Captain Fantastic: Chocolate cake and Whipped Cream
BEN: Now, if you’d all do me a favor and close your eyes. You may open your eyes. Happy Noam Chomsky day.
VESPYR: But Noam was born on December 7.
BEN: Well, we’re celebrating it today.
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC, 2016
I’m so excited for the Oscars tomorrow! It’s been a little crazy with the recipes this week but I hope you all have been enjoying them. This recipe for chocolate cake and whipped cream is from the movie, Captain Fantastic, starring Viggo Mortensen. He is nominated for Actor in Leading role along with Casey Affleck, Denzel Washington, Ryan Gosling, and Andrew Garfield.
This cake from a scene in the movie after Ben and his kids basically stole from a supermarket after faking a heart attack. When they finally escaped the scene with bags of fruits and vegetables, Ben surprised the children with a large chocolate cake covered in sprinkles. He tops the cake with whipped cream and the kids dive right into it with their hands. What’s great about this cake is that it really doesn’t need to perfectly frosted because the cake was quite rough looking after being in Ben’s backpack.
Captain Fantastic: Chocolate Cake with Whipped Cream
Captain Fantastic: Chocolate Cake with Whipped Cream
Captain Fantastic: Chocolate Cake with Whipped Cream
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder (2oz / 56g)
- 1/2 cup hot water (4oz / 113g)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (4oz / 113g)
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup cake flour, sifted (6.75oz / 190g)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup sour cream (4oz / 113g)
Chocolate Frosting
- 2 cups 60% chocolate chips (9oz / 255g)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream (4oz / 113g)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp corn syrup
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar (2oz / 57g)
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
Garnish
- sprinkles as needed
- can of whipping cream
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat your oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 6" springform pan and set aside.
- Combine the cocoa powder and hot water. Mix to combine and set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. On medium speed, stream in the eggs and vanilla extract. Give the bowl a good scrape to make sure everything is combined. Add the cocoa powder mixture and mix until well combined.
- Combine all the dried and mix to combine. Alternate adding the dries and the sour cream. Mix until everything is combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center.
- Let it cool before taking it out of the pan.
Chocolate Frosting
- Place a bowl over a double boiler over medium heat. Add the heavy cream, corn syrup, and salt. Stir until the corn syrup has melted. Add the chocolate chips and mix just until the chocolate has melted. Take the bowl off the heat.
- Stir in the powdered sugar and slowly incorporate the softened butter. Mix until smooth. Let it sit in room temperature for 15-20 minutes until it cools and thickens.
Putting it Together
- While the frosting is cooling down, slice your cake into three even layers. Once the frosting has cooled, take 1/2 cup of the frosting and spread it evenly on one layer of the cake. Top it with the second layer and then spread another 1/2 cup of frosting. Place the last layer of cake on top and press down gently to make sure the cake stays together.
- Spread the rest of the frosting over the cake. It does not need to be perfect because the cake was quite rough in the movie and you can cover some of the spots with sprinkles.
- Cover the cake with sprinkles. Before serving, top the cake with a generous helping of whipped cream from a can.
