Blackout Chocolate Cake

Tried BlackOut Chocolate Cake at Future’s Cafe. It was so good so had to try to make it. Luckily, found this recipe here: Source and this is how it turned out.

Makes one 9-inch round cake, about 12 servings

For the cake:

  • 8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for the pans
  • 1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for the pans
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¾ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted
  • 1 cup brewed coffee (I used espresso)
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the pudding:

  • 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
  • 6 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 2 cups half-and-half
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • ¼ cup cornstarch, sifted
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Make the cake:

Center an oven rack and heat the oven to 325 f. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment paper circles. Set aside.

1) In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.

2) Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the cocoa and cook until fragrant, about a minute. 

3) Off the heat, whisk in the coffee, buttermilk, and sugars until dissolved. 

4) Whisk in the eggs and vanilla, then slowly whisk in the flour mixture. 

5) Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and smooth with a spatula. ( I used one large rectangular pan and cut it in half at the end)

6) Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes, rotating the cake pans halfway through baking. 

7) Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack. Cool the cakes completely before frosting.


For the filling:

Cook the sugar, chocolate, half-and-half, milk, cornstarch, and salt in a large saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth, shiny and thickened. 

Off the heat, stir in the vanilla. Transfer the pudding to a large bowl and refrigerate, with plastic wrap pressed flush against its surface, until cold and set, at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

Assemble the cake:

Using a large serrated knife, slice each cake into 2 even layers. (Since I cut 2 pieces of this rectangular, I cut half of it as well)

After refrigerating the pudding, it thickens and turns into this perfect creamy frosting! <3

You then crumble one cake layer into medium crumbs and set aside. Place one cake layer on a cake plate or cardboard round. Spread 1 cup of the pudding over the cake layer and top with another layer. (In total you should’ve had 2 crumbled cakes and 2 whole cake layers

)

Repeat with 1 cup more pudding and the last cake layer. Spread the remaining pudding evenly over the top and sides of the cake.The whole construction might look a bit jiggly at this point but after you press the crumbs all around it will get more stable, especially after some refrigeration time. Sprinkle the cake crumbs evenly over the top and sides of the cake, pressing lightly to adhere the crumbs.

The cake can be made a day ahead and kept under a cake dome in the refrigerator.

Hmm a decadent piece of blackout chocolate cake finally!

Decadent Chocolate cake

Tried another awesome recipe from FoodBuzz’s:The Tolerant Vegan, Nikki.

It’s another friend’s birthday today, a great opportunity to try a new recipe. I’ve made a couple of vegan and non-vegan chocolate cakes before but never incorporated coffee into it. Quite excited about this one, I could smell the aroma of the ingredients mixing~

So, here are the ingredients.

Cake

  •  3 cups all-purpose flour
  •  2 cups refined sugar
  • 3/4 cup of cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 3/4 cup of vegetable oil
  • 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
  • 1 cup brewed coffee
  • 1 cup water

Chocolate Melty Frosting

  • 1/2 cup of margarine (or earth balance) room temperature
  • 2/3 cup of cocoa powder
  • 3 cups powder sugar
  • 1/3 cup vanilla soymilk (or almond)
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup of chocolate chips (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350ºC (Brew coffee while getting ingredients ready)

Mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and sea salt together.

2) Mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly.

3) Next, combine the oil, vanilla extract, vinegar, water and coffee.

Look at the colors!

Mix it up!

4) Time to combine the flour mix with the wet ingredients.

5) Stir to smooth

Damn, so chocolatey!

Stir in previously greased and floured pan.

Baked for 20 minutes approximately. The recipe called from between 30-40 minutes but since I was using a large rectangular pan, cake was ready faster.

6) It’s frosting time! Combine the powder sugar, cocoa, vanilla and margarine.

7) Added chocolate chips at then end and mixed them up.

8) Time to dress this chocolate cake with chocolate frost. Start with the middle.

Had some manjar blanco (dulce de leche), a caramel sauce laying around so spread it on the other half. If you’re looking to make a pure vegan cake, don’t use this sauce, it;s made with milk. (Nevertheless, cake still tastes amazing without it!) 

Chocolate madness!