I love the Bolo Brigadeiro aka Brigadier Cake, that they make down in Brazil. I haven't had it in years, and I thought it was long overdue so why not make it myself?
In my quest for cake I found a slew of recipes and settled on one by Edu Guedes. I watched his video, researched his blog, etc. and decided his was the recipe I liked best.
His is very traditional, and because I didn't have standard chocolate powder...I had to use what I had on hand: Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Powder. My cake was black. It was deep, dark, rich, sugared, rich deliciousness. It was ridiculous.
It takes a little time to prepare, but was definitely worth it. I made it for our Easter dinner with family, and while the men enjoyed it they were a bunch of lightweights and said it was rich and chocolately beyond bearing. Imagine that...like I said...lightweights.
Anyway, I took it in to work and I brought home an empty plate. I work with mostly women...women who can take the chocolate...who reveled in the decadence...danced around in it...and if I had let them, probably would have rolled around in it...but it did not revert down to some kind of chocolate bacchanal, just lots of licked fingers and longing looks that said "Do I dare lick the plate when no one is looking?"
Anyway--big hit, would make it again.
If dark chocolate is too much, use the regular chocolate powder or mix it up as you please. I am including my recipe and photos below.
Enjoy!
Ingredient Listing
Cake Batter:
·
3 eggs
·
1 C. Water
·
1 C. Oil
·
1 C. Dark Chocolate Powder: Hershey’s Special Dark
·
1 C. Sugar
·
2 C. Flour
·
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
·
Butter and flour to grease and flour the pan: If you
like you can use Pam Cooking Spray, or margarine instead of the butter. I used the Pam.
Dark
Chocolate Filling:
·
3 C. of Sweetened Condensed Milk
·
8 Tbsp. Dark Chocolate Powder: Hershey’s Special Dark
·
1 Tbsp. Butter
Chocolate
Broth:
·
1 C. Water
·
2 Tbsp. Dark Chocolate Powder: Hershey’s Special Dark
·
1 C. Sugar
Ganache:
·
500g of Chocolate: Bar Form
·
2 C. Crème de Leite or Media Crema: you will find it
under the name of Media Crema in the Hispanic section at the grocery
story. It is in a can and generally
found near the Dulce de Leche and sweetened condensed milk.
To
Decorate:
·
Shaved Chocolate
·
Strawberries
·
Jimmies
Other:
·
Approximately
16 servings
·
Process
time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Preparation
Cake Batter:
1.
In a blender, beat the eggs, water and oil.
2.
Put the mixture in a mixing bowl and slowly add in the
powdered chocolate, the sugar, the flour and the baking powder
3.
Mix until everything has incorporated.
4.
Pour the batter in your prepared (greased and floured) baking
pan (you can use a spring form pan if you like)
5.
In a pre-heated oven, bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until a
toothpick comes out clean.
6.
Let the cake cool and set aside
Dark Chocolate Filling:
1.
In a pan, on medium heat, combine the sweetened condensed
milk, powdered chocolate and butter.
2.
Mix continually until the chocolate filling comes away from
the bottom of the pan (around 6 minutes). Reserve.
Chocolate Broth:
1.
In another pan, on medium heat, mix the water, chocolate
powder, and sugar.
2.
Let it come to a boil.
Set aside.
Ganache:
1.
Via a Bain-Marie/Double Boiler, melt the chocolate bar.
2.
Mix the melted chocolate with the Crème de Leite/Media Crema
until thoroughly combined. Reserve.
Assembly
1.
Carefully cut the cake in half through the middle.
2.
Evenly, and with a ladle, pour half of the chocolate broth
over the bottom half of the cake. Then
add your chocolate filling.
3.
Next, flip the top half of the cake upside down, so the smooth
baked part of the cake is on the bottom, and the rough internal side of the
cake is facing up. Pour the other half
of the chocolate broth evenly over the top of the cake. Cover it with the ganache.
4.
Decorate the cake with the shaved chocolate or jimmies.
5.
Add strawberries around the bottom of the cake or on top of it
as you please.
Notations
o
The original cake recipe calls for using regular
powdered baking chocolate, Hershey’s would be appropriate. Because I did not have this on hand, I used
the Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate powder everywhere it was called for. The result was a very rich, very dark
chocolate cake all the way around. You
can mix and match your chocolates as you please to taste.
o
Women loved the ridiculousness of the dark chocolate,
the men enjoyed the cake but would have rathered it be a little “tamer” if you
will. Approach your audience
accordingly.
o
On my first attempt with this cake, I made a bundt
cake. This took about 10 additional
minutes to cook, because it is a tall cake.
o
I also did not make the ganache. I was under a time constraint and had to get
out the door to a party. The chocolate
filling was definitely enough for the inside and then to decorate amply the top
of the bundt cake. The chocolate
filling will set up quickly, so if you want to add jimmies or chocolate
shavings don’t wait too long to do it or they won’t stick. I would do the ganache moving forward.
o
If you do a bundt cake, only use the chocolate broth on
the bottom half of the cake. I did
both, tried to invert my top right ways up and it broke into several large
pieces and gave me no end of trouble after that, though it was delicious broken
or whole. I managed to salvage it with
giant strawberries around the entire bottom of the cake. We renamed it the “Black Crag Cake” because
of it.
Serves very nicely as a refrigerated cake as well.
