Fudge Ribbon Cake: Brownie, cake or delicious hybrid?

My sister Deb visits the West Hazleton homestead routinely, and MT & I usually try to stop by each time. Regular readers know Deb has inspired both of us to do a few recipes for the test kitchen series. In this case, a while back Deb mentioned a hankering for some “fudge ribbon cake.”

I hadn’t made it for a long time — more than two decades, since I’ve never baked it post-marriage. I suspect my oldest sibling Jay has made it more recently, though it’s still been years. I did remember really liking the mix of flavors and textures.

Deb said she liked to double the cream cheese filling, and I remembered always wanting more of it, too, so that’s what I did. The recipe below is original, from Jay’s compilation regular readers know as “Uncle Jake’s Favorite Recipes” but is of unknown origin beyond “mom’s recipe box.”

I also remembered that sometimes I found the frosting almost too cloying — I’m pretty sure I made the cake at least once in the past sans icing. You can consider doubling the filling, or skipping the frosting to your taste, of course.

With two moist chocolate layers sandwiching a soft cream cheesy “ribbon” and a quick, thick icing, for me it’s part brownie, part cake and a part new hybrid of the two. While I made it on a Sunday for West Hazleton, there was plenty left Monday for MT to take to work. The complexity of tastes and textures came through in the comments from those who sampled it in the newsroom, and from one person not from the TL.

“It was great, very moist,” said page designer Ashley Bringmann. “I like a subtle chocolate, and it was perfect with my Samao-flavor coffee (a caramel and coconut coffee from Abide Coffeehouse, which had been celebrating the different flavors of Girl Scout cookies.)

“I loved it. Very tasty,” reporter Kevin Carroll said. “The cream cheese and the chocolate play off each other very well.

“It’s really moist and I like the chocolate (frosting) on top,” reporter Margaret Roarty said. “It tastes like fudge.”

Bill O’Boyle had almost the opposite reaction. “The chocolate icing was a little too sweet for me,” he said. “But I liked the cream cheese swirl. Overall, good job.

”I loved the fudge topping, and I loved the cake,” said news editor Roger DuPuis. “I highly recommend it.The density of it was very pleasing. And I liked that creamy swirl.”

“It feels like a cake AND a brownie, two in one. It’s super fudgy, and I like that,” page designer Lyndsay Bartos said. “Mark’s sister was right to ask for more cream cheese filling. That was a good ‘sister edit’.”

As to the non-TL taster, MT had heard that her mother’s friend Rose, who works at the Osterhout Library, enjoyed ribbon cake her own mother used to make, so MT took a piece to her there.

“This takes me back,” Rose said. “It’s very good, very … I don’t want to say chewy … but it has a lot of texture.”

Rose also thought the original recipe, with which she was familiar, needed more cream cheese filling. “It was a good move to double it.”

“I really like cake,” Rose said. “Thanks for thinking of me.”

My tips, if you decide to try it:

Be careful when spreading the top layer of batter on the lighter (in color and texture) cream cheese filling. I heartily discourage dumping the chocolate in the middle and trying to spread it evenly. The filling will move much more readily than the batter, messing up the “ribbon” effect. Consider spreading a bit of batter in different places, then trying to close the gaps and reach the edges. That’s what I did.

And while you could thin the frosting by adding more milk — making it easier to spread — I prefer it at the original thickness.

Dobru chut!

Fudge Ribbon Cake (Uncle Jake’s Favorite Recipes)

Filling:

2 tablespoons butter

1 egg

8 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)

2 tablespoons milk

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon corn starch

Cake Batter:

2 cups sugar

½ cup butter

2 cups sifted flour

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

4 ounces melted chocolate

1 teaspoon baking powder

1⅓ cup milk

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

Chocolate Frosting:

¼ cup milk

¼ cup butter

6 ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla

2½ cups sifted powdered sugar

To make the filling: cream together butter, cheese, sugar and corn starch. Add the egg, milk and vanilla. Beat at high speed till creamy. Set aside.

To make the cake: Heat oven to 350°. Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and powder.

Add butter and 1 cup of milk. Blend well. Add ⅓ cup milk, eggs, chocolate and vanilla, and beat 1½ minutes

Spread half of batter in greased and floured 9 x 13” pan. Carefully spread filling over batter and cover with remaining batter. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

To make the frosting: Melt butter in small saucepan, add milk and heat to boiling point. Remove from heat. Blend in chocolate chips. Add vanilla and sugar and beat until smooth.