Meg Galus – Executive Pastry Chef at Good Ambler
Good Ambler
216 N Peoria (Fulton Market/West Loop)
Open Mon-Fri 7am – 5pm
Sat 8am-5pm
Sun 8am-3pm
hello@goodambler.com (custom requests)
Check Out:
Halloween through the 31st, Thanksgiving in store treats and preorders, Christmas in store and preorders, cake orders, daily offerings!
Recipe:
Black Cocoa “Haunted Tree” Cake
Black Cocoa Cake
2 large eggs
¾ cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¾ cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup black cocoa powder
1.25 teaspoon baking powder
1.25 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup HOT water
Instructions:
Whisk together the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla
Whisk in the sugar
Combine the dry ingredients and add to wets slowly while paddling in a stand mixer
Scrape the bowl well – it is a wet batter!
When it’s well combined, add the hot water and paddle until combined
Split between four 6” baking pans
Bake at 340F until the middle springs back, about 20-25 minutes
*Black Cocoa Powder can be found online
Chocolate Buttercream
1.5 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
6 cups powdered sugar
½ cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions:
Paddle the butter until cream
Add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder slowly
Drizzle in the cream and vanilla
Add the salt
*can add food coloring if you want to have a few different shades of brown
*adjust thickness by adding more/less powdered sugar or heavy cream
*make it cookies and cream by adding crushed sandwich cookies to some of it for filling
DECORATING!!
Frost the cake roughly – add the bumps and uneven parts ON PURPOSE
Create the bark texture with a fork or kitchen brush
Add other elements like edible moss, brownies or cookie chunks for rocks, candy or chocolate spiders, worms, and any other spooky elements you want
Carve a creepy face into the tree to give it an extra EEEK factor.
