Some people will claim that a good chocolate cake can be made using just a bit of cocoa powder – but obviously such an atrocity could never pass for a proper chocolate cake: Today I’ll teach you how to turn butter, chocolate and sugar (and a few others things) into a symphony of chocolate goodness!


250g butter
300g dark chocolate (70%)
1,50 dl water

300g flour
1,25 dl cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
550g sugar
5 eggs
2 tablespoons oil (pick one with a neutral taste, like rapeseed oil - not olive oil, please not olive oil)
1,25 dl skimmed milk


First you’ll want to make sure you have all the ingredients you need – should look something like this:

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Yes, this isn't a cake you'll want to make if you are on a diet - so, skip diet and start baking!

If you got everything on the list then lets get started. This recipe might look simple, but it is fairly easy to screw up badly – so don’t try to rush things, especially not if it is your first attempt.

Place butter, chocolate (break it into small pieces first) and water in a pot and melt it over low heat – once the butter starts melting you should stir the mixture gently until it is completely homogenous. When you get to this point you need to remove it from the heat right away, you do not want to burn your chocolate paste. This is what you want:

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Mix flour, chocolate powder, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, eggs, oil and skimmed milk in a bowl – add the chocolate paste and stir until you yet again have a homogenous mixture, transfer everything to a springform baking tin (24 cm diameter), bake in the middle of the oven for 100 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius.

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When the cake is close to being done you’ll want to see how it is doing (poke it with a needle, if the dough sticks to the needle then it needs a little longer in the oven). Once it is done you’ll want to leave it to cool for some 30 minutes, the crust will be hard to the touch and taste a bit like caramelised chocolate, but the cake beneath it should be spongy – at this point you can choose to decorate it with confectioners sugar (but do postpone decorating with confectioners sugar until 30 mins or less before you server it, else it might end up looking wet as the sugar draws moisture from the cake).

What decides if you get a really delicious treat or just a somewhat decent cake is if you get the chocolate paste right and if you give the cake just enough time in the oven – if you get both just right then you will surely enjoy the result!


The cake really should be considered a dessert - consider serving it with raspberry-cream icecream (or make your own by crushing fresh raspberries and mixing ‘em with soft vanilla icecream) or whipped cream and fresh berries – the chocolate taste can be rather intense so some people might not be able to enjoy it “as it is”, do try to find something to complement the cake, you wont regret it.

*drools* Thanks Sash :)

I think there needs to be a new Lemmings meet.

At Sash's, with him doing all the cooking.

even my eyes were drooling... gief!

Pictures gone! =-[

Afraid yes, my server went poof - but who knows, perhaps I'll be able to dig 'em out... or perhaps it is time for more recipes?

You ne'er know!

I've wanted to try this cake for ages.

I've got to replace the wheat flour and the milk, though, but that has to be doable ^__^

Argor wrote on 03/14/10 at 21:49:44:

I've wanted to try this cake for ages. I've got to replace the wheat flour and the milk, though, but that has to be doable ^__^

*strangers stalking the forum*
If you've done that successfully, any chance you can provide a modified recipe? A recipe for chocolate cake that wouldn't poison my nephew would be nice to have around.

I just replaced the wheat flour with naturally* gluten-free fine flour and the milk with rice milk.


The rice milk is sweet like cow milk, but contains less fat. Can probably compensate with one extra spoon of butter?  ;)








*Most so-called "gluten free" products are not gluten free but gluten-reduced wheat flour (as it is cheaper). Some people are ok with gluten-reduced wheat, others need naturally free products.

I like my chocolatecake better still!
No milk required even!

Piglet wrote on 03/31/10 at 14:55:54:

I like my chocolatecake better still! No milk required even!

Oh my, a battle of the chocolate cakes :O

But how are we to compare....

Reyha wrote on 03/31/10 at 15:04:48:

Piglet wrote on 03/31/10 at 14:55:54: I like my chocolatecake better still! No milk required even! Oh my, a battle of the chocolate cakes :O But how are we to compare....

We need Piglet to post her receipe, and then we can make both and compare.  Easy! And twice as good!

Clearly something that needs to be tabled in for the next Lemmings meet.

Speaking of which isn't one due soon? I remember being too pregnant to go to the last one and the spawn is 6 months old on Saturday!

Hum.

Since I'm about to make one for my burfday (at least something will be good that day!), totally out of my head (since we're too lazy to check the recipe). Also, I'm crap at the english terms, so we just make stuff up while we go, kk?

400 gram dark chocolate (as dark as you can get)
400 gram soft butter (put it out of fridge long time before you go plan on making the cake, in fact I don't even put it in when I plan to (kee, I got distracted there no?)
about 400 gram sugar
200 gram flour
12 eggs
3 spoons water

Dunno word for it, here it's a metal round thing (diameter about 25cm) where you can open up the side so the bottom can get off or something!), butter all sides, throw in some sugar and make the whole inside a bit sugary, pat out loose sugar.
Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius.
Put water and chocolate (in little pieces) in something to melt it (au bain marie is a workable thing in this language?).
Keep heat low, so while you have that on you can separate the eggwhites from the yolk, the whites have to go into a sorta big bowl since you want to beat them stiff at some point and 12 make for huuuuge amount of bubbly white stuff.
Keep an eye on the chocolate, no need to stir really, just check everything is melting nice.
The yolks go in another bowl where you beat it with the sugar. Till the mass looks like it's flowing in a lightyellowy stream from the thing you're beating the stuff with.
By this time all chocolate should be sorta melted so you take it from heat (can let it rest to cool off a bit, but if you don't have very soft butter you might want to get to the add butter point without the cooling off) and add the sugary yolkstuff. Stir.
Add the butter, yes you will so curse when the butter wasn't soft enough. Stir more.
After each stirring the mass should be like all samelooking.
Hum, the flour, you sift? (use the weird thing with all the really very small holes in it), adding it to the chocolaty mass.
Stir more. When your arm is about to fall off, you can conclude you stirred enough (unless, well let's not go into that).
Now you beat the whites, this time you can use an electronical thingie to mix with, till very stiff (make sure the stuff you use for this and the bowl is clean, very clean). For those not familiar with beating whites and stuff, you won't get it stiff if you fark up the separating eggpart and have yolk in the white.
Since my chocolatystuffbowl isn't big enough I add a few (wooden) spoonfuls of chocolaty into the whites and stir veryveryvery gentle. Then I add all of it to the white, I let it glide in from the side and I sorta roam around in it, very slowly, very gentle stirring, in fact not so much stirring as more moving the spoon in long strokes.
Don't hurry this part, you don't want to kill the bubbles in the white. Keep slowly mixing it all till it's all mixed (yes it can take a while), then let it glide into the buttered/sugared thingie and shove in middle of oven for 120mins.
Let it cool off for 15mins before removing the metal thingie.

Eat.
Can eat with sugared whipped cream, really fine sugar (dunno word! we use it for on pancakes too), the sugar where you don't sneeze on because then it's spread all through your house.

Also heat slices again in microwave and add icecream (from freezer, not microwave) works wonders.

Piglet wrote on 03/31/10 at 20:40:09:

...  and I sorta roam around in it, very slowly ...

You play in your food?
Though, it's chocolate good cake.

I have to come visit you one day, just to see you make that cake.
I might bring other propositions too  ^__^

Icing sugar, Piglet!  And the metal thing with a latch is a cake tin.

I loved your recipe, it was awesome.  We should definitely have a cookbook with each person's recipes written in their own style.

The metal thing with a latch is a springform pan :)

You're always welcome Argor *giggles* I'll have a special box for you ready.

And I thought we're already making a cookbook here!

I have a springform pan.

It's ooold and does not release any more. So it's only a form now but in name.


And I have negative prefeelings about Yuk-box =-[

But I'll feed you too?

With chocolate-coverd orc?

Nice, but will that justify a sentence to box?  =-|

I like to call it safekeeping. Kiddo can be dangerous you know.