A deep dark secret... an almost Awfully Chocolate Cake

 

"Almost Awfully Chocolate..." was what attracted me to this recipe shared by Jamie, celebrity and owner of Twelve Cupcake. 

 

Indeed it is - very moist, deep and dark chocolate that I haven't had for a long time.  The cake turned out to be a hit even though I mistakenly used Valrhona cocoa powder (which is dutch-processed) when the recipe call for "not dutch processed" in the original source.

 

The cake is really so dark - almost like black!

Double Chocolate Cake

Here's what I did:

85gm semi sweet chocolate (i used 60% choc)
1 cup brewed coffee (I used Nespresso :-))
- Combine both.  There were enough heat from the freshly brewed coffee to melt the chocolate.

2 eggs
1/2 cup veg oil
1 cup buttermilk (add 1 tbsp lemonjuice to 1 cup milk if you dont have buttermilk. let it stand for at least 10mins)
1/2 tsp Nielsen-Massey Pure Chocolate Extract (or vanilla extract/essence)
- these are the wet ingredients

1 and 1/2 cup sugar
1 and 2/3 cup self rising flour
1 cup natural cocoa powder (e.g. Hershey)
1 and 1/3 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
- sift the above dry ingredients together

 

(preheat oven to 180deg celsius - for cupcake, and 160C for big cake)
1. beat eggs (on speed 2 for about 3mins on my Kenwood mixer) till fluffy.
2. add all the wet ingredients (including coffee and choco mixture) and combine well. that’s really quick with the mixer.
3. add all the dry ingredients which you’ve already sifted and mixed together.
4. combine it well with the mixer. that’s quite quick too.
5. pour batter into cupcake liners or cake tins (line the bottom with baking paper so it’s easy to remove cake later)
6. bake for ~21 min (for cupcake) or ~50mins (for cake) or until the skewer/satay stick comes out clean when you poke the center of the cake with it.
7. let cake cool completely before frosting.


Frosting - I halved Jamie's recipe:
100ml whipping cream
20g butter
200g semisweet chocolate

1. microwave above and stir til it’s a smooth mix.
2. cool the mixture cos it might be too watery to spread before that.
3. Pipe the frosting when cupcake is cool.


The cake stores very well - it is soft even when just taken out from the fridge!