I'm going to start this one off with a picture:
Okay. So my dad was coming into town, and, having not baked in a while, I asked him if he had any requests for baked goods. Chocolate-chip cookies or chocolate cake. Okay, I can work with that. I just made cookies (still playing with the recipe, get back to you on that), so I figured I should just go for a cake. (not to mention the we just got new springform pans.)
Cake start!
So the recipe I was working off of had (according to a bunch of comments) not nearly enough chocolate, so I did what any reasonable person would do, and sextupled it. So instead of a 1/2 cup of chips, I had 3. Which meant that when I was trying to make a custard out of milk/chocolate, it needed more milk. I still don't know if I would classify it as a 'custard'. Okay, here's the recipe:
Cake:
1 1/2 cups milk
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup coca powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
Vanilla extract
3/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon water
2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar (sifted) (optional)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a pan of an appropriate size. (This filled our 10" springform pan quite nicely) Melt the chocolate chips with the milk, add the cocoa powder, and stir until you get a nice, smooth, thick consistency.
Cream together the butter and sugar, then add eggs, vanilla and sour cream. Mix well. Dissolve the baking soda in the water, and add it to the mixture, followed by the flour. Add the melted chocolate mixture.
At this point, taste the batter. If it's too chocolate-y, too dark for your tastes (it was for mine) mix in the powdered sugar. It lightens the taste nicely, and keeps the mixture smooth.
Pour the batter into the cake pan, and stick it in the oven!
The recipe said 40 minutes to an hour, but in our oven, when it wasn't done after an hour, I turned it up to 375 and it still took another half hour. (This is, of course, the slow oven)
Which is to say -- keep an eye on this cake after you pass the 40 minute mark, but don't expect that it won't take more than an hour.
Frosting (Strawberry):
10 oz. Strawberry Jam (or some other fruit)
fruit-flavored vodka
8 oz. cream cheese
8 oz. butter
1 cup powdered sugar
Vanilla
All of these numbers are approximate. The plan was originally to make a sacher-torte -esque fruit glaze and then chocolate ganache, so we took out the jam. And then changed our minds. So thinking quickly, we threw the jam onto the stove with a little Strawberry Vodka to thin it out, and mixed it with basic frosting-ingredients. Play around with amounts to satisfy your particular tastebuds. All you need to do is cream them all together, and taste-test. It'll be a bit thin, so refrigerate/freeze before using to thicken.
Frosting (Vanilla):
Cream-cheese
Butter
Powdered sugar
Vanilla
This was just for decoration. I throw together equal parts cream cheese and butter, and then add sugar to taste.
So, once the cake was out of the oven, Chef A cut it in half, filled it with about a third of the strawberry frosting, and then reassembled the cake, using the rest of the strawberry to cover the cake.
At this point, I came back from having lunch with my dad, took a slice for me and one for him. It was only after we had eaten them that I realized I wanted to decorate the cake better. So I threw the vanilla frosting together and piped it onto the Pac-man of cake that was left.
If I haven't said it, this cake was delicious. It's just the right mix of dense flavor and light texture, and the strawberry frosting just complements it so well. The sour cream makes it nice and moist, and there's plenty of chocolate flavor to satisfy even the most hardcore of chocoholics.
My new go-to chocolate cake recipe. (Although I have a great chocolate sheet-cake recipe I should make again)
Happy baking!
~Chef G
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