The Power of Chocolate: A Tasty Treat

Hola!
The first food post... Exciting times! I made this cake for one of my housemate's birthdays just at the end of term. She really likes chocolate and that was the only criteria she required for the cake. Despite the sponge element of the cake not being chocolate, we found that you really don't miss it as the creamy, rich, super-chocolatey texture of the sour cream icing is more than enough chocolate for the tastebuds.

On to the actual making/recipe:

Very slightly adapted from the original recipe, from Smitten Kitchen.

Cake Layers

Makes: Two round 9-inch cake layers or equivalent

490 grams all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon fine salt

225 grams butter, softened (most recipes say unsalted, I use salted anyway)

350 grams sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

500 ml buttermilk, well-shaken

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter pans, if you're using silicone moulds like I am, the then you skip the buttering stage.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In a another large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. (Can be done with an electric mixer, not too bad if doing by hand) Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well. Beat in buttermilk until just combined. (The mixture will look curdled and a little unappetizing) Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just mixed in.
Spread batter evenly in pan, then drop on to counter multiple times to eliminate air bubbles. (Fun step) Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden and a tool inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool on rack for 1 hour.

Chocolate Frosting

Note: If you use the sour cream straight out of the fridge, parts of the chocolate solidifies slightly, leaving little bits almost like chocolate chips, which I really like! If you don't want these, then make sure the sour cream is properly at room temperature.

Makes: Enough to frost and fill a two layer 9-inch cake 

450 grams dark chocolate (atleast 70%), chopped 

1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee/espresso (optional - kickstarts flavour of average chocolate, and I like the slight coffee hint) 

2 1/4 cups sour cream 

1/4 cup honey

Melt the chocolate in the microwave, making sure it does not begin to cook. Add the instant coffee and stir well.
In another bowl, whisk together the honey and sour cream until combined. Add the chocolate slowly and stir. Cool in the refrigerator until frosting is spreadable (should not be more than 30mins), if the frosting becomes too thick, leave out until it returns to a spreadable consistency.


Unfortunately, there are no photos of the inside, as once we cut it up it went quite quickly and I had to fight for my own piece to eat! Must say, it's finger lickin' good! Will you try the recipe? Or do you have a similar recipe, that you love more? Comment below...

Have a lovely weekend!

XO Esti