Mexican Chocolate Cake with Candied Poblanos and Pepitas
One 9-inch cake – Adapted from a version by Rick Bayless
Ingredients:
2 cups plus 2 Tbsp white sugar
1 medium cinnamon stick
4 medium poblano chiles, stems and seeds removed, and coarsely chopped
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature (plus 1 Tbsp more to butter the cake pan)
1 ¾ cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
2 tsp Kosher salt – used separately
3 large eggs, room temperature
6 Tbsp all-purpose flour
¼ tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp instant espresso dissolved in 1 ½ Tbsp warm water
4 ounces (3 disks) Mexican chocolate, roughly chopped
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle position.
2) In a non-stick pan over medium heat, toast the pepitas until they glisten and start to brown. Remove the pan from the heat and toss with 1 tsp of the salt. Let cool to room temperature.
3) In a medium saucepan, stir together 1 cup water, 1 cup of the white sugar and the cinnamon stick and bring to a simmer to melt the sugar. While that comes to temperature, stem and seed the chilis and chop them coarsely. Add the chopped chilis to the simple syrup and simmer for 5-8 minutes until the peppers soften. Strain the peppers through a sieve and remove the cinnamon stick. Save the syrup in a closed container in the refrigerator for another purpose. Make sure you label the syrup as spicy!
4) Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch cake pan, line the bottom with a parchment circle and butter the parchment. Measure out ½ cup of the toasted pepitas and sprinkle them over the bottom of the cake pan. Sprinkle 2 Tbsp white sugar evenly over the pepitas.
5) In the food processor, combine the remaining pepitas with the final cup of white sugar and process until it resembles coarse sand. Add the 3 eggs and the unsalted butter and pulse until the mixture is well combined. Add the flour, the baking powder, remaining salt and the dissolved espresso and pulse until just combined. Add the chopped chocolate and pulse to further chop the pieces into the batter. Finally, add the candied poblanos and pulse until fully combined.
6) Pour the batter into the prepared pan over the whole pepitas and bake until a wooden skewer comes out clean. This should be about 35-40 minutes for a 9-inch pan. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes and then invert the cake onto a platter and carefully remove the pan and parchment. Let the cake cool and then, if desired, gently dust the top with confectionary sugar in a lovely pattern. (I use a stencil I cut from a circle of parchment paper) Serve with cinnamon whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
