- You could use improvements in your sous chef skills.
(tapping) Okay?
Hey everyone, I'm Jasmine, and this is my friend, Ben.
- Hi everybody.
I'm Ben Mims.
I developed recipes for Tasty, Food Network,
and now the LA Times.
I'm also a former pastry chef.
Today, Jasmine is going to make a chocolate cake
developed by a real machine learning algorithm
- And Ben is gonna make his own chocolate cake recipe.
- Later, our friend, Jeri's gonna taste them both
to see which one is better.
- Let's get started.
This is Charlie, by the way
- Charlie's making the cake?
- Yes, he's my good friend.
He needs a little help sometimes, but don't we all?
I guess it's time to get started.
Charlie, give us a recipe for chocolate cake.
(electronic beeping)
Red pepper?
Charlie, are you okay?
Do I think it'll taste good?
I don't think it'll taste bad.
All right, Charlie, shall we get started?
Let's see what kind of cooking chops you got.
Did you go to culinary school?
Neither did I.
First we're going to use an electric mixer,
beat butter and two cups of granulated sugar in a large bowl
until light and fluffy.
So we have two and a quarter cups of sugar here, divided,
but you wrote to beat two cups.
Should I leave a quarter cup out of this?
That looks like a good quarter cup.
I'm gonna leave this.
And now, we're just going to beat this
until it's light and fluffy.
It always feels weird to follow the direction verbatim.
I'm so used to trying to decode everything.
- So this is my chocolate cake recipe, which I really love
because it's kind of an old fashioned cake recipe.
You know, it came from like the '80s and '70s,
so it stands the test of time.
The way you get started with it
is actually with some unsweetened chocolate.
So I'm gonna put it into my saucepan
with a full stick of butter,
and then I'm gonna pour in a cup of water.
Now I know that water may seem really weird ingredient
to add into a chocolate cake, but this is gonna add
all the moisture that you need.
I like to use water just because
it keeps the focus on the chocolate.
I'm just gonna give this a stir until it fully melts
and then we'll take it off the heat
and let it cool for a few minutes
- So far, it feels like I'm making cookies,
but I'm sure it'll turn out great.
I trust you, Charlie.
We're good friends.
All right, this looks nice and fluffy.
Now we're gonna add in eggs one at a time.
Now we're gonna add in our vanilla.
- So the next part of making the cake
is to combine all my dry ingredients.
So I have about two cups of flour,
and the thing about this recipe that's different
is that it uses a lot of baking soda and not baking powder.
Typically, baking powder helps things rise
and like get really bubbly,
while baking soda helps keep things flat.
And we have some salt here.
Just gonna whisk these two together.
Make sure to whisk it probably a good like 20, 30 seconds
just to make sure it's all evenly combined.
So now the dry ingredients are mixed,
we're gonna move on to the wet ingredients.
- All right, this looks good.
We're gonna set this to the side
and combine our dry ingredients.
So I'm gonna sift together the flour, cocoa powder.
Did you get cocoa powder or dark cocoa powder?
(crickets chirping)
Baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- [Producer] Do you like robots?
- Oh my God, yeah, I love robots.
I was in a robotics club for like, maybe six years?
All right, what's next?
Sift it together.
I'd like to whisk it to combine.
Can I insert that into the recipe or I can't?
I have to follow it exactly.
Charlie.
Add to butter mixture
in three additions alternately with buttermilk.
Is this "Lost In Translation"?
Whatever happened to the rest
of the quarter cup of sugar, though.
Are we gonna use this again? (electronic beeping)
- Even though this is not wet, sugar is a wet ingredient.
When it heats up, it melts
and then we're gonna add two eggs.
This next ingredient is sour cream.
It's basically like adding cream or more butter to it,
but the sourness really helps to balance sugar in the cake.
It reacts to the baking soda to help it rise.
It also kind of balances chocolate
which is also a little acidic as well.
Also, I'm gonna add a little vanilla as well.
Now I'm just gonna whisk these two together
and you basically just wanna mix it
just until it's kind of emulsified.
It kind of looks all like one.
Now add the melted, cooled chocolate and butter
to the wet ingredients.
So once that's all mixed together,
and again looks nice and smooth,
now we're gonna add our dry ingredients.
And what you wanna do here
is just kind of lightly sprinkle them over the top,
and then I like to use a whisk to mix my cake batter.
Kind of helps to get rid of some of those lumps.
And when you fold, too, which you know,
I'm folding with a whisk here,
you wanna kinda like scrape the outside
and then come up through the center
while you're turning the bowl in the other direction.
As soon as you don't see any dry patches mixed around,
you're done, there's gonna be a few lumps.
That's completely fine.
- Start with flour mixture.
I'm gonna add a little bit of this.
I'm adding it, but I'm not mixing it in.
Interesting.
Okay, now I have to add in some buttermilk
and then some more of my flour mixture,
that wasn't mixed, by the way.
Some more buttermilk, and then, finally,
finishing with our flour mixture.
So normally, I would add in batches
mixing in between until combined
to make sure that everything is evenly incorporated,
but that wasn't in the directions, so he's a little old.
Old model.
Stir in chopped pepper.
Okay, I could do that.
Interesting choice of the pepper, Charlie.
This is how I cut my peppers in at home.
I used to put chilies into my smoothies,
and it's supposed to give you like (grunts) in the morning.
So maybe that's what Charlie wants to happen
when we have dessert.
So finally, we get to stir it in.
This is why we do batches, Charlie.
- Okay, so now we have our batter mixed,
and I have two 8-inch pans that have been greased,
and so I'm gonna divide the batter evenly between them.
You know, I have no idea how that technology works,
but I feel like if a robot creates a dish,
it's gonna be like, maybe technically perfect,
but not tastes good, 'cause it doesn't have a soul.
And then I'll take my spatula, and you do wanna make sure
to just even out the cake batter.
And so now, we're gonna get these in the oven to bake
at 350 degrees for about 30, 35 minutes.
- This is quite thick, but let's move on.
Divide batter evenly between pans.
Okay.
I got my buttered pans and they're lined already
and I'm gonna even divide these.
I don't know if in the future I'll use AI recipes,
but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
One scoop.
It's like so heavy, too.
(pan banging)
I kinda feel like it's gonna have like a cookie texture.
My batter is evenly divided and I'm gonna go to the oven
and cook them for 35 minutes at 350.
Be right back.
Charlie, come on. Charlie! (laughs)
- I feel like having a robot in the kitchen
could be really useful,
to have someone there by your side, yeah.
- [Producer] Do you think robots
are gonna like take over the world?
- Haven't they already?
So the next part of making the cake
is to actually make the frosting.
This is just gonna be a chocolate ganache.
So to get started, I'm actually gonna warm up some cream.
So I'm gonna pour some in a saucepan here
and I'm gonna put this over medium heat.
Once this comes up to a simmer,
I'm gonna pour it over the chocolate,
and we're gonna let that melt, and then,
we're gonna use that to frost our cake.
And now when you pour the cream onto the chocolate,
kinda wanna take the bowl and just kinda shimmy it
until all that chocolate is just covered by the cream.
Then you're gonna let that sit there
for about one to two minutes to let the cream
kind of just gradually melt the chocolate.
Once this cools, we're gonna mix it together.
It's gonna be nice and spreadable like a frosting.
- Cakes are on the oven.
Let's make the frosting.
(electronic beeping)
Melt butter and chocolate in heavy, small saucepan.
So we're gonna start by melting butter and chocolate
in our saucepan here and we're gonna stir frequently
until it's nice and melted.
Next, we're gonna add in our espresso powder
and chili flakes.
I'm wondering if Charlie did some scan
and was like, ooh, spice, like maybe cinnamon, nutmeg?
Now we're gonna add in
our espresso powder and our chili flakes.
That's a lot of chili flakes, Charlie.
- [Producer] Have you had spicy chocolate before?
- I have had spicy chocolate before and I don't like it.
- [Producer] Do you like spicy chocolate?
- Do I like spicy chocolate?
No, I think it's disgusting.
So now that the cream and chocolate have been sitting here
for about two minutes, well, what you want to do
is not just start whisking like crazy,
but you wanna take your whisk,
kind of stick it in the center
and just kind of barely move it around.
You wanna kind of really start small movements
and for a while, you're gonna be like, nothing's happening,
and then, eventually, you'll kind of see that the chocolate
and the cream kind of like emulsify into one.
So I'm just gonna keep doing this.
Then you can kind of bring your whisk to the outside,
kind of larger strokes to really make sure you're getting
all that cream fully emulsified into the chocolate.
There we go.
We're gonna let this cool down just for a few minutes.
Once it gets cool enough, then you know it's ready to use.
- Remove from heat stir in vanilla.
Tablespoon of vanilla extract.
That seems like a lot.
I think the frosting is gonna be full of flavor.
Vanilla is stirred in.
Now we're gonna transfer this mixture into a large bowl.
Now we're gonna add in our confectioner sugar
and buttermilk.
All right, now we're gonna use this electric mixer
and we're gonna beat the frosting
until it's nice and smooth.
Step five, place one cake layer flat,
okay, great, let's bring back our cakes.
- So now we've let the ganache cool.
So it's really nice and spreadable.
So now I'm going to assemble the cakes together.
I always like to take kind of my ugliest cake,
which is this one and use that as the bottom cake layer.
So I'm just gonna eyeball maybe like a quarter to a third
of this ganache and you wanna put it
on this first cake layer.
The ganache in the middle is more or less
acting like the glue.
I'm gonna take the second cake layer,
put this on top, a little more of the ganache.
If you've ever watched any cooking or baking videos,
and you've heard crumb coat, that's what this is.
Start letting a little bit of the ganache
fall over the sides, and as it does,
take the spatula and just kinda side to side,
you're more or less wanting to just seal the edges
of the cake because you're gonna pour more ganache over this
to make a really nice, smooth layer.
I'm gonna keep doing this
until I have the whole cake glazed.
- All right, cakes are back.
I say cake loosely.
Let's get to decorating.
Place one cake layer, flat side up on platter.
So we're gonna turn one of the cake layers over,
which is what we usually do for the top layer.
But I guess this time, Charlie wants us
to do it for the bottom layer.
What's next?
Spread with one cup frosting.
Okay. I'm gonna eyeball this.
The frosting is spreading very well.
You can see the chili flakes.
It's a little alarming, but it's fine.
Top with second cake layer flat side down.
Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake.
We can do that.
There's lots of frosting left.
After taking out these cakes,
I feel like Charlie's mad at me.
I'm liking the texture of the frosting
more than I'm liking the texture of the cake.
That's based on looks.
We'll find out about the taste.
I don't think people are gonna use AI recipes in the future
because I think the food community
is very keen on developing recipes from the heart.
I just feel like this cake recipe was made
from a place of sadness or anger.
Well, this remaining frosting has been on the top
and the sides of the cake.
She looks pretty good, Charlie.
- So now I've gotten the ganache all over the cake,
got some like old fashioned swoops and swirls here,
and I really think our taste testers are gonna like it.
- I'm not sure if our taste tester, Jeri, will like this,
but let's bring her in and see what she thinks.
- Hi everyone.
I'm Jeri and I love chocolate cake.
Moment of truth.
Let's bring 'em in.
I think I'll start with this one first.
And at first glance, the texture looks kind of moist
but I like the frosting on it.
Not too sweet, which is exactly how I like my cake.
Velvety. That frosting is thick, but very, very good.
I like that a lot.
Slice number two, it looks very dense, very decadent.
(suspenseful adventure music)
That frosting's good.
It's a little bit more rich.
I think this one's a lot more moist and less sweet.
This one tastes a little bit off.
Just the frosting.
I think when I had the cake, it was a little bit dry,
but then when I tried the frosting,
it seemed a little, it just, I don't,
I can't put my finger on it.
It just tastes kind of off.
Is this the chili flake in it, like legit right there?
Perhaps. Is it?
Is there like a hot pepper in this thing?
- [Producer] They're red pepper flakes in the frosting.
- Really?
That makes sense, 'cause I did like taste
a hint of spiciness.
You guys got me.
Are y'all ready to know which one I chose?
- Yes. - Yes.
- I had to go with this one.
(bell rings)
- Charlie! - I'm sorry.
- I am curious, though, and I would love to try it.
Cheers. - Cheers.
- It's not bad.
- It's a little dry, but.
- Oh, kinda spicy.
- Mine's very like subtle, and the frost,
well, now it's not getting worse.
- Yeah. - Wanna try yours?
- Yes, let's do that.
I mean, I already know what it tastes like,
so now I gotta hear what you think.
- Mm.
Much more moist.
- And no chili heat. - For improvement?
- [Producer] Does Charlie have a future on Tasty?
- Charlie interns, but that was it.
All right, guys, that was so much fun.
Thanks so much for watching.
If you wanna see any other foods, leave them
in the comments, and Charlie will get to them next time.
Bye!
- [Man] Oh, ho, yes.
(light, jazzy music)