July 4: Yellow Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

My Saturday Cake for the Fourth of July had to be an iconic American cake.  A yellow cake with thick chocolate frosting is so nostalgic that it borders on cliché.  When I was very young I had a Little Golden Book that featured a picnic with a chocolate-frosted, yellow cake.  I cannot remember the title of the book or even the main characters, only the cake and the nifty trick the character in the book used to take the cake on a picnic.  The character packing the picnic basket taped a knife for the cake to the bottom of the cake plate for safe transport.  I don't remember anything else that the folks in the book packed for the picnic.  Sandwiches?  Fried chicken?
All I remember is the cake.

This recipe is from the January 2006 issue of Gourmet.  I remember the reason I clipped it was for the frosting.  I have been on a special chocolate frosting quest for many years.  More indelible than the children's book illustration of a cake with a knife taped to the bottom, is my memory of the chocolate frosting from Rich's Department Store Bakery.

Rich's was an Atlanta landmark with a main store downtown at Five Points and locations at malls in the metro area.  For many decades, Rich's was the store at which you rode the Pink Pig at Christmastime.  As a teen, you took deportment classes in the Juniors' department, or had your "makeup done" for the first time at their cosmetic counter.  As a bride, anywhere in Georgia, you registered for gifts at Rich's, no matter how far you had to drive or take the train.  As an Atlanta matron you had your furs cleaned and stored in the Rich's Fur Vault.  The Rich's Bakery had counters in almost all of the stores and even had a few freestanding bakeries in Atlanta due to the popularity of their products.  They were known for their spectacular, stunningly-white coconut layer cakes.  A Rich's coconut cake was all my Granna requested for Christmas after they moved to Tennessee.  Going to get a cake for Granna (packed in Rich's iconic, cane-pattern-printed, green & white box, tied with white bakery twine) was a prerequisite to every Christmas road trip to her house.

Rich's Bakery Box Design

Better than the coconut cakes, to me, were the cupcakes with chocolate frosting; yellow cake with a shiny chocolate dome.  Sometimes I would get to pick out a cupcake on our way out of the store after a shopping trip.  Often for my birthday, Mom would buy a box of those chocolate cupcakes for me to share with my classmates.  For my seventh birthday, Mom threw a puppet-show-themed birthday party for me at our house.  She built a hinged, tri-fold puppet theatre out of Masonite that was big enough to conceal two or three "puppeteers."  Mom painted the theatre white and trimmed the borders with gold tinsel garland.  She covered the dining room table with piles of puppet materials and each guest got to build a puppet.  Every guest also got a box lunch, packed in a distinctive Rich's Bakery box along with a cupcake.  I kept the puppet theatre for many years; it even became a curbside lemonade stand during some summers.  Rich's was bought by Federated Department Stores years ago and was eventually sold to Macy's.  After the sale to Federated, the Rich's Bakeries were closed and the landscape of Georgia birthdays, weddings and Christmas changed, not for the good.

I have tried to find a comparable chocolate frosting for many years.  Ganache seems to come the closest.  But, Rich's frosting was not applied by dipping the tops of the cupcakes; it was applied generously with a knife or spatula that left a couple of subtle tracks in the chocolate sheen.

Back in 2006, when I clipped this recipe, I neglected to tear out the second page of the directions.  I looked online for the recipe, but had no luck after nine years.  So, my guidance ended when the batter went into the pans.  The baking of the cake layers was no problem, but when I got around to the frosting I had only the list of ingredients and the magazine picture to go by.  I made the ganache the way I have made it in the past; heat the heavy cream to a boil then pour it over the finely-chopped chocolate in a large bowl and still until melted, smooth and shiny.  After that, the frosting needed to cool and then be beaten with a mixer to make it the right consistency to spread and resemble the Gourmet picture.


This ganache frosting was DELICIOUS.  But the cake, though tender, was a little "crumby" for our tastes.  I will stick to my standard 1-2-3-4 cake.  I will keep the frosting "recipe" (such as it is) for other cakes since both the flavor and texture was perfectly rich.  

However, my search for a recipe for the elusive chocolate frosting of my childhood must continue...

 Too bad I haven't found it taped to the bottom of a cake plate.

Next Saturday: Gateau Américan