Moka Cakes 1968 Canadian Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Butter and flour 2 8" round cake pans or use silicone.
• In mixer, combine eggs, sugar and vanilla. Mix well.
• Stir over boiling water or the burner for about 30 seconds so the mix is barely lukewarm. Remove from heat. Beat on medium to high 10 minutes. The mixture should make a thick, pale yellow ribbon and have at least tripled in volume.
• Sift in flour with one hand and fold mixture with the other using a wide spatula.
• Add butter, pouring and folding the same way.
• Fill pans about 3/4 full. Place pans on a cookie sheet and bake for 22-25 minutes.
• Remove from oven and after 5 minutes turn upside down on racks. Bottoms and sides should be pale golden. The cakes should be flat (no sagging) and soft and springy to the touch. When cool, place in plastic bags to keep fro drying. The will keep for a few days without refrigeration.
• In heavy saucepan melt the appricot jam slowly over low heat to avoid scorching. When liquefied, strain through a metal sieve and reserve.
• Rum Syrup:.
• Mix ingredients together and reserve.
• Coffee Butter Cream:.
• In a saucepan combine sugar and coffee. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Set aside.
• In mixer bowl at medium beat yolks adding sugar syrup slowly. Then beat at high speed until the mixture is the consistency of light mayonnaise, about 5-6 minutes.
• Return to medium speed and add butter piece by piece, until smooth. Butter cream should not be refrigerated before frosting the cake.
• Using a long bladed serrated knife, cut each cake layer into three horizontal slices. Keep on hand flat on the cake and hold the knife perfectly flat so that slices are the same thickness. This requires some practice.
• Place a top or bottom layer crusty side down on th ecake plat and moisten with some rum syrup. Spread 1/4" layer of butter cream all over with a thin flexible metal spatula. Place another layer on top. Moisten with more rum syrup and spread 3 tablespoons melted apricot jam on top. Continue alternating fillings and finish with butter cream (be sure to reserve some for decorating). Spread cream evenly and smoothly on the sides. Using a serrated edge, hold the knife on an angle and slide left to right in a swivel motion to decorate the top.
• Place reserved butter cream in pastry bag fitted with a fluted tube and decorate top and bottom edge.
• Refrigerate until ready to serve. Do not cut wedges too thick.

Steps:

• Before you start assembling the cake, decide on the size you want. I make a cake that's 4 cookies wide, 4 cookies long and 4 layers high. Choose a plate to build and serve the cake.
• Make the buttercream frosting: Put the butter in a small bowl, and beat it with a flexible spatula until smooth. Add 1/2 cup sugar, and beat again with the spatula until it's thoroughly incorporated. Separate the egg, putting the yolk in a cup and the white in a small bowl. Whip the white until it holds soft peaks using a mixer or, for a short but strenuous exercise, a whisk. Give the yolk a quick whisk, just to break it up, then stir it into the white.
• Add the egg to the bowl with the butter, and using the spatula, stir and fold until blended. Scrape in the melted chocolate, then stir and fold again until the frosting is homogeneous. (It won't be perfectly smooth.) Taste the buttercream, and you'll feel grains of sugar on your tongue - that's the way it's meant to be.
• Pour the hot espresso into a wide, shallow bowl, and stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
• One by one, drop each cookie into the espresso, count 3 seconds, flip it over, count 3 seconds more, then place the espresso-soaked cookie on the serving plate. Continue until you have your first layer of cookies in place.
• Using a small offset spatula or a table knife, spread a quarter of the buttercream over the cookies, working the cream to the edges of the cookies. Build 3 more layers of dunked cookies and smoothed buttercream. Top the last layer of buttercream with grated chocolate.
• Refrigerate the cake until the frosting is set, at least 3 hours. The cake can be kept covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. (Once the frosting is set, the cake could also be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months. To serve, simply let it defrost, still wrapped, in the refrigerator for about 4 hours or at room temperature for about 1 hour.)