one that the recipe produces even more than the one they serve in the shop.
Cake Mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes with this recipe the first time I made it, and still it turned out to be the best chocolate cake I’ve ever made. E-v-e-r. And I’ve made a lot of chocolate cakes. Once I corrected the mistakes in subsequent bakes, I now feel like when I make this, I’m doing something that shouldn’t be possible for some with my humble skills. Mistakes: skipping parchment, over-cooking the mousse, running out of confectioners sugar and thinking I could make it up with granualted, assuming I had enough of everything I needed onhand.
Swearing Mistakes
Is swearing a mistake? I don’t know; who fucking cares? Anyway, needless to say, and very much in the spirit of The Bear, making this cake the first time involved a TON of horrific swearing and bad attitudes and unreal amounts of stress. It’s a highly involved, tricky cake with lots and lots of steps, and it requires a good deal of skill. I had to really bust out all my tricks. I hope I’ve incorporated them into this post in an understandable way, so that you might be able to work your way through with less swearing.
I made a two-layer version of this cake, and preferred it over the more authentic three-layer version. I’ll post the recipe for it soon. The three-layer version won’t fit on a dessert plate. I had no choice but to serve slices on full-size dinner plates. Plus, three layers of this cake is a LOT of cake. I cut it into traditional slices for this post, but for my real life, I cut it into thin wedding slices. It produces so many wedding slices, that I almost feel like you need a wedding-size crowd to justify this much cake. Unless you are having a big party, you may wind up giving half the cake away, or freezing it. It does freeze well if you pack it up nice and air-tight and don’t leave it there for months and months. Two layers seems so much more comfortable.
“The Bear” Chocolate Cake
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. References: Food and Wine. Thank you, Kesor. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #15 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs.
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