Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate-Chip Buttercream

Last Monday, our tiny five-person Japanese class had a party to signify our last lesson with our on/off Japanese teacher who was going on maternity leave. As these weren't my usual taste tasters, I decided on something simple yet effective; yes, another chocolate cake! I knew the Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake recipe was a reliable one, but I decided I would instead use this opportunity to try out a recipe for Devil's Food Cake. I have never made one of these before (or indeed, eaten one), so I was intrigued by what this recipe, which included half a cup of coffee, would produce.
The result was a cake with a deep, dark chocolate flavour (yeah, nine tablespoons of cocoa powder tends to do that :P), and was less rich/sweet than the chocolate cakes I was used to making. The large amount of cocoa powder, as well as the coffee, made the cake a beautiful, deep, dark chocolate colour to match its flavour, and I thought the white buttercream would be a good contrast.
This recipe is David Lebovitz's, but the one I directly used was from raspberri cupcakes. I didn't make the icing mint flavoured, but I liked the idea of a buttercream speckled with chocolate.
The cake itself was lovely, but I think next time I would try a regular chocolate ganache (like on Lebovitz's original recipe), as the buttercream seemed out of place on this cake.
I wish I'd had gotten a picture of the inside of the cake when we had cut it, the contrast looked really good.
Oh well, here's the recipe, folks! 

Oh! And as always, I made the buttercream quantities based on my own judgement, but I'll include the measurements from raspberri cupcakes... Although it seems to be a lot more than I used.

(Adapted from David Lebovitz's Devil's Food Cake recipe)

For the cake: 

•  9 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (you can just measure out that amount of plain flour and replace three tablespoons with cornflour instead)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 115g soft unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup strong coffee
• 1/2 cup milk

For the chocolate-chip buttercream

• 280g soft butter
• 500g icing sugar
• 150g dark chocolate, grated
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease two 20cm cake tins (I only have one so I had to do them one after another).
2. Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, salt, bicarb soda, and baking powder in a bowl.  
3. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined.
5. Mix together the coffeee and the milk.
6. Pour in half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, stirring to combine.
7. Add the coffee and milk into the mixture.
8. Finally, add the last of the dry mixture and stir untl combined.
9. Divide  mixture between the two tins (if only using one, reserve half the mixture in a small, covered bowl).
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes  or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. 
11.  Allow cake to cool for five minutes in its tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
12. (If using one tin, put other half of mixture into tin after removing the cooked cake and repeat) 
13. When cakes are completely cool, prepare the buttercream by mixing the butter and the vanilla essence  with an electic mixer until smooth and creamy.
14. Sift in the icing sugar, a cup at a time, beating after each cup until all the icing sugar is used and the buttercream is fluffy and thick. 
15. Add the grated chocolate to the mixture , giving it a quick whiz on low speed to distribute the chocolate into the buttercream.
16. Sandwich cakes together with icing and then cover entire cake with icing; decorate top of cake with additional grated chocolate if desired. 

Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream

 

(and sprinkles!)

I originally started off this post with "There isn't too much to say about this cake", but I quickly scratched the whole past to start again after I remembered what actually happened. Making this cake was absolutely terrible!
After very much enjoying the cake made from the Women's Weekly recipe (see post below), I decided to re-bake it so I could take it to school and share it with my friends. The batter was easy enough to whip up, but once cooked, it yielded a very obvious problem; the cake was about half as high as a normal cake should be. I had once before had this same problem when using a too-large springform pan, but I did not expect this to happen with the smaller-sized springform pan I had since purchased and was using for this cake.
Nevertheless, a cake only a few centimetres high resulted, as my infamous baking-panic set in. The only viable option was to bake another cake, so I proceeded to do so, opting to sandwich the them together with some buttercream.
But of course, the second cake would not be without its fair share of dramas. I had used up the last of the greaseproof paper for the first cake, and assumed a large greasing with ghee would suffice. Nup. The soft cake stuck to the bottom of the pan, and I was forced to salvage what I could and stick it all together. The good news however,was that I don't think this was noticable at all when the cake was actually served.
I quite liked the pairing of the vanilla buttercream with this cake, and a dash of sprinkles gave it a birthday-cake type of quality which is always nice. Despite the drama I experienced, it was a tasy and a very easy to prepare cake which I will definitely be using again. 

The recipe below is for one single, unlayered cake. It can be either split and cooked in two batches (if using a smaller pan), or can be doubled, if a double-layer cake is desired.

Also you might already be aware of my inability to quote how much buttercream is required, so I apologise. Just have as look at the cake and judge how much you'll need. Sorry :(

(Adapted from the Australian Women's Weekly recipe)


Rich Chocolate Cake

For the cake:

• 200g (1 1/3 cups) self-raising flour
• 50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
• 125g soft butter
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 275g (1 1/4 cups) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 160mL (2/3 cup) water

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a 20cm baking pan.
2. Sift the flour and cocoa into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and mix with an electric mixer on low speed until combined.
4. Raise mixer speed to medium and beat for a further three minutes (the mixture should be smooth and creamy, and the colour should lighten slightly)
5. Pour mixture into cake tin and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Allow cake to cool for five minutes in its tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

I used some of the batter to make a few cupcakes, too. They were excellent and confirmed the fact this same recipe can be used to make cupcakes, which is always awesome.

Chocolate Cupcakes

The Chocolate Brownie Cake I made a few weeks ago yielded a large amount of leftover ganache, leaving me with a few options: throw it away, bake a matching cake, or pass it off to a certain male sibling to eat. The first option was out of the question and hey, any excuse to make a cake, right? Out came the trusty Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake reipe and into the oven went twenty-four cupcakes in brightly coloured cupcakes cases.
What came out of the oven was a sight which can only really be described as hideous. The last time I made this cake, while not affecting the taste in any way, it did sink in just a tiny bit, and the same thing happened to many of these cupcakes. Far from the lovely, domed cupcakes which are ideal, these were some of the ugliest cupcakes I had ever seen. Needless to say, I was sent into the infamous panic mode I adopt during the creation of almost everything I bake. Twenty four cupcakes isn't exactly a number that you can just throw away, so it was all up to the icing to fix things. Luckily, (cupcake) justice prevailed and the cupcakes proved to be nothing that a good dollop of ganache couldn't fix.
I thought that the original recipe would not make enough cupcakes, so I mentally calculated the amounts of the ingredients and used the equivalent of one and a half batches worth of ingredients. They tasted delicious in the end and I comtemplated for a brief second as to why I didn't do four unit maths. Mentally calculating cupcake ratios surely qualifies me for that kind of stuff, no?
Ahem anyways.

As a result of this, I'm not entirely sure how many just one regular quantity will make, but eh, you can figure it out on your own :P. The recipe is exactly the same as the one I have blogged before, just in cupcake form. They will more like likely end up hideous, so be sure to apply generous amounts of ganache.

Oh and just a side note, I wasn't able to cook with eggs that day so I had to use egg replacement powder. That stuff is actually pretty awesome in cakes, just as good as real eggs and particularly helps cakes stay moist. :)
 
(Adapted from Nigella Lawson's Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake recipe)

For the cake: 

• 200g plain flour
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 40g cocoa
• 175g soft unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla essence (use extract if you have it)
• 150 mL sour cream

For the ganache: 

• 75g unsalted butter
•  175g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
•  300g icing sugar
• 125mL sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a muffin tray with patty cases.
2. Put everything into a food processor and blitz until you have a smooth, thick batter. (Seriously, that's it. I usually get scared that the batter is too thick, so i splash in a bit of milk while I'm blitzing it).
3.  Bake for around 20 minutes or when until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.
4. Allow cupcakes to cool for five minutes in the muffin tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. When  cakes are completely cool, prepare the ganache. Melt the chocolate and butter together by placing them in a bowl over a pot of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally.
6. When the mixture has finished melting, sift the icing sugar  into a small bowl while the chocolate mixture cools. Add the sour cream and vanilla and then the icing sugar into the chocolate mixture, whisking while the icing sugar is added to prouduce a silky smooth concoction.
7. Frost the cupcakes. Yay.

Edit: I just realised that almost every post on here has been about a chocolate recipe, with many consecutive ones in the past few weeks. Unfortunately, I can't break that with my next post, but I am hoping to do so after that!

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake

Last weekend I made what I shamelessly refer to as the best cake I have ever made. Much credit is owed to the recipe, which is concise, easy to follow, and to be honest, it's hard to believe that it's so simple when comparing it to the quality of the result.
I have made this cake once before for a close friend's birthday, and it turned out absolutely delicious. I was a tad wary of using sour cream in a cake the first time I made it, but it made the cake incredibly moist and the batter itself was so delicious that my sister offered to wash up just so she could eat the leftover clinging to the  (whatever you call the detachable thing you use for a  food processor).
This time, it was made for Mother's Day (see post below), and only had to be shared amongst the five immediate members of my family, and my mum even ate a few slices without complaining about how much fat and sugar was in it.
I find that putting chocolate cake in the microwave for fifteen seconds or so is similar to toasting a sandwich, it just adds an extra level of deliciousness. This proved true for this cake, and I strongly recommend this to anyone who attempts this cake.
So here's the recipe, if you like your cakes on the simple and delicious side, do try it!

(Adapted from Nigella Lawson's Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake recipe)

For the cake: 

• 200g plain flour
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 40g cocoa
• 175g soft unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla essence (use extract if you have it)
• 150 mL sour cream

For the ganache: 

• 75g unsalted butter
•  175g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
•  300g icing sugar
• 125mL sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease a 20cm cake tin.
2. Put everything into a food processor and blitz until you have a smooth, thick batter. (Seriously, that's it. I usually get scared that the batter is too thick, so i splash in a bit of milk while I'm blitzing it).
3.  Bake for around 30 minutes or when until a skewer comes out clean. (For me, both times, most of it was cooked but the centre was stil gooey; make sure all of it is completely cooked before removing it, but also take care not to leave it in the oven for too long or the rest of it will dry out).
4. Allow cake to cool for five minutes in its tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. When  cake is completely cool, prepare the ganache. Melt the chocolate and butter together by placing them in a bowl over a pot of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally.
6. When the mixture has finished melting, sift the icing sugar  into a small bowl while the chocolate mixture cools. Add the sour cream and vanilla and then the icing sugar into the chocolate mixture, whisking while the icing sugar is added to prouduce a silky smooth concoction.
7. Cover cake in the icing and.....eat it.

 Note: The quantities will probably make more icing than you need, it will thicken upon refrigeration into a solid mousse-like mass, but can be used again if heated slowly in the microwave (or y'know, just grab a spoon and eat it in its solid form).