Photo: A Gooey, Decadent Chocolate Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 1/2 ounces semisweet or bittersweet dark chocolate, melted and cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups cold water
- Chambourd raspberry liqueur, for drizzling
- Chocolate Chip Butter Cream, recipe follows
- Dark chocolate shavings, for decoration
Directions
Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cooled chocolate and vanilla and beat for 3 minutes to incorporate. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for another 3 minutes. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients in 3 batches, alternating with the cold water. Beat for 1 minute after each addition to incorporate the ingredients. Mix until the batter is smooth.
Coat 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. Cut 2 circles of parchment paper to fit the pan bottoms and place them inside the pans; then spray the paper for added non-stick insurance. Pour batter into the prepared pans and smooth the surface with a spatula; the pans should be 2/3 full. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, see Cook's note*.
Leave to cool for 40 minutes. Turn the cakes out of the pans and remove the paper. Drizzle them with a few tablespoons of Chambourd. With a metal spatula, spread 1/2 cup butter cream on top 1 of the layers. Start in the center and work your way out. Carefully place the second layer on top. Smooth the sides with butter cream, then spread the rest over the top so that the cake is completely covered. Refrigerate for 5 minutes before decorating or cutting.
With a large knife scrape some shavings from a block of dark chocolate. Scatter shavings over cake.
*Cook's note. The cake is cooked when a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean and the cake springs back when touched
Chocolate Chip Butter Cream:
3 cups powdered sugar
7 tablespoons hot water
4 ounces dark chocolate, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup semisweet dark chocolate, finely chopped
In the bowl of an electric mixer, dissolve the sugar and water at low speed. Beat in the dark chocolate and vanilla. Add butter gradually in small bits. Mix until everything is completely incorporated. Using a spatula, fold in the chopped chocolate and give a final quick spin.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
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By Chef #393200
Portland, OR
on December 19, 2011
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I'm a home baker, bake daily and think I'm ok at reading recipes. Read some reviews, and I used regular ap flour. Cake flour is very soft and apprently makes this little cake fall apart. It's the corn starch in the flour.
I'm pretty sure the frosting is so sweet because unsweetened chocolate is meant to be used with the powdered sugar, I did, and it's a nice frosting, nothing special.
I usually make a swiss or italian buttercream, but I did like the Chamboard on the cake and added 2 tbsp to the frosting as well.
It's a nice easy cake and if you like chocolate, you'll like this
By ladytsears_11383111
FREEPORT
on May 27, 2011
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The chocolate cake itself was terrific. Light, moist, flavourful, although I used all purpose flour instead of cake flour. It still was great. The icing, however, wasn't what I expected. I read the reviews before I tried this recipe; I now see what most people were talking about with regards to the icing. The consistency was thin and runny and I used 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar instead of 3 cups and it was still too sweet. Also, the amount of icing wasn't sufficient to cover the entire cake after filling (I used a 9x3" cake pan instead of 2x9" pans. I could only use the icing as a filling and use another icing to frost the cake. Despite this setback, like I said previously, the cake itself was great.
By Akriti Sharan
on May 05, 2011
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Baked this cake for my father's birthday. So tasty. I used all purpose flour which worked just fine. I didn't have two cake tins of the same size, so I used one big one, and thought I would cut it through the middle. The baking time increased to 60 minutes, and when I tried to slice it through the middle, the top part of the cake crumbled into 4 pieces. I was able to save it by covering it up with the butter cream. Also I didn't have any raspberry liqueur so I put a thin layer of raspberry preserve in the middle with the butter cream. It worked well. I used to suggestion of the previous reviewers and halved the quantity of sugar in the icing. All in all, a very tasty cake. Moist, crumbly and slightly chewy. Loved it! Will definitely use this recipe again!
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