{"id":437,"date":"2020-05-08T17:20:55","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T17:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/?p=437"},"modified":"2020-07-12T11:23:22","modified_gmt":"2020-07-12T11:23:22","slug":"chocolate-and-coconut-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/2020\/05\/08\/chocolate-and-coconut-cake\/","title":{"rendered":"Tante Dvorah\u2019s Chocolate and Coconut Cake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Name: Debra Marmor<br \/>\nClass Year: 1980<br \/>\nCountry of Residence: United Kingdom<\/p>\n<h5>Why is this recipe great? What\u2019s its backstory?&nbsp;<\/h5>\n<p>We used to visit our relatives in Israel every couple of years when I was little. In honor of our visit, my aunt would make this marvellous chocolate cake \u2013 my sister and I would fight my uncle for the last crumb.<\/p>\n<p>We were so enamored of this cake that my mother eventually wrote my uncle (?!) for the recipe. Apparently, my mother and sister had difficulty deciphering what came back, so my sister kept experimenting and eventually came up with a version that seemed to fit her memory.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Last year, my husband and I were visiting my sister in Connecticut and I found her redux version of the recipe, so snapped a copy. But, when I looked at it more closely, it did not match my memory at all of Tante Dvorah\u2019s cake. More email exchanges with my sister, and, lo and behold, she actually found my uncle\u2019s original letter and transcribed it for me.<br \/>\nAs an aside, my uncle had emigrated to (then) Palestine from Vienna, Austria.<\/p>\n<p>Consequently, the original letter was written in Viennese German with the typical (to our minds) imprecise home cooking quantities (soup spoons of flour, little glasses of Cognac, a glass of sugar, etc.), and much left for granted by my non-baking uncle!<\/p>\n<p>I, of course, had to make a half batch of both versions. The one in my uncle\u2019s letter (with my sister\u2019s quantity adaptations) won hands down. So here you go (don\u2019t worry, you\u2019ll barely taste the coconut):<\/p>\n<h5>Tante Dvorah\u2019s Chocolate and Coconut Cake<\/h5>\n<p><em>Serves 8. 1 hours + cooling\/ chilling<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Ingredients:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cake:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 cup coconut<\/li>\n<li>\u00bd cup self-rising flour<\/li>\n<li>\u00bc cup cocoa<\/li>\n<li>100g chocolate, grated<\/li>\n<li>4 eggs, separated<\/li>\n<li>1 cup sugar (\u00bd +\u00bd)<\/li>\n<li>100g butter, softened<\/li>\n<li>2 shots\/4 oz cognac or reasonable facsimile thereof<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Coffee Glaze:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 tsp Nescafe powder<\/li>\n<li>\u00bd cup simmering water<\/li>\n<li>1 tsp sugar<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Chocolate Glaze:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>100g Chocolate<\/li>\n<li>60g butter\/Margarin<\/li>\n<li>1 glug Cognac (less than a shot)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Instructions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Preheat oven to 350<sup>o<\/sup> F\/ 175<sup>o<\/sup> C.<\/li>\n<li>Grease and flour 8 \u00bd-inch cake pan<\/li>\n<li>Mix coconut, flour, cocoa and grated chocolate in a medium bowl<\/li>\n<li>Combine 4 egg yolks, butter and \u00bd cup sugar until creamy in bowl of stand mixer (my aunt would have done this by hand!)<\/li>\n<li>Add dry ingredients to egg\/ butter cream; combine briefly<\/li>\n<li>Add cognac (or your reasonable facsimile thereof); mix on slow until combined<\/li>\n<li>In a separate bowl, whip the 4 egg whites until foamy.<\/li>\n<li>Add the other \u00bd cup of sugar slowly while continuing beating until soft peaks form<\/li>\n<li>Gently fold egg whites into the batter until no white streaks remain<\/li>\n<li>Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until done (whatever you chose to insert comes out dry)<\/li>\n<li>When cake comes out of the oven, mix the Nescafe, water and sugar for the coffee glaze.<\/li>\n<li>Pour the coffee glaze all over the cake while it is still hot\/ warm. Let cake cool completely.<\/li>\n<li>Take the cake out of the pan.<\/li>\n<li>Melt the chocolate, butter\/ margarine and Cognac (or facsimile) together<\/li>\n<li>Pour all over the cake slowly<\/li>\n<li>Chill until set.<\/li>\n<li>If you want to get fancy or alert folks to one of the ingredients, sprinkle some dried coconut over the top.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-438\" src=\"http:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Uncommon-Kitchens-Recipe-Photo-Dvorahs-Cake.jpg\" alt=\"Dvorah's Chocolate and Coconut Cake\" width=\"346\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Uncommon-Kitchens-Recipe-Photo-Dvorahs-Cake.jpg 346w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Uncommon-Kitchens-Recipe-Photo-Dvorahs-Cake-300x239.jpg 300w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Uncommon-Kitchens-Recipe-Photo-Dvorahs-Cake-31x25.jpg 31w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Source:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Tante Dvorah from Onkel Mundah\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Name: Debra Marmor Class Year: 1980 Country of Residence: United Kingdom Why is this recipe great? What\u2019s its backstory?&nbsp; We used to visit our relatives in Israel every couple of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/2020\/05\/08\/chocolate-and-coconut-cake\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Tante Dvorah\u2019s Chocolate and Coconut Cake<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33046],"tags":[33256,146,4323,4301,4198,4296],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-cooking","tag-baking-dessert","tag-cake","tag-chocolate","tag-coconut","tag-coffee","tag-dessert"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}