chocolate cake with chocolate frosting: this may be the ultimate

It’s decadent, dark and delicious and may well be the ultimate chocolate cake.  It’s baked slowly on a lower temp to deliver a gooey, dense texture that teeters on the edge of ‘brownies-ness’ sending you straight into chocolate heaven. Dont expect airy, fairy, light and fluffy, this is a solid cake that will easily bowl anyone over.

Its one the best chocolate cake recipes I have come across, and it sits firmly in my top three of all time.  It was voted as a BBC website winner, and is one of GoodFoods top 80 best ever recipes. I can see why.

I have made it twice using less chocolate than the recipe calls for (i.e. 180gms), and used an everyday, less extravagant dark chocolate and cocoa powder, and its still exceptional. I also added vanilla extract (not in the original recipe) which I find very necessary to enhance the chocolate flavour. 

The next time I make it I will use the full 200gms of my standard Belgium couverture and Dutch processed cocoa powder.  I shudder with excitement thinking how good that will be. 

Recipe: 

• 180 – 200gms dark chocolate
• 200gms butter
• 1 tbsp instant coffee
• 85gms self raising flour
• 85gms plain flour
• ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 200gms dark muscovado sugar
• 200gms white sugar (original recipe is with golden caster sugar but we don’t get that in sunny South Africa)
• 25gms cocoa powder (about 4 ½  slightly heaped tbsp)
• 3 large eggs (room temp)
• 75ml buttermilk (5Tbsp)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 

How to make:

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees c / fan 140 c
• Grease a 20cm round cake pan or spray with a cooking spray and line with baking paper
• Break the chocolate into pieces into a small pan and add the butter
• Dissolve the coffee with 125ml of cold water and then add to the butter and chocolate mixture and melt altogether over a gentle heat – do not boil
• When its all melted together set aside to cool
• In a bowl sift the 2 flours and bicarb
• Add the sugar and cocoa until it’s all combined
• In a separate bowl beat the eggs until light and fluffy
• Add the buttermilk and briefly beat together
• Add the cooled chocolate and egg / buttermilk mix to the dry mix and fold it all together by hand
• Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 1 hour 25 minutes – 1 ½ hours. Check by piercing the cake with a small sharp knife or skewer – it should come out clean.  The top of the cake will be firm and may have a few cracks

 Allow the cake to cool in the tin.

 When its completely cool, remove from the tin and peel off the paper.

Cut into 2 or 3 horizontally.

 Ice the cake with the chocolate frosting:

 Chocolate frosting:

 This recipe comes off ‘Nigella’s Feast’ TV show and is incredibly easy and awesome:

 Recipe: 

• 175gms chocolate
• 75gms butter
• 1 Tbs corns syrup or golden syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup / 125ml sour cream
• 2 ½ cups icing sugar (300gms)
• I added 2 tsp of instant coffee granules dissolved in 2 tbsp of rum (I love rum with chocolate and think coffee makes chocolate frosting more chocolatey)

How to make:

• Break the chocolate up into pieces and melt in a double boiler with the butter
• When it’s all melted together add the syrup and the cream and stir through to combine
• Put the icing sugar into the food processor and whiz or alternatively if you are using a beater, sift the icing sugar into a bowl
• Mix or process the chocolate mixture with the icing sugar until it all combined

I added the coffee and rum at the final stage and found that it totally enhances the chocolate flavours. 

Or you could make the Ganache as per the original GoodFood recipe:

•  200gms chocolate
• 284ml double cream (pouring)
• 2 tbs caster sugar

 Heat the cream and sugar n a pan until its about to boil and then pour over the chopped up chocolate pieces in a separate boil and mix until its melted and combined and smooth.

Tagged as: chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, ganache