Moist Chocolate Cake with Mocha Frosting
The chocolate cake is on my top ten list of comfort foods. I do prefer the really moist ones. My favorite chocolate cakes include Calea's (the one with the custard filling and I'm still trying to look for it's recipe), Death by Chocolate of Jack's Loft (definitely lived up to its name) and of course my favorite (which is also very economical) is Hungry Pac's chocolate cake. I really felt proud when I finally made a moist chocolate cake of my own. This is a recipe I got from one of my fave chefs, Ina Garten, when I watched one of her episodes from Barefoot Contessa. She got the original recipe from her friend's grandmother, that's why it's called Beatty's Chocolate Cake. I guess the secret is the cup of coffee which brings out the chocolate flavor. As I've made this a few times, I realised that using buttermilk instead of milk makes the cake more moist. In the pictures below (which was taken the last time I baked this cake), I also omitted the chocolate in the frosting just to add a little twist therefore making a mocha-flavored frosting rather than the traditional chocolate frosting.
Ingredients:
Cake
1 3/4 c self-raising flour
2 c sugar
3/4 c cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 c buttermilk (shaken) !UPDATE! (I'm now using double cream instead of buttermilk)
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 free range eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coffee (I used instant coffee although the original recipe calls for brewed coffee)
Frosting
170 g semisweet chocolate (*to be omitted for mocha frosting)
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg yolk, at room temperature (makes the frosting extra shiny, according to Ina)
1 1/4 c icing sugar
1 tbsp instant coffee powder, dissolved in 2 tsp of the hottest tap water
Preheat the oven to 170C. Place the parchment paper on the bottom of two 8-inch round springform pans then butter the bottom and sides of the pan. Sprinkle a little flour and cocoa.
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt then mix. In another bowl (or you can use a large measuring cup) combine buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry then mix together. Add the coffee and stir just to combine using a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Cool the pans for 30 minutes.
While waiting for the cakes to cool completely, prepare the frosting. Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Alternatively, you can also the remaining heat in the oven and put the bowl of chocolate inside but make sure to watch it closely from time to time as you don't want to burn the chocolate. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.
Beat the butter using an electric mixer on medium high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. You can also beat manually if you don't have an electric mixer (as what I did before) but it will be such an arduous task and it would take longer than 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low and gradually add the icing sugar then beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the mixture and mix until blended.
Place 1 layer, flat side up on a flat plate or cake pedestal. Before icing the cake, place small pieces of parchment paper at the bottom of the cake (another helpful tip from Barefoot Contessa). With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top (rounded side up for a home made cake look or flat side up for a professional look - your choice!). Spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake. Remove the parchment paper at the bottom of the cake.
Here are other variations of my chocolate cake:
Same recipe as above, I just added some decorations as I made this for a friend's birthday.
I bought a silicon square cake pan so I tried baking a square chocolate cake. It turned out great but my only concern is you gave to take extra care in transferring the cake from the pan because of the soft silicon. I would still prefer the metal non-stick type. I should've bought it instead. Maybe next time. The custard filling recipe is located in this post. The additional feather/spiderweb design was added because I had some left over cream cheese filling from a carrot cake I made. Instructions on the spiderweb design is also on that post. If you notice, the frosting also looks quite different as I cooked it and used cocoa and milk. I will post the recipe soon as I still have a cranky baby to attend to.
CHOCOLATE GLAZE FROSTING
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup icing sugar (or confectioner's sugar in US terms)
1 cup cocoa
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk (I used skimmed)
Heat milk in a saucepan. Add the rest of the ingredients when it starts to boil then mix until dissolved and well blended. Lower the heat. Remove from heat when mixture starts to thicken. Cool the mixture then ice the cake using the same method explained above.
This other one is the same as the original moist cake recipe except that I changed the frosting to white chocolate (and of course minus the coffee). It was done by accident because I started on baking the chocolate cake until I realized I don't have dark or milk chocolate for the frosting. Luckily, I still have white chocolate in the cupboard and the result turned out to be fantastic. This was done when I still crazy with the spider web design so here it is again. The chocolate I used for the spider web effect is just the ready-made writing icing. I also garnished it with some of my left over strawberries in the fridge.
Again, same chocolate cake but I put white icing this time (egg whites, icing/confectioner's sugar and cream of tartar). As you can see, I definitely need more improvement in icing this cake but this definitely tasted good (my favorite). I also added honeycomb bits in the filling.
This is the cupcake version of my chocolate cake. As you can see, the buttercream frostings look like noodles/spaghetti as I was originally planning to make spaghetti-designed cupcakes but it wasn't much of a success for a first try so I kind of improvised. I made the others into mocha and stuck with vanilla for the others. The supposed-to-be meatballs (Maltesers; you can use Ferrerro chocolate but they are a bit bigger) were placed on top then I sprinkled them with grated white chocolate and cocoa for the white ones. This was prepared for a farewell party so they had to be done. Lesson learned: do not experiment if cupcakes were intended for a party the following day. I also made carrot and banana cupcakes at the same time (this was a weekday by the way so just imagine how knackered I am). Well, I guess the spaghetti-themed cupcakes can wait the next time.
Ingredients:
Cake
1 3/4 c self-raising flour
2 c sugar
3/4 c cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 c buttermilk (shaken) !UPDATE! (I'm now using double cream instead of buttermilk)
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 free range eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coffee (I used instant coffee although the original recipe calls for brewed coffee)
Frosting
170 g semisweet chocolate (*to be omitted for mocha frosting)
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg yolk, at room temperature (makes the frosting extra shiny, according to Ina)
1 1/4 c icing sugar
1 tbsp instant coffee powder, dissolved in 2 tsp of the hottest tap water
Preheat the oven to 170C. Place the parchment paper on the bottom of two 8-inch round springform pans then butter the bottom and sides of the pan. Sprinkle a little flour and cocoa.
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt then mix. In another bowl (or you can use a large measuring cup) combine buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry then mix together. Add the coffee and stir just to combine using a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Cool the pans for 30 minutes.
While waiting for the cakes to cool completely, prepare the frosting. Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Alternatively, you can also the remaining heat in the oven and put the bowl of chocolate inside but make sure to watch it closely from time to time as you don't want to burn the chocolate. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.
Beat the butter using an electric mixer on medium high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. You can also beat manually if you don't have an electric mixer (as what I did before) but it will be such an arduous task and it would take longer than 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low and gradually add the icing sugar then beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the mixture and mix until blended.
Place 1 layer, flat side up on a flat plate or cake pedestal. Before icing the cake, place small pieces of parchment paper at the bottom of the cake (another helpful tip from Barefoot Contessa). With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top (rounded side up for a home made cake look or flat side up for a professional look - your choice!). Spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake. Remove the parchment paper at the bottom of the cake.
Here are other variations of my chocolate cake:
Same recipe as above, I just added some decorations as I made this for a friend's birthday.
I bought a silicon square cake pan so I tried baking a square chocolate cake. It turned out great but my only concern is you gave to take extra care in transferring the cake from the pan because of the soft silicon. I would still prefer the metal non-stick type. I should've bought it instead. Maybe next time. The custard filling recipe is located in this post. The additional feather/spiderweb design was added because I had some left over cream cheese filling from a carrot cake I made. Instructions on the spiderweb design is also on that post. If you notice, the frosting also looks quite different as I cooked it and used cocoa and milk. I will post the recipe soon as I still have a cranky baby to attend to.
CHOCOLATE GLAZE FROSTING
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup icing sugar (or confectioner's sugar in US terms)
1 cup cocoa
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk (I used skimmed)
Heat milk in a saucepan. Add the rest of the ingredients when it starts to boil then mix until dissolved and well blended. Lower the heat. Remove from heat when mixture starts to thicken. Cool the mixture then ice the cake using the same method explained above.
This other one is the same as the original moist cake recipe except that I changed the frosting to white chocolate (and of course minus the coffee). It was done by accident because I started on baking the chocolate cake until I realized I don't have dark or milk chocolate for the frosting. Luckily, I still have white chocolate in the cupboard and the result turned out to be fantastic. This was done when I still crazy with the spider web design so here it is again. The chocolate I used for the spider web effect is just the ready-made writing icing. I also garnished it with some of my left over strawberries in the fridge.
Again, same chocolate cake but I put white icing this time (egg whites, icing/confectioner's sugar and cream of tartar). As you can see, I definitely need more improvement in icing this cake but this definitely tasted good (my favorite). I also added honeycomb bits in the filling.
This is the cupcake version of my chocolate cake. As you can see, the buttercream frostings look like noodles/spaghetti as I was originally planning to make spaghetti-designed cupcakes but it wasn't much of a success for a first try so I kind of improvised. I made the others into mocha and stuck with vanilla for the others. The supposed-to-be meatballs (Maltesers; you can use Ferrerro chocolate but they are a bit bigger) were placed on top then I sprinkled them with grated white chocolate and cocoa for the white ones. This was prepared for a farewell party so they had to be done. Lesson learned: do not experiment if cupcakes were intended for a party the following day. I also made carrot and banana cupcakes at the same time (this was a weekday by the way so just imagine how knackered I am). Well, I guess the spaghetti-themed cupcakes can wait the next time.
Comments
Post a Comment