$449 vs $18 Chocolate Cake: Pro Chef & Home Cook Swap Ingredients

I've never cried before while doing this,

but it's really not working.

I've done a lot of weird things!

I didn't think this was gonna be the one!

[Emily laughing]

Hi, I'm Natasha.

I'm a professional chef,

and these are my $449 chocolate cake ingredients.

Hello, I'm Emily.

I'm a home cook,

and these are my $18 chocolate cake ingredients.

Let's go.

Oh.

Cocoa powder.

So this is all you need to make a delicious chocolate cake.

Oh, okay. [laughs]

Yeah, great!

What?

[light music]

So I was planning on making a fudgy chocolate

buckwheat cake with buttery chocolate mousse.

I had two types of chocolate, one dark, one milk.

There's a lot of real chocolate here.

The dark chocolate was for the cake itself,

along with buckwheat flour, vanilla extract,

and just a hint of coffee.

Coffee. I like coffee.

I had milk chocolate and coconut oil

to make something I call chocolate waves.

You'll see what I mean.

And I had a little brandy and some vanilla bean

to make a delicious buttery chocolate mousse.

Ooh, vanilla bean. Ha ho. These are very expensive.

And all finished with fancy olive oil, flaky sea salt.

I thought this was gonna be spray oil, to be honest,

but it's olive oil.

And some organic roses. Yes, for eating.

I got flowers and brandy and chocolate.

This is like a date.

Basically it was gonna be the most delicious

chocolate cake of all time in the whole universe forever.

Yeah, it'll be fine. It'll be fine. [laughs]

What are the flowers for exactly?

With Emily's recipe, I have much simpler ingredients.

Things you'll find in your pantry and in the grocery store.

But with a little technique, we can make them even better.

If I had to guess, I think this would be about $17.

[bell dinging] $18.

Wow, I was so close.

If I had to guess how much this would all cost,

I would guess $312.

[bell dinging] 449?

I'm shopping at the right grocery store here. [laughs]

Here I have Chef Natasha's recipe book.

Some pretty basic instructions

and there's a little cake offering me a rose.

Thanks, buddy.

Looks like I should start with the simple syrup.

So we're starting with the syrup,

because that's gonna be the thing

that creates the structure in the final chocolate cake.

Over low heat, you wanna melt out the sugar

in a little bit of water.

Tablespoons of coffee, two tablespoons of coffee.

What is a measurement really?

So we're actually kind of brewing a cup of coffee

in our pan as our simple syrup.

What it's gonna do is bring out that extra chocolate flavor.

You're gonna add in the chocolate.

This is the 70% Valrhona dark chocolate.

It's super rich and it's not sweet,

so we're gonna get great chocolate flavor.

All right, I think that this is looking shiny

and beautiful, so I think I shall take it off the heat

and add my vanilla.

Okay, so Emily was planning on making a pretty simple

kinda one bowl chocolate cake situation with frosting.

The kind of cake you could make on a

late weeknight when you're like, I need cake now.

But I'm gonna do something a little different.

So I'm gonna be making a four layer brown butter chocolate

frosted cake with a salty cocoa glaze.

So first I'm going to mix all my dry ingredients together

and Emily's picked out this cocoa powder

and this is actually the sole chocolate element

in the whole cake.

And then we have baking powder and baking soda.

Whisk all these things together.

I'm gonna start with two large eggs.

We have some just room temperature water,

little bit of vegetable oil.

I have some buttermilk here.

It's going to add richness,

but also kind of a crucial acidity or tang to it.

Okay, so we have our imitation vanilla extract,

adding this sugar last and then my dry.

Baking powder and baking soda can really clump

and if you don't sift these clumps out,

that'll actually stay intact in the batter

and taste really metallic and really gross.

So you wanna make sure that we're sifting this

so you can see lots of clumps here, but that's okay.

I don't want a really smooth batter,

because that actually is gonna overwork the gluten

in the flour and make the cake really tough.

Okay, that looks perfect.

To continue making my batter,

I need to whisk together eggs and sugar.

Right now, this is nice, but it's gonna be batter.

We're gonna use the whole egg,

because we also want the richness from the yolks.

I thought you were.. [sighs]

It was unlocked before, for the record. [laughs]

My eggs are in there and now I'm adding my sugar.

Without the addition of like a chemical leavener,

like a baking powder or baking soda,

all of the height that we're getting from the cake

is coming from the air that we're sort of

blowing into the eggs while they're being whipped.

What we wanna see is the volume of the height

of the eggs should double in the bowl.

So the next thing I'm gonna do is fold in this stuff,

a third at a time, to this stuff.

Emily, be sure not to whisk the mixture together

or stir it.

You wanna actually bring up from the bottom,

folding it into the eggs.

If you stir or whisk the mixture together, you'll deflate it

and the cake will come out short and gummy.

All right, just about there.

So the last thing we're gonna do

before the cake goes in the oven is

sift a little bit of buckwheat flour on top.

It's gonna give the cake a delicious crumb

and kind of a chew.

It's also going to provide incredible, nutty, earthy flavor.

Now sifting is something I've never fully understood,

but I believe in it, like fairies and the economy.

And salt.

And now what you're gonna do is steam the cake

and that helps the cake cook more slowly and evenly

all the way through.

Steam cake.

All right, steam cake.

Make sure you have that buttered spring form cake pan

ready to go.

You know, it's got like little cracks and stuff,

so it's better to make sure it's super safe from the water.

I have boilingish water.

I'm gonna make a little bath for you, baby.

The environment of an oven is extremely dry and hot

and what we're doing by adding a little bit

of hot water is it's gonna create steam.

The center of the cake

and everything around it is gonna be so moist and tender.

It's just gonna be a better way of cooking the cake,

because it's gonna go in the oven for almost two hours.

[Emily] Oven's preheated to 300.

Let's open it up and pop this sucker in there.

So to make these cakes easy to remove,

I'm gonna add a little vegetable oil,

tuck these parchment rounds right in the center.

Beautiful chocolatey cake batter.

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

They're gonna bake between 30 and 35 minutes.

Don't worry, I'm not putting crushed red pepper

and bay leaves into my cake.

These are for forming my chocolate waves.

So this is going to be a decorative element.

We're going to first melt out the milk chocolate

with a little bit of coconut oil.

So this is kind of my hack

for when you don't wanna deal with tempering chocolate.

The trick is to add an oil with a lot of saturated fat.

I'm gonna put this in the top secret

Epicurious microwave that's down there.

I shouldn't have told you.

That's right. There's a microwave down here.

And that's gonna help you give the chocolate a great shine

and snap when we set it in the fridge or even the freezer.

I hear what you're asking.

Emily, have you ever done anything like this before?

And the answer is no.

Now I am setting up my waves and then I'm making a transfer.

You're going to use that height

to drape your parchment on top of that,

creating this sort of wave shape.

Everything's fine, don't worry about it.

Just gimme a second.

I need them to not roll around.

Stop panicking.

Okay. [laughs]

Suck it, gravity.

I had so much fun, I'm gonna go again.

Everything is perfect.

It doesn't have to be too perfect,

'cause we're gonna break them into smaller pieces

and it's gonna look really cool.

Oh no, it's worse. It's definitely worse.

We're resetting.

We're just gonna sneak 'em under there.

[bleep] it.

[Emily laughing]

Close enough! Come on, buddy.

Now I'm gonna be making my salty cocoa glaze.

It's gonna kind of glue the cake layers together.

And here, the star ingredient again

is gonna be the cocoa powder.

Have some white sugar

and we're gonna melt this out in the syrup.

Kosher salt, because we want it to kind of be salty sweet.

Imitation vanilla extract.

It's so much cheaper than the real thing,

because really what it is is just an alcohol

that has sort of the added perfume

of imitation vanilla added into it

and water is gonna pull it all together.

I wanna reduce the water just enough

so that the texture of the syrup is thick and viscous

and doesn't run out of the sides of my cake.

So all this has to do is cool,

and then my salty cocoa glaze is ready to go.

It's been an hour and 40 minutes

and it's time to take my my cake outta the oven.

You want to let the cake cool in the water bath.

So instead of ripping it out of its environment,

you're sort of letting it come down

in a more controlled way.

Well, I had some buttermilk left over from mixing the cake,

so I think I'm gonna make a chocolate buttermilk cake soak.

Well, I have buttermilk, some imitation vanilla extract,

a little bit of powdered sugar, our star ingredient,

lots of this cocoa powder.

A cake soak is a way to add even more flavor

and moisture to a layer cake.

Alright, so the first thing I'm gonna do is just run my

offset spatula around the edges of my cake.

[Emily humming]

So, we still have to get the cake off of the bottom

of the spring form pan.

Take a plate, put it on top of the cake,

and then in a really swift motion, you're gonna sort of

invert the cake onto that cutting board or that plate.

All right, we're flipping the whole thing.

Let's just do it.

Cake.

So I think I'm gonna pull these cakes from the oven.

Okay, so you can see that the cake is sort of

pulling away from the edges of the pan a little bit.

I'm looking good.

I'm just gonna let the cakes cool

completely before I assemble them.

Next I'm gonna get started on my buttery chocolate mousse.

To do that, the first thing I need to do

is make some whipped cream.

I'm gonna start low and then take it high.

More power!

Yeah, picky. [chuckles]

All right.

And I'm gonna pop this sucker in the fridge.

And this is where we're gonna add one

of our secret ingredients.

A whole vanilla bean.

You wanna split it down the center

and then use the back of your knife to kind of pull out

as much of the caviar and goo on the inside.

You're really getting this intensity of flavor

without adding additional liquid or volume.

It is like caviar.

I feel like I've got like a hundred dollars of vanilla

stuck to my fingers.

All right, I'm just gonna give this a rough chop.

Ta-da. Back to the bowl.

Normally when you make a chocolate mousse,

it can get kind of fiddly,

because you're melting out the chocolate over heat.

I'd wanted to eliminate all of that

with another simple syrup

that we're gonna make on the stove.

All right, this is looking good.

Everything else, except for your whipped cream,

is in the blender.

Chocolate.

Salt.

Cocoa powder, eggs.

Brandy. Butter.

That's Julia Child. [laughs] Sorry.

[blender whirring] [Emily laughing]

The motor and the blade of the blender combined

with the boiling hot syrup is going to one,

melt the chocolate.

Two, also cook that raw egg protein.

Alright, I think that looks pretty good.

So the last thing you'll do is fold in whipped cream

into this chocolate blender mixture.

I'd say that's just about smooth and combined.

Time to put everything together.

I am going to cut these cakes in half.

It doesn't even bother me that this isn't even perfectly

even or level because the way that I build cakes in the pan,

it kind of is gonna come out looking perfectly flattened

and even every time.

So now I have four layers.

Let the cake assembly commence.

So we're gonna put the mousse on top of the cake,

but it needs a support to kind of create those sharp,

beautiful, professional looking edges.

I have not done anything like this before.

[Natasha] I like to use what's called an acetate collar.

So I'm looking to create a tight fit around the cake here.

I think that's about as good as it's gonna get.

[Natasha] Once you have that ring in place,

all you do is just pour the mousse on top.

I feel like there's probably like lessons for how

to hold this and maneuver that I haven't taken.

[Natasha] And you wanna just like spread it,

so you have a nice, even surface.

All right, cake moussed.

So once you have your mousse piled on top

of the cake supported by the acetate collar,

it goes back in the fridge

so the mousse has a chance to set.

I'll start with the first round here.

I'm gonna add the soak.

I'm not trying to drench the cake,

I'm just adding another layer of great flavor.

If you forgot about the cake in the oven

and they're over baked and felt a little dry,

you can actually rehydrate your cake layers

with a little bit of soak and no one will be able to tell.

Now I'm gonna add a third of a cup

of this salty cocoa glaze,

and this is gonna be the glue

that I add more cake layers on top of.

Between these creamy mousse-y cake layers,

adding a dry dusting of cocoa powder.

It's barely discernible,

but it just adds this like sophisticated finish

to squishy bite.

The speed that the cake absorbs the soak is quite slow.

So the cake is better on day two than it is on day one.

The thing about a layer cake is

that you almost wanna age it.

The longer it sits, like the better

and more cohesive it's gonna be.

The last layer, the top is actually the bottom,

and then it's gonna get the rest of this soak.

It's so snug in this cake pan.

When you pop out the cake later,

you get these really even, clean sides,

which you don't always get when you are just building a cake

straight up and it's listing to the side

or filling's oozing out.

This will contain everything.

And at this point, I could put it in the freezer

or I could put it in the fridge

and it can kind of hang out for a day or overnight.

As it rests, it's gonna come together in this like

delicious way and be more sturdy,

which is gonna make it easier for me

to apply the buttercream.

All right, my cake is out

and now I just have to release it.

What you can do if you wanna kind of clean up

any of the edges is take again that offset spatula.

You can run it under hot water

and then just run the spatula around the edges of the cake

and that'll clean it up.

[Emily] Okay, well before I make that worse,

I'm gonna stop. [laughs]

The last thing I have to do is make the frosting.

I have some butter here from Emily's recipe,

but I'm going to make brown butter with it.

So brown butter is what happens when you caramelize the milk

solids in butter.

It's gonna add like a nutty, complex depth

to kind of a basic frosting.

You have this tighter network of bubbles,

almost like a honeycomb look.

So I think we're getting close.

You can see these milk solids have toasted.

This like beautiful caramel color.

Once your butter is brown

and it smells absolutely incredible,

add the cocoa powder all at once

and we're just gonna whisk it all up.

We're bringing this cocoa powder

back to life in this butter.

So I have my ice bath waiting for me.

Once the solids are browned sufficiently,

you want to arrest the process, you don't want to burn it.

So now we're gonna take this cocoa paste

and turn it into the most delicious frosting ever.

Get all of this cocoa butter right into the bowl, the mixer,

and then- [mixer whirring]

Just on low, get it prepared for the powdered sugar.

And this is actually really important.

If the powdered sugar is clumpy at all,

like this is a little bit, it's really hard

to smooth out those clumps if you don't sift it first

when you're making frosting.

I just don't want this frosting to be too sweet.

So I'm only using two cups.

I find that sugar actually tends to mute flavors

of things instead of enhance them, if you use too much.

We'll add the imitation vanilla extract

and the kosher salt and then we'll end with the buttermilk.

It feels like super whipped, super fluffy.

It's almost like mousse-like and texture.

Okay, so I think I'm at the perfect point for this frosting

and now it's time to finish the cake.

All right, it's time to decorate my cake.

So I have my waves here and I'm just gonna try

and break them into shards.

I'm trying to imagine what this might have been supposed

to look like and then I'm moving towards a vision in my mind

that may or may not deliver on that.

Salt is an amazing ingredient in that

it draws out the flavors that you have in it.

It enhances them and makes it feel more bold and more alive.

Emily, you're gonna be using organic roses,

not the kind that you might buy at a supermarket

or a deli that are used for display,

because those are often sprayed with pesticides.

They have chemicals on them,

they're definitely not for eating.

If you can find organic roses, those are safe to eat.

Before I start. Kiwi, this is for you.

It's gonna add so much in terms

of like a natural organic element.

It's gonna add an interesting flavor and texture as well,

and it's just gonna make it feel really luxurious

and decadent and beautiful.

Is this what Chef Natasha envisioned?

Almost certainly not.

Okay, home stretch.

I have my cake assembled,

I have my frosting and I have my trusty turntable.

So now we're going to unmold the cake.

I'm going to invert it onto this cardboard cake round

and I'm gonna add all this frosting on top of it.

This turntable is like an essential layer cake tool for me.

You can hold your hand in place and move it,

and that's how you get those really clean

kind of swoopy lines.

I'm just gonna hit this with a little bit

of powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

It just adds such like kind of a professional final look.

These are fig leaves from my backyard.

Obviously Emily didn't give me these things,

but I feel like you could also root around your own home

and be inspired by unconventional things

to decorate your cakes.

And this is my four layer brown butter

chocolate frosted cake with salty cocoa glaze.

I really hope Emily likes it

and I can't wait to see what she does with my recipe.

And this is my take on Chef Natasha's chocolate cake.

I hope she likes it.

Hi! Hi.

It's so nice to see you. [laughs]

I'm really excited to see what

you've done with my ingredients.

Oh. [laughs]

[Natasha] Wow. Look at it!

This is amazing.

Should we try it?

Let's do it. Okay.

Oh my God. It's so good.

It's like moist and super chocolatey.

I feel like cake has to be seasoned

just like you would season a savory dish.

So I like go hard with the kosher salt.

I feel like salt is something that can bring out,

you know, kind of cheaper ingredients

and just make the taste more vibrant.

That makes so much sense.

Yeah, I feel like you really took the extremely simple cake

that I would've made and turned it into like

something really like cool and gourmet and like delicious.

[Natasha] I gotta try what you made.

[Emily] Okay, I'm nervous but I am thrilled. [laughs]

[Natasha] I mean, it looks super beautiful.

I worked really hard.

I'm just a home cook, I'm so sorry in advance. [laughs]

No, I mean I think like I can tell

that you did those nice clean knife cuts

because the cross section looks super tidy.

Like, had you ever made a cake like that before, steamed it?

No, I've never steamed a cake before.

Yeah, there were like a lot of new skills

that I learned today,

but that's like a positive thing, you know?

[Natasha] Amazing.

Let's get in there. Okay.

Wow.

Yeah, that's delicious.

It's like so creamy and smooth.

It's almost like a truffle.

Yeah, right? Yeah.

It's delicious.

It's like the salt and like the olive oil

really like adds even more sort of like interesting

like tasty stuff.

Yeah, you want that added fat on the palette.

Just so great with chocolate.

Yeah, totally. I feel like I learned a lot today.

So like thank you for this lesson. [laughs]

Absolutely. You killed it. It's great.

Thank you so much!

Thank you. It was so fun.

Now I gotta find your slice of cake again

so I can eat rest of it.

[both laughing]