When the going gets tough the tough get going …eat chocolate. So I’ve been a bit MIA from my blog. No excuse really, I’ve just been busy…work, my sister’s wedding, other projects etc etc. Anyway I am back now and I decided to dedicate this blog post to the saviour of bad days, sad days, frustrating days, long days, and even good days. The one thing that most people love to indulge in, chocolate.
I have yet to meet someone who does not like to indulge in something chocolatey every once in a while. Whether it be milk chocolate, dark chocolate, hot chocolate, or chocolate baked goods like chocolate brownies or chocolate cake. We all have a degree of weakness for chocolate in some form. Now from a scientific stand point, as I’ve read in many different articles, chocolate has been found to increase the dopamine levels (aka the happy drug) in the brain as well as serotonin (that has a calming effect), which is why most people will feel a little happier/better after eating some chocolate. But I’m talking about pure cocoa here, not the sickly sweet 2% cocoa milk chocolate bars you buy at the supermarket. And in fact in many diets they allow you to have some pure cocoa, whether it be mixing cocoa into natural yogurt, having a piece of 90% chocolate, or having a cup of skinny hot chocolate. Usually after a little chocolate pick me up you feel ready to keep going again on your horrible diet. We have all been there. And even if you’re not on a diet, if you’ve just had an awful day, indulging in some chocolate usually perks you up. Now I’m the worst person to give diet advice, so i’m not saying go eat 2kg of chocolate sweets. Cause we all know that’s a bad idea! Cause even though chocolate is not outright bad for you, sugar kinda is…sigh. But indulging in something chocolatey every now and again wouldn’t be so bad right. I mean cocoa beans come from trees so your basically having a salad! Jokes, if only.
So on a specific day I was looking for a rich dark chocolate cake and I came across this recipe from another blog, called “add a pinch”. And I gave it a test bake and boy was it good! After trying this cake, I also made a dairy- and gluten-free version for a friend of mine who is allergic to gluten and dairy. And I must say it came out splendidly. Because it had a such a rich chocolate taste you could not taste the gluten-free flour at all. If it’s a rich chocolate cake that you’re after, then definitely keep this recipe in mind. It is quick and easy, and requires no messing about with separating eggs and whipping egg whites. So it’s a good, the night before recipe or even one you can bake with your kids. So without further ado, here is the recipe for the rich, moist chocolate cake recipe that I followed.
Rich Chocolate Cake Recipe:
- 300g cake flour (or a gluten-free flour mix)
- 400g white sugar
- 90g cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon coffee powder
- 1 cup of milk (for a dairy free version use almond or coconut milk)
- ½ cup oil
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup boiling water
- Set your oven to 180 degrees celsius. Lightly grease 3x20cm cake pans and line the bottoms with baking paper.
- Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, soda, salt and coffee) together in a large bowl and whisk to incorporate everything and to break up any clumps of cocoa.
- In a separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients except the boiling water (milk, oil, eggs, vanilla) together. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Then slowly add the boiling water whilst the batter is mixing at a low speed, mix until well incorporated and you have a smooth batter.
- Evenly distribute the batter into the three tins, about 510g of batter in each tin. Softly spread the batter out evenly in each tin so that it is nice and flat.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes. or until a toothpick/cake tester inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes and then remove the cakes from the pans and allow to cool on a wire rack until completely cooled before frosting.
For the chocolate buttercream frosting you will need:
- 375g butter/margarine (softened) (dairy free margarine can be used)
- 120g (1 cup) cocoa powder
- 660g (5 cups)
- 125ml (½ cup) milk (can be substituted with almond milk)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ½ teaspoon coffee powder
- Sift the cocoa powder into a large bowl and add the butter. Cream together until well combined. Add the vanilla and coffee powder and mix well.
- If using a mixer, put it on low speed and then add the icing sugar and milk in alternatively. For every cup of icing sugar add a bit of the milk, until you have added all the icing sugar and milk. Mix well on high speed for about 5 minutes.
- If the frosting seems too runny, just mix in a bit more icing sugar. And if it seems too stiff just add in a little more milk.
- Once your cake has cooled down, frost your cake with this delicious chocolate frosting.
NOTE: This frosting is enough to frost the 3 layers generously, as well as the tops and the sides. So if you only want to frost the tops or you want to add some dulche de leche on two of the layers then I would recommend halving the frosting recipe. Or you can store the rest in an airtight container and frost cupcakes with it on a later stage, or just eat a spoonful out of the fridge every time you are in the kitchen!
So for all the chocolate lovers out there, go give this recipe a try, you will not be disappointed. This truly is a terrific chocolate cake that will even impress those people who always try to convince everyone that they don’t like sweet things. EVERYONE has a sweet tooth, some people, like me, just have more than one (maybe a whole mouth-full). And please people as we all learnt from the Oreo TV advert, chocolate isn’t good for dogs so ja don’t be feeding them this cake please… #forhumanconsumptiononly
So that’s all for today. Until next time.
Keep it real.
eat and exhale 