Chocolate Cakes

The Most Extraordinary Chocolate Dessert You Can Imagine - Doug Essinger-Hileman
Chocolate Pudding Cake - Alice Gomez
Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake - Alice Gomez
Famous Chocolate Refrigerator Roll - Lois
Flourless Chocolate Cake - Lois
Mini-Peppermint and Chocolate Chip Cheesecakes - Rowen
Baked Chocolate Tart
Sex-in-a-Pan - Three Recipes
"Hot" Chocolate Cake - David Scheidt

The Most Extraordinary Chocolate Dessert You Can Imagine - Doug Essinger-Hileman
Prepare a springform pan by greasing it, lining the bottom with waxed paper, and wrapping it in a band of aluminum foil. Have a water bath ready. In a double boiler, melt 1 lb of bittersweet chocolate that has been finely chopped and 1/2 pound of unsalted butter. Lightly beat 6 eggs and fold into the melted chocolate mixture. Pour this mixture into the springform pan, cover with foil and place in the water bath. Put this into an oven at 400F for 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350F and bake until done, about 15 minutes longer. Remove from the pan and let cool.

Chocolate Pudding Cake - Alice Gomez
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar, divided into 3/4 cup and 1/4 cup
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, divided into 1/4 cup portions
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups boiling water
Greased 9-inch pan, 350 degrees F.
Combine flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, and salt. Stir in milk, oil, and vanilla. Spread into greased 9-inch pan.
Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, and brown sugar over batter. Gently pour boiling water over the top. Bake at 350 degrees F. about 25 minutes.

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake - Alice Gomez
Original recipe:
Ingredients:
1 Chocolate crumb pie crust (6 ounces)
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed mild (like Eagle Brand)
1 egg
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
Set oven to 350 degrees. Makes 8 servings.
Original directions:
1. With mixer, beat cream cheese until fluffy; gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Add egg, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well.
2. Arrange raspberries on bottom of crust. Slowly pour cheese mixture over fruit. Bake 30-35 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool.
3. Top cheesecake with Chocolate Glaze; chill. Garnish with extra raspberries, if desired. Refrigerate leftovers.
Chocolate Glaze: In small saucepan, over low heat, melt 2 1-ounce squares semi-sweet baking chocolate or 2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate pieces with 1/2 cup whipping cream. Cook and stir until thickened and smooth. Remove from heat.
What I did differently:
Substitute 1 jar raspberry jelly without seeds for the fresh or frozen raspberries. I used a 10-ounce jar of Polaner All Fruit jelly. Substitute 2 ounces glazing chocolate for the chocolate glaze. You can still use semi-sweet chocolate.
1. Press the chocolate crumb pie crust crumbs (Oreo brand) firmly in the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan. Place in freezer while preparing jelly.
2. Put about 8 ounces of the jelly in a microwavable bowl and melt in microwave, stirring every 20 seconds or so. Spread over chilled crumbs. Freeze while preparing cheesecake mixture.
3. Prepare cheesecake according to original instructions. Pour over frozen crumbs and jelly, and bake according original instructions: I baked mine for about 40 minutes. Cool completely.
4. Melt remaining jelly in microwave and spread thinly over cooled cheesecake - refrigerate about 10 minutes to set jelly. Melt glazing chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate pieces gently in microwave and drizzle in a thin stream over cheesecake. Refrigerate to set chocolate.
Garnish with fresh raspberries if desired.

Famous Chocolate Refrigerator Roll - Lois
Just make some whipped cream, sweetened and flavored as you like it. Then put cream between the wafers, a decent amount, like a many layered oreo--the wafers standing up on edge in a row, maybe 5 or 6 in a row.
Do the same thing 4 or 5 times, and put the sideways stacks of creamed wafers behind each other, interlocking just a bit. You can do this free-standing, or line a loaf pan with Saran wrap or plastic, and stick the stacks in that.
The cookies should face fore and aft in the loaf pan. Then put it in the fridge overnight. The next day, unmold the thing to eat, and cover it with whipped cream. When you slice it, you should have up and down stripes of chocolate and whipped cream.
This is the basic recipe, the one we like best. I serve it with raspberry sauce made from frozen raspberries in syrup, usually store brand, because Bird's Eye is too pricey. You can also flavor the whipped cream any way you want.
Famous Chocolate Refrigerator Roll
2 C. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 T. granulated sugar
1 (9 oz.) pkg. Nabisco Famous Chocolate wavers
Chocolate curls (optional, for garnish)
Beat together cream with vanilla extract and sugar in a medium-size bowl until stiff peaks form. Spread 1/2 tablespoon whipped cream on each wafer. Stack together on edge to form 14-inch long log. Frost with remaining whipped cream. Chill for 4 to 6 hours. Garnish with chocolate curls. Slice at 45-degree angle to serve.
NOTE: Frozen whipped topping, thawed, may be substituted for whipped heavy cream and granulated sugar. Stir the vanilla extract into the whipped topping.

Flourless Chocolate Cake - Lois
Prepare a springform pan, 8 inches or so, wax or parchment paper on bottom makes it easier to remove, or grease the pan a lot. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Recipe
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 stick butter or margarine
3/4 Cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa
Melt butter/margarine and chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Mix til smooth. Stir in sugar. Stir in beaten eggs and mix well. Sift cocoa into the mixture slowly, stirring just until combined.
Bake only until a skin forms on top, and the cake "holds". 20 or 25 minutes or so, depending on how thick the mixture is. (My little test cake in a toy tiny cooky-sized pan was done in 5 minutes.)
This is a very thin/low cake, an inch high or under, and very "rich". I used a recipe and a half in a 10" pan, and it was still low, which is fine.
I'm going to put a chocolate glaze on it, and serve it with raspberry puree, and strawberries if I can find them tomorrow. You can also just sift some cocoa over it.

Chocolate glaze
3/4 Cup chocolate chips (bittersweet)
3 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 Tablespoon water, maybe a little more
Put all ingredients together in bowl and melt in microwave (around a minute on high in mine, depending on the bowl). Mix well. Pour onto cooled cake and spread around. You can surround the cake with strawberries and make more glaze and dribble on them.

Mini-Peppermint and Chocolate Chip Cheesecakes - Rowen
Crust:
1 c. chocolate wafer crumbs (such as Nabisco' Famous Chocolate Wafers,)
2 T. sugar
2 T. butter, melted
cooking spray
Filling:
12 hard peppermint candies, divided into 6 for the filling and 6 for the topping
2/3 cup (5 oz.) block style fat-free cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (4 oz.) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
(I used all 1/3-less-fat, because that's what I had; I think the recipe used the two kinds to keep it as low fat as possible)
1/4 cup sugar
2 T. flour
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
1 8 oz. carton low-fat sour cream
1/4 c. semisweet chocolate minichips
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract
Topping:
those reserved 6 peppermints
2 T. chocolate sprinkles, or grated chocolate. chips
Whipped cream or fat-free whipped topping
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
To prepare crust, spray 48 mini-muffin cups coated with cooking spray (or use mini-muffin paper cups - they peel off easily and work very well).
Combine the crust ingredients in a small bowl. Press about 1 1/2 tsp. crumb mixture into the bottom of each cup. Bake at 325 for 5 minutes.
To prepare the filling place 6 candies, cream cheese, sugar, flour, eggs and sour cream in a cuisinart and process till smooth. Stir in minichips and extract.
Fill each cup - divide filling among 48 mini-cups.
Bake at 325 for 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove from the muffin pan and cool completely. Refrigerate till time to serve.
Crush the rest of the peppermints and grate the chocolate (or use sprinkles).
Before serving top each with a dollop of whipped cream and some crushed peppermint and some chocolate. Everything but the peppermint can be done a couple of hours ahead of time. The peppermint should be sprinkled not more than a half hour before serving because the red color runs.
These LOOK very elegant, and are really pretty easy to make. If you don't put the whipped cream on top they also keep up to a week in the refrigerator.

Baked Chocolate Tart
5 ounces unsalted butter
5 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate
8 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
Small pinch salt
4 eggs
7 ounces granulated sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
3 medium heaping tablespoons sour cream or creme fraiche
10-inch flan or tart shell, baked blind
Place the butter, chocolate, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and allow to melt slowly, stirring occasionally until well mixed.
In a separate bowl beat the eggs and sugar together until light and well creamed, and then add the golden syrup and sour cream or creme fraiche. Stir the chocolate mixture into this mixture, scraping all the chocolate out with a spatula. Once you've mixed it well, pour it into the pastry shell. Place into a preheated 150C/300 degree F/Gas 2 oven for 40 to 45 minutes. During cooking a beautiful crust will form on top.
Carefully remove the tart from the oven and allow to cool on a rack for at least 45 minutes, during which time the skin will crack and the filling will shrink slightly.

Sex-in-a-Pan - Three Recipes
From Cooks.com.
Recipe No. 1
1 devils food cake mix
1 jar Caramel Butterscotch Topping
1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz.) pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 (8 oz.) containers Cool Whip
4 regular size Snicker candy bars (freeze)
Prepare cake mix according to the directions on the package. (Bake in a 13x9 inch cake pan.) Remove cake from oven when done; make holes in cake with a straw. Pour butterscotch topping on cake.
Place cake back in warm oven - making sure the oven is turned off - for 10 minutes. Remove cake and pour sweetened condensed milk over top. Put chocolate chips over milk. Put 2 containers of Cool Whip on top of chocolate chips. Break SNICKERS® bars with a hammer and put on top of the Cool Whip. Place in refrigerator until ready to eat. This is better if made the day before.

Recipe No. 2
Ingredients
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tub whipped topping, 32 ounces
1 package (4oz) vanilla instant pudding
1 package (4oz) chocolate instant pudding
3 cups cold milk, divided
1 square semisweet chocolate, shaved, or mini semisweet chocolate chips
Preparation:
Combine flour, butter and pecans and press into a 9x13x2-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack.
Combine cream cheese and confectioners' sugar and spread over pecan mixture.
Spread half of the whipped topping over the cream cheese layer.
Mix package of vanilla pudding using 1-1/2 cups of milk. Spoon evenly over the whipped topping; spread until layer is even. Mix package of chocolate pudding using remaining 1-1/2 cups milk. Spread on top of vanilla pudding. Spread remaining whipped topping on top and sprinkle with shaved semisweet chocolate or mini chocolate chips.

Recipe No. 3
Ingredients
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 cup confectioners' sugar
4 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
3 cups milk
1 (1 ounce) square unsweetened chocolate, melted
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. To Make Crust: In a medium bowl, mix together margarine, pecans and graham cracker crumbs. Pat into a 9x13 inch baking pan. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until lightly browned; allow to cool completely.
3. In a medium bowl, beat together cream cheese and confectioners sugar until smooth. Fold in 1 cup of the whipped topping. Spoon mixture into graham cracker crust.
4. Prepare chocolate and vanilla puddings with milk as per package directions. Allow pudding to set before pouring on top of the cream cheese layer. Spread remaining 3 cups of whipped topping over pudding layer; swirl melted chocolate throughout whipped topping.
5. Cover and refrigerate for about an hour. For leftover pie, keep frozen in a tightly covered container. When ready to eat, just cut off a piece and allow to thaw; keep rest frozen.

"Hot" Chocolate Cake - David Scheidt
I did a very nice (well, I liked it, others didn't much, for some reason) cake a year or two or three ago, alternating chocolate and white cake, moistened with a raspberry syrup, filled with coffee-flavored butter cream, and coated in a cayenne chile ganache.