“Chocolate is the Beyoncé of the food world” – Anjali Johny
Yes I am the one who came up with that quote. I think most of us will agree that it is on point! I can have chocolate any time, any day. I’m a dark chocolate person, I almost never even touch milk or white chocolate, but hey I’m always up for baking with them! The cake recipe is very similar to my black forest cake, just a few changes here and there. I cover it with a rich and decadent chocolate ganache which oh boy! it is just. You know what? I always keep saying that my recipes taste good so I’m just gonna leave this one for you guys to decide.
Alright! enough talking, let’s make some cake!
Ingredients breakdown:
Plain flour: This is your regular all-purpose flour or maida as we call it. I use what I buy locally.
Brown sugar: This is sugar that has molasses. It just makes the cake moister and adds a deeper, intense flavour. However, if you do not have access to it, you can just use plain sugar.
Caster sugar: This is just regular sugar but it is finer in texture. This helps it to dissolve in the batter so you don’t get a batter that is grainy. It leads to an even texture in the baked cake.
Note: You can use regular sugar available at home, however, if the granules are bigger, you should grind it to a fine powder. This will help it to dissolve in the batter.
Cocoa powder: Use any cocoa powder that you like. I however, do recommend reading the label of your cocoa powder pack. I like to use 100% Cocoa without any other additives. Anything else tastes bad in my opinion and maybe that’s just me. But I had to say it. Dutch process cocoa is just darker in colour and has a very slight flavour difference, which is not noticeable unless you eat two cakes made Dutch & regular cocoa each side by side. BUT, the 99% cocoa and 100% cocoa powder taste is very noticeably different.
Apple Cider Vinegar: I somehow always use this but you can use plain vinegar or even lemon juice, without any other additives like – chilli vinegar or sweetened lemon juice.
Vegetable oil: I use refined sunflower oil. You can use any flavourless refined oil of your choice that you know has no strong taste.
Eggs: I use fresh, locally available eggs.
Vanilla: No harm in using extract, essence, the real bean, paste, etc. whatever you have and already use is fine.
Instant coffee: This is a wild card ingredient that I always urge people to not skip. You will never taste the coffee but this takes any chocolate recipe to the next level. I use Nescafe or Bru or any instant coffee that you have and like to use is good enough. Please try it, I promise you, you won’t taste the coffee in the cake.
Heavy cream: This is cream with 35% fat, if you cannot find it, I have also use fresh cream (Amul fresh cream) with around 25% fat. Both work well, only difference is that one with heavy cream will be a little richer and creamier.
Dark Chocolate: I am a dark chocolate gal. I love me a bittersweet chocolate. You can use any chocolate you like – milk or white. I would just request you not to use compound chocolate. Unless you are looking to make chocolate decorations that need to be stable room temperature without tempering, please use real chocolate that has cocoa butter.
Easy Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 250 g plain flour
- 280 g brown sugar (or use regular caster sugar)
- 50 g Dutch processed cocoa powder (or regular unsweetened cocoa powder)
- 2 tsp. Baking soda
- 1 tsp. Baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 250 ml milk
- 1 1/2 tsp. Apple Cider vinegar
- 100 ml vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 200 ml warm water
- 2 tsp. instant coffee
For the ganache:
- 200 ml heavy cream
- 250 g chocolate of choice I used 75% dark
- a pinch salt
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat your oven to 175°C and grease and line two deep 7 inch round cake pans (I used deep pans so that I could cut the cake into half to get a total of 4 layers. You can, by all means, use two 8 inch round cake pans.
- In a large bowl mix the coffee granules into the warm water, once dissolved add the oil and mix well.
- To the same bowl add the sugar and whisk well, then add the eggs one by one, mixing after each addition. Then add your vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, sift your flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda then add this to your wet mixture in three stages alternating with the milk. Lastly add the vinegar.
- Bake your cakes for about 25 minutes, keep checking after 23. When a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, they’re done. Let the cakes cool on a wire rack before taking them out of the pan.
Make the ganache:
- In a medium glass bowl, chop up your chocolate and keep aside.
- In a saucepan, add your cream and heat it till it reaches a simmer, don’t let it boil, take it off the heat and pour it over the chopped chocolate.
- Let it sit for 2-3 minutes and whisk the cream to incorporate the chocolate. Add a pinch of salt. In case your chocolate is not completely melted you can microwave it for 10 seconds and stir.
- Let the ganache cool down completely till it reaches a spreadable consistency.
Assemble the cake:
- Once cooled, slice your cakes horizontally in half (totally optional, I like layers and so I did this, you can just use the two layers and frost them)
- Pour about 4-5 tablespoons of ganache, or as much as your heart desires in between the layers and stack up those layers.
- Once you finish stacking the ganache should almost be over as I only made enough to fill the cakes and give a rustic naked cake look. You can by all means make more and cover the whole cake.
- Chill your cake for 30-40 minutes before cutting yourself a slice because it won’t be able to hold all those layers otherwise.
- Put some sprinkles, transfer the cake to a platter and enjoy this beast of a cake!
Do give this cake a go and don’t forget to give me your feedback. I appreciate it a lot! Also, Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram , Pinterest and Facebook to join our amazing food journey!
Love,
Bakesalotlady❤
Bakesalotlady™ 