The Best Chocolate Cake Ever!

I love a good chocolate cake. I tried many recipes before I finally settled on one that is a hit, every, single, time! The result is always a soft, moist, rich, dark and decedent experience. Whether I toss it in the oven, or quickly zap it in the microwave, this cake just hits the spot. Though some adjustments are needed should you decide to make a microwave cake. I will cover this in a different article in the near future.

First things first, you will need quality ingredients. Particularly, do not skimp on the quality of cocoa. This does not work with drinking chocolate, and the off the shelf cocoa in our supermarkets gives lack lustre results. If you can get your hands on alkalized cocoa powder, you have the makings of a very rich and dark chocolate cake. Don’t worry, it is readily available, and labelled as baking cocoa powder. I have found it both in the supermarkets and baking shops.

Let’s get baking!

This recipe is for a standard 1 kg cake. Depending on your need, you can either divide or multiply the ingredients to suit the amount you want.

Ingredients:

Wet                                                                                       Dry

3 eggs                                                                                   2 cups all purpose flour

¾ cup oil                                                                               1 cup sugar

¾ cup plain yogurt                                                               ½ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla                                                                2 teaspoons baking powder

 ½ cup boiling hot coffee                                                     ¼ teaspoon baking soda

                                                                                                Pinch of salt

 

Method:

1.      Prepare your baking tin. Oil and dust it with flour, and set it aside.
2.     Pre-heat your oven at 180^oC for 20 min. As the oven heats up, start your cake prep.
3.      In a large bowl sieve and mix all the dry ingredients. Be sure get all of it well mixed.
4.      In a separate smaller bowl mix well the eggs, oil, yogurt and vanilla.
5.     Pour the wet mixture in the dry mixture and incorporate the two with a wooden spatula. You will end up with a thick sticky, light dough like texture. Make sure there are no dry lumps.
6.     Add the boiling hot coffee and mix till you have a consistent runny texture like well melted chocolate.  
7.   Pour into your prepared baking tin. Gently tap tin over your working surface a few times. This evens out the mixture and removes any large air bubbles that may cause huge holes in your cake.
8.    Bake for 45min to an hour. You will know the cake is ready when you insert a skewer in the middle and it comes out clean. Also, the sides of the cake will pull away from the baking tin.
9.    Remove from the oven and allow the cake to rest in that baking tin for about 10min.
10.   Remove cake from tin, and allow to cool. Or if you just fancy a warm cake, dig in!

It’s that simple!

 

Tips and Tricks

A couple of pointers:

I add vanilla for extra depth of flavour. I add vanilla to my drinking chocolate too. You can still have a really good cake without it. Or, you could substitute if for a different flavour all together.

Likewise, the coffee is for a richer chocolatey taste. You don’t have to add coffee. But, the hot water is a must. It is what adds to that moist melt in your mouth texture.

I used to put in the baking soda when using the standard cocoa to leaven up the cake. With alkalized cocoa it is not really necessary, but still gives it that little added lift.