Recreating the Chocolate Cake I Still Dream About from Eleven Madison Park

Before Eleven Madison Park notoriously went vegan in 2021… more on that later… I had the opportunity to sit down for a tasting menu with family and friends for my graduation celebration. Since I was vegan–vegetarian at the time, they parsed out a creative vegan-vegetarian tasting menu for me and a couple others who are kosher. Some might say it even inspired their institutional shift years later! Who knows!!

In any case, the completion of the meal was a graduation cake made for me by one of the pastry chefs: chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. Reminiscent of a NYC blackout cake but not made with pudding. It was dark chocolate cake layers composited atop rich, chocolate ganache. And, of course, at a creative culinary epicenter like this, it was the greatest cake I believe I have ever tasted.

My 10 years as a NYC vegan taught me that some of the best vegan restaurants are unable to last. Eleven Madison Park, in fact, just reintroduced animal products to their restaurant this month! While NYC surely has lots of vegan customers, and shifting to plant-based main dishes can pose a great profit for restauranteurs, it’s still hard to maintain a constant flow of business and even more so in a fine dining arena when its expected to bring in the highest quality, often over-priced organic ingredients. See: Matthew Kenney’s Pure Food & Wine or Candle 79 on the Upper East Side. However, I’m happy to know that Caravan of Dreams and at least one (but not the best) Souen location is still alive and well.

Now, back to what you came here for… I recently set out to try and recreate this beautiful ganache Chocolate Cake that was made for me years ago. I will likely attempt again with some adjustments. But, as a first go, it turned out pretty nicely.

The Chocolate Cake I Still Dream About from Eleven Madison Park

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs

30 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Course: Cake, Dessert, Pastry

Cuisine: American, Kosher, Vegetarian

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

For the Dark Chocolate Cake

• 2 c cake flour
• 1 c cocoa powder
• 1 c espresso
• 2 c sugar
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 c oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 c milk

For the Dark Chocolate Ganache

• 1 c dark chocolate (chopped)
• 1 c heavy cream

Method

 

For the Dark Chocolate Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and prepare your cake pans with a bit of baking spray.
2. In a bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and hot espresso. Then, whisk your eggs, milk, vanilla and oil in another bowl.
4. Begin to pour the wet ingredients into your dry ingredients, alternating between the two and mixing until the batter is thin.
5. Pour the cake batter evenly into each of your prepared cake pans and place in the oven to bake for about 35 minutes. Make sure to rotate the pans at a halfway point. You can also check on the status by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake pan to see if it comes out clean.
6. Once fully baked, remove the pans from the oven and let cool for about 20 minutes before removing from the pans.

For the Dark Chocolate Ganache

1. Chop up your dark chocolate finely and place in a heatproof mixing bowl.
2. On the stovetop, heat up your heavy cream until warm but not boiling. Pour it atop the chopped chocolate and let sit for 8-10 minutes.
3. Mix together with a silicone spatula or spoon and cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to overnight before assembling your cake. You can simply cover the bowl with saran wrap to do so.