Now, why did I bake a chocolate cake, that too with a diet conscious HB by my side? It is the ONE year anniversary of my website, guys!!! What started as a personal log of my favorite recipes is now well on its way to become a repository of recipes catering to all types of palate. Thank you all for your continuing support and well wishes! When we decided to commemorate the milestone, there was a lengthy debate on what to make. I was oscillating between a white chocolate truffle cup cake and a perfect chocolate cake and finally settled on a chocolate cake, much to my HB’s delight!
Chocolate cake is one of the most recognized cakes in the world. I am pretty sure that there is not even one bakery/pastry shop around the world that does not sell a chocolate cake! Though the name is generalized, there is multitude varieties of chocolate cake. Today, I am giving here a very simple but decadent recipe of chocolate cake which is my favorite as well. It is a three layered chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I have been wanting to bake a cake from scratch for a long time and now that I have done it, it turned out to be a job well done :). Baking a cake, in general gets a bit messy and doing it from scratch makes it even more messier, but trust me, it is all worth it.
I am a very big fan of cakes in general (it would be the only thing that won’t get me angry when I am woken up from my sleep and offered ;)) And after trying this chocolate cake, I have a profound respect for cakes 🙂 Do try this decadent recipe and post your comments.
- 1 ¾ cups (350 gr) sugar
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- 7.5 oz (213 gr) unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
- 12 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- Scant 3 cups (425 gr) All purpose flour
- 3 cups (600 gr) sugar
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 2 ¼ tspn baking powder
- 2 ¼ tspn baking soda
- 3 eggs, room temperature, beaten
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 1 ½ cup whole milk
- 1 ½ cup hot coffee decoction, filtered
- Combine sugar and heavy cream into a sauce pan. Heat the pan and bring them to boil in a medium heat. Once they starts to boil, simmer it for another 5 to 6 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in the chopped chocolates until completely melted.
- Now add in the butter pieces and stir them again until completely melted.
- Finally stir in the vanilla extract.
- Let the frosting cool completely, whisking every now and then during cooling. (You can do this step in the refrigerator to speed up the process) Once completely cool at room temperature, the frosting will be spreadable.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C. Grease the three 8" round cake pans with butter or oil (on the sides and bottom), dust the bottoms with flour and line them with parchment paper. If desired, wrap the cake pans with bake-even strips.
- Sieve sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. This is done to avoid lumps and even the mixing. Meanwhile make hot coffee decoction and keep it ready.
- In a separate bowl, combine the beaten eggs, vegetable oil and milk. Stir to mix. Then, with the mixer on low, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix on low flame until evenly distributed.
- Pour the hot coffee into the batter and mix on medium to low flame until smooth and creamy. .
- Divide the batter between the cake pans.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes. When a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out cleanly, the cakes are done. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
- Refrigerate the cakes for at least 2 hours or place it n the freezer for one hour. Level the cakes by cutting the excess top bump.
- Stack the cakes, spreading a layer of frosting in between each cake layer. Frost the outside of the cake for a smoother finish.
2.The recipe I have given here is for the big batch. You can reduce the ingredients by half for a smaller batch.
3.This recipe also works for a 3-layer 9" cake, with slightly shorter layers.
