Tag: chocolate cake

Rich Chocolate Cake with Whipped Chocolate Frosting

Obviously I have no issues with excessive chocolate on this blog. Rich
chocolate cake with rich, whipped chocolate icing — bring it on. I’m
one of those odd people who doesn’t even need milk or ice cream to
balance it out. I just go for it. And though I didn’t keep this word in the title, this cake is incredibly moist, and that’s one of the main reasons I decided to make it after seeing it on other blogs. Funny how everyone (myself included) hates that word, yet it’s just about the top adjective I want to describe any baked good.

I first made this for round one of my family’s Christmas dinner. We had this before Christmas itself this year, and all of my step-siblings and brother/sister-in-laws were there. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a large family (this dinner was for 16), so whatever I choose has to feed a crowd. That’s where cakes are great. The only risk in trying out a new cake recipe for an occasion is that you will spend hours baking and perfectly decorating it only to discover after slicing into it that you don’t like it..at all. It’s happened to the best of us.

Thankfully this cake spared me that experience. Everyone loved it. In fact, everyone loved it so much that when I was debating what to make for my family’s Christmas dinner on Christmas day (a different large group), I decided I’d make it again. Points detracted for lack of originality, but no one complained.

I like my cake cold, so that’s how I served it. Because it’s such a moist cake, the longer you allow it to set in the fridge the better your slices will look. I had it in the fridge for 4-5 hours before serving, but it was even easier to cut the next day. With all of the cakes I’ve made I probably start to sound like a broken record on here with things I like in a cake, but I’ll say it again, every bite should be a good bite. This cake falls in that category. It’s my new favorite chocolate cake, and on a blog titled Chocolate Therapy I think that’s saying something!

Enjoy!

Rich Chocolate Cake

Recipe from Foodess

Ingredients

1¾ cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated white sugar
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ tsp baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or
substitute by putting 1 tbsp white vinegar in a cup then filling the
rest up with milk; let stand 5 minutes until thickened)
½ cup butter, melted
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup hot coffee (or 2 tsp instant coffee in 1 cup boiling water)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch baking pans (or line with parchment paper circles) and set aside.
In the large bowl
of a standing mixer, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and
salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract and beat
until smooth (about 3 minutes). Remove bowl from mixer and stir in hot
coffee with a rubber spatula. Batter will be very runny.
Pour batter evenly
between the two pans and bake on middle rack of oven for about 35
minutes, until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean with just a
few moist crumbs attached.
Allow to cool 15
minutes in pans, then run a butter knife around the edges of each cake.
Place a wire cooling rack over top of each pan. Wearing oven mitts, use
both hands to hold the racks in place while flipping the cakes over onto
the racks. Set the racks down and gently thump on the bottom of the
pans until the cakes release. Cool completely before handling or
frosting.

Whipped Chocolate Frosting

Recipe from To Food With Love

1½ cups butter (375g), softened
1 cup cocoa
4-5 cups confectioner’s sugar
½ cup milk (approx)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon espresso powder (optional)

For the Chocolate Frosting:

Add cocoa to a large bowl or bowl of stand mixer. Whisk through to remove any lumps.
Cream together butter and cocoa powder until well-combined.
Add sugar and milk
to cocoa mixture by adding 1 cup of sugar followed by about a
tablespoon of milk. After each addition has been combined, turn mixer
onto a high speed for about a minute. Repeat until all sugar has been
added. You may not use up all the milk if the consistency is right i.e.
not too runny.
Add vanilla extract and espresso powder and combine well.
If frosting
appears too dry, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time until it reaches
the right consistency. If it appears to wet and does not hold its form,
add more confectioner’s sugar, a tablespoon at a time until it reaches
the right consistency.

Rich Chocolate Cake with Whipped Chocolate Frosting

Enjoy!

Rich Chocolate Cake

Recipe from Foodess

Ingredients

1¾ cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated white sugar
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ tsp baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or
substitute by putting 1 tbsp white vinegar in a cup then filling the
rest up with milk; let stand 5 minutes until thickened)
½ cup butter, melted
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup hot coffee (or 2 tsp instant coffee in 1 cup boiling water)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch baking pans (or line with parchment paper circles) and set aside.
In the large bowl
of a standing mixer, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and
salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract and beat
until smooth (about 3 minutes). Remove bowl from mixer and stir in hot
coffee with a rubber spatula. Batter will be very runny.
Pour batter evenly
between the two pans and bake on middle rack of oven for about 35
minutes, until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean with just a
few moist crumbs attached.
Allow to cool 15
minutes in pans, then run a butter knife around the edges of each cake.
Place a wire cooling rack over top of each pan. Wearing oven mitts, use
both hands to hold the racks in place while flipping the cakes over onto
the racks. Set the racks down and gently thump on the bottom of the
pans until the cakes release. Cool completely before handling or
frosting.

Whipped Chocolate Frosting

Recipe from To Food With Love

1½ cups butter (375g), softened
1 cup cocoa
4-5 cups confectioner’s sugar
½ cup milk (approx)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon espresso powder (optional)

For the Chocolate Frosting:

Add cocoa to a large bowl or bowl of stand mixer. Whisk through to remove any lumps.
Cream together butter and cocoa powder until well-combined.
Add sugar and milk
to cocoa mixture by adding 1 cup of sugar followed by about a
tablespoon of milk. After each addition has been combined, turn mixer
onto a high speed for about a minute. Repeat until all sugar has been
added. You may not use up all the milk if the consistency is right i.e.
not too runny.
Add vanilla extract and espresso powder and combine well.
If frosting
appears too dry, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time until it reaches
the right consistency. If it appears to wet and does not hold its form,
add more confectioner’s sugar, a tablespoon at a time until it reaches
the right consistency.

Chocolatiest Chocolate Cake {w/Eggnog Icing!}

THIS CAKE. If there was ever a food so perfect that it could make time stop dead in its tracks, this is it.

If you’re still searching for the perfect showstopper of a dessert for Christmas or New Year’s, this is it: two layers of rich, chocolatey cake that’s so good you’ll have a hard time convincing people you made it from scratch (don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean) covered in the lightest, fluffiest, eggnogg-iest icing. I thought I was done with sweets for a while after that last batch of cookies, but this cake was totally worth it.

If I’ve learned one thing in the 30 years I’ve spent on this earth, it’s that a frosted layer cake is almost always the first thing to disappear from a dessert buffet. True story! People talk a good game about cheesecake and even pie, but when it comes down to it layer cake always wins. So, go ahead and make a huge one – people will thank you. I used a 9-inch cake pan and made two layers. (“They” say a cake this size should serve 40; I say it’ll feed about 22.)

Despite my love of layer cakes, I don’t make them very often at all (I’ve posted maybe two or three on this blog). If you want to know why, it’s because they’re kind of intimidating. I get it. So before I baked this one I did a bunch of research and I think it helped a lot. It’s still doesn’t look perfect (I have a new respect for baking bloggers) but I doubt anyone will care – especially after they’ve tried a bite.

Here are a few of the tips that made assembling this cake a fairly painless process:

Wrap soaking-wet strips of fabric around the outside edge of yours pans before you put them in the oven (you can even buy special “even bake” strips for this). I don’t understand the science behind this, but it makes your cake bake perfectly level – they won’t dome up over the top of the pan. It makes the layers much easier to stack later on.
Take an extra minute or two to line the bottoms of your pan with parchment paper instead of just greasing them. Just trace around the bottom of the pan and cut out a circle (instead of trying to scrunch it in).
Let the cake cool in the pans for at last 30 minutes at room temperature. The pans should be cool enough to handle with your bare hands and the edges of the cake should start to pull away before you turn the cake out. If you rush things, the cake will be much more likely to stick.
“Invest” in an offset spatula instead of trying to use a butter knife or plastic spatula like I’ve done in the past. (I know, I’m so lazy. And cheap.) It’s unbelievable how much easier this makes to get a smooth, even layer of frosting!
Do a crumb coat. We’ve all heard of them, but have you actually done it? Instead of one thick layer of frosting, it’s so much easier to do two thin layers. The first one seals in the crumbs and, once it hardens a little, it’s so easy to spread a second, pristine layer right over top.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s cake. People will love it.

Chocolatiest Chocolate Cake {with Eggnog Icing!}

Ingredients

For the Cake:

1¾ cups Gold Medal® organic flour
2 cups sugar
¾ cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt
½ cup olive oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup brewed coffee

For the Eggnog Icing:

½ cup Gold Medal® organic flour
1⅓ cups light eggnog
1 teaspoon rum flavoring
2 sticks plus 5 tablespoons butter, softened
1⅓ cups sugar

Preparation

Make the Cake:

Heat oven to 350ºF. Line the bottoms of two 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper. Grease the paper, then lightly coat with cocoa powder.
Add the flout, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Mix on low speed for 10-15 seconds, just long enough to combine the ingredients and break up and clumps. Pour in the yogurt, oil, eggs, vanilla, and coffee. Stir on low speed just long enough to combine the ingredients into a thin batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean (the center of the cake might not appear done, but check it anyway.) Remove the pans from the oven and let the cakes cool for 30 minutes, or until the edges begin to pull away from the pan. Run the edge of a knife around the pan to loosen, then invert onto a cooling rack. Cool cakes completely (If time allows, wrap each layer in plastic and refrigerate overnight).

Prepare the Icing:

In a small saucepan set over medium heat, whisk together the flour and eggnog. Cook until very thick and paste-like, about 5 minutes. Let cool completely. Stir in the rum flavoring.
Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the cooled eggnog mixture; beat on high speed until very light and fluffy – 3-5 minutes.

To Assemble the Cake:

If necessary, trim the tops of the cake layers to flatten them. Place one layer on a cake stand or serving plate. Spread the top of the cake with 1½ cups of icing, making the layer as even as possible. Place the second cake layer on top. Use about 2 cups of frosting to cover the cake in a very thin layer (crumb coat). Let sit at least 15 minutes to allow the frosting to harden. Use the rest of the frosting to frost the cake as desired.

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This post was sponsored by Gold Medal Flour. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep me inspired in the kitchen.

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