Melinda Strauss

teaching the world about Judaism

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake with Candied Bacon

Birthday, Dessert, Kosher Bacon, Recipes, Sweet / by

By this point, you must all know how much I love kosher bacon…lamb bacon, turkey bacon, beef bacon…it’s all delicious, crunchy, salty perfection. I even have a section on my blog just for kosher bacon! So with my 32nd birthday coming up in just a few days (yeah baby!!!), I thought it would be fun to combine bacon with my other favorite food, chocolate, for the perfect sweet and salty dessert. Well, see, every year I make my own birthday cake and I decided that this was the year I was going to ask someone else to make it for me. And when I think of cake, my mind immediately goes to the incredibly talented and MAJORLY popular food blogger, Molly Yeh of mynameisyeh.com. Molly and I became virtual-friends a few years ago when I reached out to her to chat about her beautiful photography and hamantaschen. Yup, hamantaschen! I think I’ve become more of a stalker at this point but we don’t need to talk about that, right??? We just need to talk about the fact that she made me this cake! THIS CAKE! This rich chocolate olive oil cake with luscious cream cheese frosting and crunchy sweet and salty bacon. Of course I must point out that as a kosher-eating Orthodox Jew, I did not actually get to eat this amazing cake that Molly made for me (plus she lives in Grand Forks, North Dakota so I wouldn’t get to eat it unless I get my butt on a plane to go visit) but there are easy adaptions you can make so this cake is completely kosher. You have two options: 1. make this cake dairy and leave off the candied bacon topping or 2. if you really want that delicious bacon topping (using kosher bacon, of course), use soy milk or coconut milk in place of the whole milk in the chocolate cake, use margarine or vegetable shortening and non-dairy cream cheese in the frosting. Either way, you can’t go wrong!

I am in my happy place! 32, here I come!

Layers of chocolate, sweet frosting and crunchy bacon. Bacon, bacon, bacon. Did I mention the bacon?


Chocolate Olive Oil Cake with Candied Bacon

Please note that if you keep kosher and you want the kosher candied bacon on your cake, you should replace the whole milk with soy milk or coconut milk in the chocolate olive oil cake and use margarine/vegetable shortening and non-dairy cream cheese in the frosting.

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Ingredients

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/4 cup whole milk
3 large eggs
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup orange juice
Candied Bacon (optional- see note above for kosher rules)
6 strips (lamb) bacon
1/4 cup brown sugar
Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
4 2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
a pinch of kosher salt

Instructions

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two loaf pans (I use 8-inch by 4-inch pans) and line the bottoms with parchment.
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
Pour the batter into the loaf pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Begin checking for doneness at 30 minutes.
Let cool for 10 minutes in the pans and then turn onto a cooling rack. Turn the oven up to 400 for the bacon.
Candied (Lamb) Bacon:
Line baking sheet with foil and arrange bacon on it. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of bacon and bake for 20 minutes, until sugar is caramelized and bacon is crisp.
Transfer to cooling rack and let cool. Chop into small pieces.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
Use an electric mixer to beat all ingredients together until smooth.
Assembly
Level one of the cake layers and pipe or spread on a thick layer of frosting. If desired, add a handful of bacon. top it with the other cake layer and top with additional frosting and bacon.
Slice and enjoy!
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https://melindastrauss.com/2015/04/30/chocolate-olive-oil-cake-with-candied-bacon/