THE Chocolate Cake.

by Pratiksha - Saturday, February 11, 2012

Is there anything better than moist, almost melt-in-the-mouth chocolate cake?? If your answer is in the negative you've reached the perfect place. I'm gonna give you the recipe to the most moist, chocolaty and sinful chocolate cake you'll ever have! It stays perfect even after a couple of days. It's just PERFECT! For every occasion!!

The original recipe calls for oil. I just cannot get myself to use oil in any cake; I've tried once but the attempt was such a failure, I've never mustered enough courage to try again. You know what the secret ingredient is?? Coffee, Black Coffee. And the best part is, the cake doesn't taste like coffee one bit! In fact it helps the chocolate to really shine through! Also, I like to add buttermilk, I think it adds to the whole texture and makes the cakes incredibly moist.

Look how incredibly moist the cake is!!

The frosting is wonderful too! Made from dark chocolate, melted with butter and then some yogurt added to it. It's deliciously chocolaty and the sourness of the yogurt wonderfully cuts through the richness of the cake. Yes, the frosting is a bit sour, because of the yogurt and it tastes absolutely beautiful and I wouldn't have it any other way. I made this cake for my Aaji's (Granny's) birthday and once more for my sister's birthday celebrations at her workplace. Both the times, the cake was such a hit!! You must give this delicious cake a try if you've been hunting for the perfect chocolate cake or even if you haven't. Whoever said you need a reason to make cake?! That too, a chocolate cake?!!
Also, I apologize for not being able to give you a link to the original recipe. I've had this in my recipe book since a really long time and have no idea about the name of the book I picked it up from. :(

CHOCOLATE CAKE

For the Cake:
117 g all purpose flour
200 g powdered sugar
45 g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
57 g melted butter
1/2 cup black coffee
1 egg
119 ml milk + 1/2 tbsp vinegar = buttermilk!
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the Frosting:
40 g butter
90 g dark chocolate
150 g icing sugar
1/2 tsp corn syrup
63 g yogurt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1) Brew black coffee and set aside.

2) Line cake tin with parchment/ butter paper and grease lightly with butter or cooking spray.

3) Sift all dry ingredients. Give it a quick mix using a spatula and set aside.

4) Now, mix all the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, adding one egg at a time and mixing well after each addition. Do not over mix the batter.

5) Pour batter into prepared tin and bake at 176 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs stuck to it.

While the cake bakes, start on the frosting...

6) Melt butter and chocolate over a double boiler and set aside to cool a little*.

7) Add corn syrup, yogurt and vanilla extract. Mix.

8) Now, whisk in the icing sugar.

9) Give it one last whisk and your icing is ready!!

>> Now, to assemble the cake...

1) Once the cake is cooled, slice it into half (horizontally), making sure the surface is leveled.

2) Spoon a generous amount of frosting over the cake half in the center and spread using a spatula.

3) Gently press the other half onto the frosted one to slightly sandwich the two together. Level if you wish to.

4) Now, spread the frosting over the surface and sides of the cake in a textured manner (or by all means go for a smooth finish), covering it entirely.

NOTES:

1) Brew the coffee before hand so that it has time to cool and does not start cooking the eggs when you add it to the mixture.

2) The batter is runnier than most other cake batters (It isn't so clear in the pic)

3) * Stir the butter and chocolate while it's melting, you don not want any burning or seizing. Alternatively you could melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave oven, being sure the mix at an interval of 10-15 seconds.

I hope you love this cake and have fun making it. I've found someone I can turn to when I'm low or just happy ;)

You can find me on Twitter and Facebook.