Featherlight Chocolate Cake

Recipe courtesy Gale Gand

Show: Sweet DreamsEpisode: Less Really Is More

Rated: 4 stars out of 5Rate itRead users' reviews (56)

RECIPE
COMMENTS & REVIEWS(56)

Cook Time:
45 min
Level:
Easy
Yield:
10 to 12 servings

Times:

Prep: 30 min
Inactive Prep: --
Cook: 45 min
Total:: 1 hr 15 min

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Ingredients

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), plus more for the pan
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour, plus more for the pan
1/2 cup good-quality cocoa powder, such as Valrhona or Droste
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups ice water

Directions

Serving suggestion: Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve with milk

Arrange a rack in the upper 1/3 of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a bundt pan or tube pan. (You can use a mixture of cocoa powder and flour instead of flour, to prevent white spots on the cake.)

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, or using a hand mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Mix in the sugar. One at a time, mix in the eggs, then the vanilla, occasionally scraping down the mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, in another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture; then 1/3 of the ice water. Repeat, mixing after each addition. Transfer the batter to the pan and bake until springy and dry, about 40 to 45 minutes.

Let cool in the pan on a rack, then carefully turn the cake out. Just before serving, sift confectioners' sugar over the top. Serve with very cold milk!

Notes about the recipe: When I developed this recipe I was just looking for a good, reliable dark cocoa cake that could sit on the counter over the weekend and be enjoyed in slivers, craving by craving. This cake is really moist and keeps for days. I just finished one that's been hanging around the kitchen for 6 days! You could frost it with creamy white icing but it hardly needs it. My friend Lana's mom June was one of the best cooks I knew as a kid in the '60s and she did a cake by the same name, though the recipe handed down to me from her daughter is a bit different.

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Comments & Reviews

recipe Featherlight Chocolate Cake
TONY san diego, CA 10-22-2009
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EXPLOTION
Rated: 3 stars out of 5

Same thing happened to me as another review, did what the recipe said put it on a bundt pan and explodede and did not cook... every thing on the bottom of the oven, smoke everywhere. WHAT HAPPENED????? PLEASE SEND SOLUTION. Read more
recipe Featherlight Chocolate Cake
Mary Ann Folsom, CA 05-25-2009
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Simple and Wonderful Chocolate Cake
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

This is a tasty and easy chocolate cake. It's perfect for when you're craving chocolate cake, but don't want to spend three... hours in the kitchen. It's made with ingredients I keep on hand, it doesn't make a big mess, and it's always delicious.Read more
recipe Featherlight Chocolate Cake
Mariana Boston, MA 11-27-2008
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Dissapointing? No way!
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

This has become my go-to chocolate cake recipe. It comes out delicate and perfectly moist every time I make it. It's by-far... my most requested dish. I don't know where people are getting that it is tasteless or dry, I have tried a lot of chocolate cake recipes and this one is my favorite!Read more
recipe Featherlight Chocolate Cake
tracy miami, FL 10-11-2008
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Disappointing Chocolate Cake Recipe
Rated: 1 stars out of 5

This recipe was completely tasteless and so moist you could choke on. It was similar to a box of store bought devils food... cake with out the taste of chocolate. I bake complicated chocolate desserts on a weekly bases. This was a terribly boring caking with no flavor and even if you replace the water with coffee or even spike it with a couple of tea spoons of instant coffee; nothing can help it. Sorry but those are my thoughts based on my experience. Read more
recipe Featherlight Chocolate Cake
Anonymous 09-09-2008
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Perfecto!
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

Very good texture and flavor. Don't see how anyone can find anything negative to write with this recipe when followed... properly. I only added a tsp of instant coffee granules, as I do with anything chocolate. This advise is Barefoot Contessa's and I find she is dead on with this. You don't taste the coffee, it just makes chocolate taste more like chocolate somehow!?Read more
recipe Featherlight Chocolate Cake
Anonymous 08-23-2008
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"Dry & bland" . . . (sounds like a Country song!)
Rated: 1 stars out of 5

I am not a professional but, that being said, I felt this was a less-than-impressive recipe. The texture was dry, the flavor... was bland, and the whole thing seemed to be almost without any imagination. I do tend to be more of a dense and flourless type of chocolate-guru but that does not mean I do not appreciate chocolate cake in many different forms; though I did not appreciate this one. I am an avid fan of simplicity, "less is more" and all, but this was just plain boring. Needless to say I will not be making this cake again. "Sorry, just an opinion," as Simon Cowell would say!Read more