Chocolate Indulgence
Much of the feedback I received on my previous moist chocolate cake were that it doesn't taste like cake, but more like kueh. My dad even said "这个不是蛋糕，是糕！"
So I wanted to try to refine my moist chocolate cake recipe and make it more like cake. A cake has to taste like cake after all, no matter how many people assure me that they love the moistness of the kueh consistency! I think maybe my previous recipe was too watery. Maybe I need to increase the flour proportions.
After my relatively passable try at a two-layer lemon rosemary cake for my nephew's birthday, I think I'm more confident now to do tiered cakes with frosting. So here's my two-layer moist chocolate cake! (:
I used more flour and cocoa powder in this recipe, so it turned out more crumbly (and less sticky or kueh-like) than before. But the cake wasn't easy to depan and some super-yummy-gooey-chocolatey portions broke off and stuck to the pan.
It must have been the chocolate chips I added into the batter as a substitute for a portion of the cocoa powder. Chocolate chips go into the oven solid, and melt while baking, therefore creating a sticky and chocolate mass that collect at the bottom of the cake pans.
It's probably THE secret ingredient for getting your cake to be like kueh, and adds that extra chocolatey-chunk taste. I still can't decide if it's a good or bad thing.
Tasters said that this version is quite dense. Therein lies the dilemma; do I reduce the amount of flour? I guess I'll only know after future experiments. The cream was too sweet for everyone and the crunch of unincorporated sugar accompanied the experience of eating the cream >.< Gosh I need to brush up my cream-making skills. Maybe it's time for me to learn how to make cream that even I would eat... I have a super low sweetness tolerance so it's going to be the healthiest cream ever.
Recipe from Add A Pinch
CAKE
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsweetened chocolate chips
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp espresso powder
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175C. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans. Set aside.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder in a large bowl. Stir through mixture thoroughly with the whisk to combine well.
3. Add milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract to flour mixture and beat on medium until well combined with an electric hand-mixer or stand mixer. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter. The batter will be thin and watery. This is exactly what you want for a moist chocolate cake.
4. Distribute cake batter evenly between the two pans. Bake for 30-35 min or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool before depanning, then cool cakes completely.
FROSTING
Ingredients:
200g unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups icing sugar (REDUCE)
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 tsp espresso powder
Method:
1. Sift cocoa powder to a large bowl. Add butter and cream together until well-combined.
2. Alternate sugar and milk by adding 1 cup of sugar followed by a tablespoon of milk. After each addition, beat on high speed for about a minute. Repeat until all sugar and milk is added.
3. Add vanilla extract and espresso powder and combine well.
4. If frosting appears too dry, add more milk, one tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency. If it appears too wet and doesn't hold its form, add more icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency.
5. Using an angled spatula, apply a layer of frosting on one of the (completely cooled) cakes and place the other cake on top. Then, apply a base layer (or crumb coat) of frosting over the whole cake. Put in fridge to set for 2 hours. Keep frosting at room temperature.
6. After 2 hours, apply another layer of cream on the cake. Feel free to create your own patterns on the surface. I did a spoke pattern and added chocolate chips to the end of 'spike', then topped the centre with a Ferrero Rocher (:
