Chocolate Cake, I Just Love This One

Submitted by Mayas Mama

"This is a recipe for a very yummy chocolate cake. I went through a lot to get this recipe perfect. But I have it now and thought that I should share it, since this is a cake loved by many. It's rich and creamy, good for adults and kids. And trust me, you'll love it. The key with this cake is taking it out of the oven at the correct time."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 20mins
• Ingredients: 13
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• For the cake

• 2 1⁄2 cups loosely packed brown sugar
• 2 1⁄4 cups sifted flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1⁄2 cup butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 3 unsweetened chocolate squares (80g, or 85% or higher)
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup boiling water, and
• 1 pinch salt

• Butter cream frosting

• 1 lb butter (soft)
• 2 lbs icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk (as needed)

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Melt chocolate in microwave (30 seconds at a time) or in a double boiler.
3. Grease two 9-inch cake pans.
4. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.
5. In a separate larger bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until light.
6. Add sugar and continue beating.
7. Add eggs one at a time, scraping bowl well after each addition.
8. Beat on high speed for 5 minutes.
9. Add vanilla and chocolate.
10. Stir in sifted dry ingredients alternately with sour cream (starting and ending with flour, i.e. add some flour, then some sour cream, then more flour -- etc).
11. Stir in boiling water.
12. Pour into pans.
13. Bake for 35 minutes (start testing for doneness after about 27 minutes; if there are a few moist crumbs on the tester, it's ok to take it out).
14. Cool in pans for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove to a rack and let cool completely before icing.
15. To make the frosting: Mix all the frosting ingredients together in mixer. Once it is well mixed, frost the cake generously.
16. Enjoy :-D.

Reviews

[Tinkerbell]

OMG! Rich, fudgy, not too dark chocolate cake? So hard to find! You have, IMHO, perfected the homemade chocolate cake. I LOVE the use of brown sugar. It sweetens the chocolate by creating a slight caramelized flavor instead of having a definitive "sweet" or "chocolate" only flavor. I accidentally greased & papered my 8" pans but used them anyway. They baked up perfectly in exactly 30 minutes; taking them out just a tad before I normally would. I thought about adding about 1/2 cup or so of Dutch processed cocoa to the frosting, but I didn't because I like to make the recipe as close to original as possible the first time. Since I know this will not be the last time I make this cake, I'll reserve the chocolate frosting idea for another time. :) However, I did add 2 Tablespoons maraschino cherry juice for flavor & tinted it with pink paste food coloring. Thanks so much for sharing your fabulous recipe, Maya's Mama! Made for Ramadan tag.

 

[Sydney Mike]

I'm a chocoholic, so I know a great chocolate cake when I taste one! This is z very, very nice tasting cake! I was tempted to make a chocolate butter cream rosting, but wanted to make it as is first, & it was very good [emphasis on the WAS, 'cause it's gone ALREADY]! Another time I do want to make a chocolate just to see if that would be excessive ~ my taste buds are telling me it won't, but that comes from 'buds' that actively seek out chocolate!! Thanks much for this recipe!

 

[Mimpard]

I had to try this recipe because it was different and it proved to be an amazing cake. It is rich, moist, complex chocolate flavor that is sure to please any chocolate lover. It makes a large cake; I used two 9 inch layer cake pans and prepared them with moist strips around the pan to ensure a flat cake. The finished cake completely filled the pans. The layers were flat, very few crumbs and easy to frost. This is the recipe I'll reach for when I need a big cake. I cannot comment on the frosting because I used #3730

 

[Marigold13]

Made it for Valentine's Day for three reasons: 1) looked like an interesting recipe 2) great reviews and 3) the pretty pink frosting pic! : ) All I can say is wow and yum! It was great! Excellent tasting chocolate cake. Everyone said the same! I used the entire 3.5oz bar of Lindt 85% Cocoa. The color of the cake crumb was like a dark mahogany teak brown, one person asked if it was a red velvet. Nope. I don't know why it was that color but it was a beautiful dark and rich, perfect crumb with that perfect chocolate flavor. Since it didn't specify dark or light brown sugar, I used 1.5 cups dark and 1 cup light. I covered it in pink buttercream w/fine lavender crystals and small pink pearls. Let it sit in the fridge to firm up the frosting. I haven't made a 2-layer cake in years, and I'm so glad I chose to try this one. Thank you to the person who posted it and those who left reviews.

 

[Andrew M.]

ATTENTION: There are 2 types of baking powder: those with and without sodium-aluminium-sulfate. Sodium-aluminium-sulfate powders are much more bitter. Others, labeled "No Aluminium", are less so. I think this is where the huge discrepancy in user reviews is coming from. I made this recipe with no-aluminium baking powder (only 1 tbsp to be safe) and they were delicious!