Recipe: Melancholia Chocolate Cake

Two frosting choices -- black sesame or crunchy peanut butter

Wrap me in a blanket of chocolate and butter, and wake me up when it’s over.

It was my birthday last month, and I felt like baking myself a cake. With fire and brimstone (literally) raining down around me and across the city, all I wanted to do was drown my face into a heaping slice of chocolate cake.

I stood in my kitchen in the cold winter light and stirred sugar and flour into a sea of my saddest emotions. All I saw was darkness — a dark chocolate cake with black sesame frosting. I had no idea how to decorate this cake with any color or joy.

Melancholia – severe depression characterized by profound sadness and despair.

This cake turned out so good I made two versions with two different egg-free Ermine frostings. One with black sesame frosting, and a second with decadent crunchy peanut butter frosting plus an extra generous sprinkle of flaky Maldon sea salt for a sweet and salty contrast.

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FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS

forever changed by this crunchy peanut butter frosting

What is Ermine buttercream frosting?

Skip the powdered sugar and American buttercream, and make this ermine frosting that’s as luxurious as Swiss meringue buttercream, but without the eggs.

Ermine frosting is an old fashioned recipe also known as “boiled milk frosting.” You make a roux from flour, sugar, and milk; combine the cooled goo into whipped butter until it forms a light, silky smooth buttercream frosting.

With the current egg shortage and expensive cost of eggs, this easy egg-free buttercream frosting is less sweet and spreads beautifully on cakes. My perfect kind of frosting.

Turns out, I found inspiration for color and joy in my garden. I invited some friends over to enjoy my birthday cake. We gathered around my living room, laughed, and shared slices of cake. Thru the hazy swirls of smoke, I watched their faces light up with joy as they took bites of chocolate cake and airy, fluffy frosting.

With a little help from my friends, the melancholia lifted with each slice of disappearing cake, until there was nothing left except a few rainbow sprinkles, wrinkled flowers, and chocolate crumbs.

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Melancholia Chocolate Cake Recipe