Moist Chocolate Cake
You throw all the ingredients into a bowl and mix. There is no creaming of the butter and sugar, or alternating between dry and liquid as in typical cake recipes.. Just dump and mix. Sheer genius of a recipe. Also, folks, this cake is not messing around. It is straight forward, deeply chocolaty, moist cake with simple dark chocolate frosting. There is no "dark" chocolate in the actual recipe, but I find that when you use a lot of cocoa in a cake, as you do in this one, it comes out tasting richer and darker, or maybe less sweet if that makes sense. This cake is not pretending to be anything it's not. It's bad ass. It's the Marlon Brando of cakes.
What I love most is this cake tastes how you would expect a flour-less chocolate cake to taste, but has all the texture of a spongy, stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth, home style cake. Don't worry about frosting this cake beautifully or perfectly. Just slap it together and get it in your belly as fast as you possibly can because that's what this one is all about.
Moist Chocolate Cake
adapted from www.foodess.com
cake:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup hot coffee (or 2 tsp instant coffee in 1 cup boiling water)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9-inch baking pans and set aside (if you don't do this, the cake will stick). In the large bowl of a standing mixer, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add egg, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract; beat 2 minutes on medium speed. Stir in hot coffee (I just turn the mixer on low and pour it in slowly). pour batter evenly between the two pans and bake on middle rack of oven for 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool at room temperature for 10 minutes, then run a knife along the edges of your pan to loosen the sides and turn out completely on wire racks and cool before frosting.
Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup cocoa or three 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares, melted (I used a little more than 3/4 cup cocoa)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners sugar
6 tablespoons milk (approx)
In a large bowl, cream butter with an electric mixer. Add cocoa and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy, adding more milk if needed. Icing can be kept refrigerated in an airtight container for 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.
For a darker chocolate icing: add an additional 1/4 cup cocoa and an additional tablespoon milk to buttercream icing.
For a thinner consistency: add 3-4 tablespoons light corn syrup
Ganache would also be a great icing for this cake. This is best eaten the day it's made, but its still very good the next day. Any longer and it will start to dry out.