Chocolate birthday cake

Posted by spots (Singapore, Singapore) on 9 June 2009 in Food & Cuisine and Portfolio.

I used a recipe from Carol Durst's "I Knew You Were Coming So I Baked A Cake", an old book given to me by Yin some 9 years ago!! Here is the recipe--it's entitled the "don't do it" chocolate cake and the intro text reads, "Don't melt the chocolate. Don't soften the butter. Don't sift the flour. Don't beat it for more than two minutes. Don't use more than one bowl. Don't spend more than ten minutes putting this cake together..." With an intro text like that, how can anyone resist trying it out ? ^__^

And, happy to say, the cake is really nice. Moist, not too airy, but nicely dense and none of that overly buttery or eggy taste which I hate in cakes.

The fudge frosting was from allrecipes--and it is GOLD. Almost Lana Cake like! I adapted it based on the comments I got from the last round. Enjoy!

For the cake:
Preheat oven at 180 degrees C. Line a 8 or 9 inch cake pan with baking paper. Measure 3/4 cup cocoa powder, 2 cups sugar, 1 and 3/4 cup flour, 1 ts salt, 1 and 1/2 ts baking soda and 1 and 1/2 ts baking powder in a bowl. Stir to combine 10 to 15 seconds. Pour in 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 eggs and 2ts vanilla extract. Beat the whole mixture on medium speed for 2 minutes ONLY.

Now, add 1 cup of boiling water and stir the batter thoroughly with a spatula. Pour batter into baking pan and bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Let cool completely before removing from pan and icing.

For the icing:

Melt about 100g of unsweetened chocolate (a little more or less won't hurt!) and 115g butter in a bain marie. In a large bowl, combine 350g icing sugar and 2ts vanilla. Blend in the melted chocolate mixture. Add 1/2 cup milk, a little at a time, until desired consistency is achieved. Let stand until spreadable (frosting will thicken as it cools).