Deep Chocolate Cake

Another long time no see. Write.

Tonight, I made a cake because tomorrow is our business manager's last day at work. Now, I realize that I have only been at this job for not even three months, but my loyalty is in my cakes. I guess you could say.

Dana requested a chocolate cake. Amazingly, in all the cakes I have made, I haven't made many chocolate cakes. I went all out and got a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens and tried it out. I'll post the pics of the finished cake tomorrow.

The cake is a deep chocolate cake. It smelled heavenly in the oven.

Deep Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup butter, softened
1-3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-1/2 cups milk

Directions:

• First (my own instructions) before you do ANYTHING, melt the unsweetened chocolate. Otherwise, you'll be waiting around for it to cool.
  

• Grease three 9-inch round baking pans, three 8X8X2-inch square baking pans; lightly dust each pan with 1 teaspoon of the cocoa powder. In a medium bowl, stir together the remaining cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

• In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition.

• Beat in chocolate and vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to chocolate mixture, beating on low speed until well mixed. (Batter will be thick. - That's what they say - I say it looks like chocolate mousse! Yum!)

• Divide batter among prepared pans; spread evenly. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the centers comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.

My cakes only took 17 minutes to bake. It was my first experience with this oven so that may be the reason...I have the world's crappiest oven. It doesn't even have a viewing window. Crapola-ish.

While the cakes were baking, I curled some milk chocolate. It was warm in the house and the chocolate didn't want to curl nicely so I got mini curls. They look fine and taste even better, but for nice curls, just simply use a vegetable peeler along the length of a good quality chocolate bar. The longer the better. So pretty. I used parchment paper for the curls to fall on and then put them in the fridge until frosting time. Like I said, it was warm in the house and those little curlies melt fast.

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting:

Ingredients:

12 ounces semisweet chocolate pieces (2 cups)
1/2 cup butter
8 ounces dairy sour cream
4-1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar (about 1 pound)

Directions:

• Make sure to buy sifted confectioner's sugar. Most of the time, you won't need to sift it like I had to tonight. Which made my arm HURT and my frosting wasn't nearly as fluffy or light in color (meaning it was well beaten - with chocolate frosting, the lighter it gets, it usually means it is getting fluffier - but not always - I'll stop commenting now...)

• In a large saucepan melt chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring frequently. Cool for 5 minutes. Stir in sour cream. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until smooth. This frosts tops and sides of three 8- or 9-inch cake layers.

Cake Assembly:

Optional Ingredients:

Chocolate curls
Fresh raspberries
Fresh mint sprigs

Directions:

• To assemble cake, spread Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting on tops of two of the layers; stack. Add top layer; frost the top and sides of the cake. If desired, while frosting is still moist, use a 4- to 6-inch wooden skewer or tweezers to lightly press chocolate curls into frosting around the bottom two-thirds of the cake. If desired, garnish top with raspberries and mint. Store, covered, in the refrigerator. Makes 12 to 16 servings.

I used strawberries. They are in season and raspberries aren't. So there, cake recipe people! Anyway, I hulled those tasty little guys and halved them and just arranged them nicely on the top of the cake. I sprinkled the top and the bottom edge with the chocolate sprinkles. It still needed a little pretty, so I added so malt balls - some halved - and strawberry quarters along the bottom edge. I would probably use more chocolate curls next time and more malt balls. They look cool in the picture on BHG's website.I hope it's good!! I'll let you know.