Recipe: Abuelita Chocolate Loaf Cake
This winter, I discovered the wonders of Abuelita. It’s a Mexican chocolate with a strong cinnamon flavor that can be used to make really great hot chocolate. It’s pretty easy to find at most grocery stores if you look for it. Sometimes it’s where you’d expect to find cocoa, and sometimes it’s with the Hispanic foods.
Yesterday, I adapted one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes using Abuelita instead of semi-sweet baking chocolate, and it turned out great, so I thought I’d share.
- 1 cup of softened butter
- 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 t. vanilla
- 1 1/2 round Abuelita tablets (a box has 4 or 5 tablets)
- 1 1/3 cups flour
- 1 t. baking soda
- 1 cup + 2 T. steaming hot water
- Large loaf pan, lined with baking parchment
Preheat oven at 375. Cream the butter and sugar, then add eggs and vanilla. Melt the Abuelita in the microwave. (It doesn’t melt liquid like chocolate, but is sort of a grainy texture. That’s fine.) Blend the Abuelita with the other ingredients. Sift flour and baking soda. Alternate small portions of hot water with flour and mix until everything is evenly blended. You don’t have to whip it, just blend. The batter will be runny. Pour into the lined loaf pan and bake at 375 for 30 minutes, then reduce oven to 325 and bake for another 20 minutes. Don’t bother doing the knife/toothpick test with this cake. It’s meant to be kind of damp. If it’s still runny on top, you might stick it in the oven a little while longer, but don’t overcook it. Better to undercook it a bit than overcook.
This stuff is really, truly awesome. Just slice and eat. It doesn’t need frosting (in fact, frosting is an abomination on something this wonderful). If you feel like you need something, put a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream on top of your slice.
I adapted this recipe from a chocolate loaf cake recipe in Nigella Lawson’s “How to be a Domestic Goddess.”
Hearty thanks!
Comment by Supergenius — February 9, 2009 @ 9:10 pm
IIRC, abuelita is the generic term for hot chocolate in Mexican culture.
Comment by cantinflas — February 10, 2009 @ 11:15 am
Like Band-Aid is the generic term for adhesive bandages? Because it’s also one brand name (Ibarra also comes in tablet form).
Comment by Allison — February 10, 2009 @ 9:33 pm
I would guess it’s the other way around…the generic term preceded the brand-name chocolate…but that’s just a hunch.
Comment by cantinflas — February 11, 2009 @ 1:33 pm
Why would you say that? Seems to me that the opposite is a much simpler explanation, since:
1) The Nestle brand has been around in Mexico for over thirty-five years; and
2) It seems unlikely that the word for “little grandma” would spontaneously become the word for hot chocolate without a pre-existing brand name to create that association.
Comment by BTD Greg — February 11, 2009 @ 4:16 pm
This looks amazing.
Comment by meems — February 12, 2009 @ 12:22 am
I did say it was just a hunch. I have racked my brain for the last 60 seconds for a way to find out, and can’t come up with one. If I do, I’ll investigate.
Comment by cantinflas — February 12, 2009 @ 8:52 am
This looks awesome… does anyone know any other brand names? I generally avoid Nestle products (wish I could say I was a firm boycotter, but I cave every once in a while).
Comment by claire — February 19, 2009 @ 6:55 pm
Claire,
Use Ibarra table chocolate then. It might be slightly more difficult to find, but should be very comparable.
Just out of curiousity, why no Nestle?
Comment by BTD Greg — February 19, 2009 @ 8:30 pm
Is it this?
Comment by BTD Greg — February 19, 2009 @ 8:32 pm
Yummy! This cake was very delicious! Believe it or not it even tastes even better the next day! This gets a 5 star rating!
Comment by Erika — January 13, 2010 @ 6:27 pm