This ultimate chocolate cake is one of the most delicious and moist classic chocolate cake. Its made with two layers of a dense chocolate cake then filled with and frosted with a chocolate frosting. Start by sifting cake and pastry flour and Dutch-processed cocoa powder which lends a rich chocolate taste and deep dark chocolate colour and then baking soda, salt and superfine sugar that dissolves quickly into the cake batter. Sift the sugar in with the dry ingredients it is a contemporary way of making an old fashioned cake by starting with dry ingredients and then adding cool unsalted butter blend it in until you get a fine crumb which looks like chocolate crumbs.
Once there are no visible pieces of butter, add the liquid ingredients. Get your milk, strong hot coffee and add vanilla to that and add the liquid mixture all at once and with the mixer running whisk eggs to add at the very end. Mix just until they are blended then get two 8 inch cake pans and grease the entire pan and place parchment paper at the bottom and flour the sides and then add your batter into the baking pans and then give them a good tap so that any large-sized bubbles can be removed.
Bake them in a preheated oven of 350F for about 30 minutes. then take the cake out of the oven and place them in a wire rack and test using a skewer insert it in the centre and if it comes out clean it is done. Cool the cakes in the pan for about 20 minutes then get them out of the cake pans and let them cool of completely. As they are cooling, start off making the chocolate frosting. Take your semi-set baking chocolate into a bowl and set them over a water bath creating your own double boiler. (A double boiler is created by bringing a pot and fills it with just an inch of water and bringing it up to a gentle simmer).
Use a metal bowl to melt the chocolate evenly pour in your whipping cream and melt the cream and chocolate together so as to melt the chocolate and not heat the mixture too much. It takes a couple of minutes while the chocolate is melting get sour cream along with vanilla and always add a little bit of sauce and this ganache is a simple combination of whipping cream and chocolate turns silky and thick but as it cools it thickens up and that becomes a fudgy frosting. Add sour cream that lightens up the sweetness and add the chocolate and let the fudgy frosting cool completely to room temperature.
Before icing, the cake put the cake board underneath it that way when you are done you can take it wherever you need to take it. First, put a nice dollop of fudgy frosting at the centre of the cake and spread it and add the next layer and put it upside down that way the flat surface is on the top then frost the outside of the cake. Do the sides and the top of the cake then slice and serve.
Cake Ingredients;
- 1 ½ cup (195 g) cake and pastry flour
- 1 ⅓ cup (295 g) superfine sugar
- ½ cup (60 g) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- ¾ tsp (4 g) baking soda
- ¼ tsp (2 g) salt
- ½ cup (115 g) cool, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- ½ cup (125 ml) hot, strong brewed coffee
- ½ cup (125 ml) milk
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
Ingredients for Fudge Frosting:
- 12 oz (340 g) semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 ¾ (425 ml) cup whipping cream
- ½ cup (125 ml) sour cream
- ½ (3 ml) tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions;
- For the cake, preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Grease 2 8-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment. Dust the sides of the pans with flour, tapping out any excess flour.
- Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl or into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
- Add the butter cutting it in until the mixture is a fine crumble (like the texture of fine breadcrumbs) and no large pieces of butter are visible.
- Stir the hot coffee, milk and vanilla together and add it all at once to the flour mixture, blending until smooth. Break the eggs into a small dish and stir them with a fork and then add them to the batter, again blending on medium speed just until smooth.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and tap them on the counter to eliminate any bubbles.
- Bake the cakes for about 30 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool the cakes for 20 minutes in their pans, then tip out onto a cooling rack to cool completely to room temperature. The cakes can be baked a day ahead, wrapped and stored at room temperature before frosting.
Fudge Frosting;
- For the frosting, place the chocolate and cream in a metal bowl and place it over a pot of barely simmering water. Stir the chocolate and cream occasionally and gently until all the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
- Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk in the sour cream, vanilla and salt. Let the mixture cool completely to room temperature, stir occasionally.
- Once cooled to a thicker consistency, whisk by hand to thicken just until spreadable consistency.
- Place the first cake layers on your serving plate and, if needed, trim the cake to level it. Spread a generous layer of the frosting over the top of the cake.
- Trim the second cake, if needed and place this on top of the first cake layer. Spread frosting over the top and then the sides of the cake, using swirling motion with your spatula to create a nice design.
- Let the cake chill then serve.
