A Dark Chocolate Birthday Cake!

This cake was made early this month for my boss birthday.  For the last 5 years, I have been baking a cake for her B Day whenever she happens to be in town.  This year I made a 3-layer Dark Chocolate Cake with Fudgy Chocolate Frosting ... absolutely delicious and oh so sinful!  Unfortunately I was unable to cut this to show you the layers - so you will just have to make do with photographs of the whole cake itself.


Dark Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

312g plain flour
420g caster sugar
2 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
120 grams unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
150 ml vegetable oil
280 ml buttermilk (make your own using fresh whole milk plus 1 tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice)
4 eggs at room temperature
260 ml hot strong coffee
2 tablespoons of vanilla

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 180°C and grease/ line three 8-inch cake tins.

2) In large bowl, sift in all the dry ingredients. Into another bowl, add all the wet ingredients and give it a quick whisk.  Then add the wet ingredients with the dry and whisk for about 2 minutes until well combined.  The batter will be quite liquid.  Measure out equally and pour into prepared baking tins.

3) Tap the tins on the counter a few times to get rid of the air bubbles.. Bake each layer for about 20-25 minutes, rotating once (if necessary). Cake is done when toothpick or skewer comes out barely clean. Refrain from overbaking. Cool completely on a wire rack in the pan before over-turning.

Fudgy Chocolate Frosting
Recipe Adapted from Tish Boyle's "The Cake Book"

Ingredients:

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Method:

Put chocolate in a stainless steel bowl and place bowl over a pot of barely simmering water. Heat, stirring frequently, until chocolate is completely melted. Remove the bowl from the pot and set the chocolate aside to cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium until creamy, about 1 minute. Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat at medium speed untl light and creamy, about 2 to 3 minutes minutes. Beat in the vanilla. Add the cooled chocolate at low speed, mixing until blended and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Increase the speed to high and beat until slightly aerated, about 2 minutes.