There are chocolate cakes, and there are Chocolate Cakes, and the difference between them isn’t just italics, its everything from the smell to the consitency, the simplicity, to the way it touches your tastes buds just right, down to the fluffiness of the cake itself.
In essence, I have found the ultimate chocolate cake recipe and while I’ve been hoarding it for about two years, I have finally decided to share it with you. Now grab a napkin, because you mght just dribble while reading this post.
This glorious recipe is taken from one my favourite food bloggers, BakedBree! Check out her post here.
To make this 9-inch decadent piece-of-heaven-in-your-mouth you will need:
1 3/4 cups of flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups of cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil (although sunflower has worked just fine for me various times)
2 room temperaure eggs (do NOT use eggs that have been in the fridge, this will upset some of the other ingredients you use!)
1 teaspoon vanilla [essence]
1 cup (medium sized mug) freshly brewed coffee (don’t worry this cake does not taste like coffee AT ALL!)
Start off by whisking (this gets rid of lumps very easily) or mixing together all the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
If you’re using a mixer like me, make sure you put it on low until its all combined! Don’t rush this cake! Its all about making sure everything is blended together properly so you get the right taste and texture!
Once your dry ingredients are done, move on to the wet ingredients: eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla essence and buttermilk. Whisk this together until its all the same consitency and there are no bits of oil peeking through.
You should end up with a creamy substance like this:
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. If you’re using a mixer, make sure you switch to the dough hooks until you have all ingredients fully combined otherwise you’ll probably end up with a broken mixer…
It looks gloopy but keep going! Now add in a FRESHLY made cup of coffee. Don’t make it too strong, a teaspoon of coffee granules is enough!
By the time you mixed the coffee in you’ll have a fairly thin mixture. Don’t worry, thats exactly right! Like I said, its not like most cake recipes. Personally, I like to mix it for a little longer after everything is combined so that the cake is even fluffier when it comes out of the oven!
Now line your two 9-inch cake tins and put them in a pre-heated oven at 350F/180C/Gas mark 4 for 35-40 minutes. Don’t take it out until you put a toothpick or skewer all the way down to the bottom and it comes out clean. I know a lot of people use a knife to check if their cakes are done, but I’d say defnitely don’t for this one, as its quite delicate!
Once your cakes are finished in the oven, take them out and leave them in the pans for 30 mins, then turn them out of the pans to cool completely! Don’t ice them until they’re completely cool otherwise your icing will just melt off slowly but surely! All good things take time! (Apart from fast food)
This time around I was lucky, most of the time my cakes don’t come out flat! However I’ve heard of a trick: wrap a strip of a slightly damp towel around each tin and this helps to keep the cakes flat! Although if like me you’re using a silicone cake tin, this will be quite difficult!
Once you’re cakes are completely cool, ice them however you’d like!
If you want to see how to make ombre icing like this, check out my last post here!
Note: If you’re trying to do chocolate ombre icing using cocoa powder like I did, DON’T make thick icing to start off with, as the powder will thicken the icing as you add more and more! Add milk if it gets too thick to even out the constitency before you add anymore cocoa powder for colour!
Now enjoy, and prepare your taste buds for the best chocolate cake of ALL time! (Yes, I went there)
Until next time!