Moist Chocolate Cake
One of my baking accidents turned out to be a surprisingly popular cake. I baked it in a rush, and shortened the baking time so it turned out dense, very moist, and underbaked - but it was so well-loved!
Incredibly soft and moist chocolate cake, gently sticky chewiness without an overly sugary taste. To give you an idea of the consistency, some people likened it to 'kueh'. Personally, I prefer a more crumbly texture to my cakes. Still, I'm relieved and happy so many liked this underbaked version :)
The secret ingredient in moist chocolate cakes is the coffee. You cannot taste it - what it does is to deepen the cocoa taste in the cake, and smoothen out the batter.
I modified the original recipe to include chocolate chips (the original had only cocoa powder). This was another 'accident' because the truth was I didn't have enough cocoa powder. But it turned out even better because now there's pockets of melted chocolate chips throughout the cake - will you be lucky enough to sink your teeth into any of them? ;)
Riana - an incredibly talented street jazz and hip hop dance instructor and choreographer in Oschool - ordered a huge batch for her dancers in Dancetitude 2015. THANK YOU SO MUCH for the support!
I love this recipe. It is quick and only one bowl is needed. Saves a lot of time on washing.
Recipe adapted from Foodess
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsweetened chocolate chips
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (or 113g) butter room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk (substitute by putting 1 tbsp white vinegar in a cup then filling up the rest with milk - let it stand 5 minutes until thickened)
1 cup hot coffee (I order kopi o kosong from the coffeeshop. Foodess suggests 2 tsp instant coffee in 1 cup boiling water)
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 176 deg Celsius / 350 deg Fahrenheit. Grease and flour 13 x 9 inch cake pan and set aside. For taller cakes, I suggest you use a smaller cake pan. For a layered cake with buttercream frosting, Foodess suggests two 9 inch round cake pans.
2. Use a huge bowl! Stir thoroughly the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, baking soda, and salt. I use a whisk or one of the mixer's arms for this.
3. With an electric mixer, beat the mixture till smooth after each of the following additions: eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
4. Stir in hot coffee. Batter will be VERY runny. This is normal.
5. Pour batter into cake pan(s) and bake for 30 min (for underbaked kueh texture) or 35 - 40 min. Note that for the underbaked version, a cake tester inserted in the centre will NOT come out clean. The top of the cake is a thin flaky crust.
6. Allow to cool, then run a butter knife around the edges.
For the underbaked version, the cake will not be easily removed from the pan since it is sticky inside. I normally cut it while it is still in the pan. Be careful when doing this, you don't want to scratch your cake pan with the knife (as I have done).
For the normal version, Foodess suggests for you to place a wire cooling rack over the pan. Use oven mitts to hold the racks in place while flipping the cakes over. Gently thump the bottom of the pan until cake is released, and cool completely before handling or frosting.
7. (Optional) Sprinkle icing sugar over the top of the cake.
