Melt in Your Mouth Chocolate Cake

I had not been home for 24 hours after my 3 weeks away when we decided it would be a great idea to start up my baking crusade again.  On the menu, Chocolate Cake.  Since there is only two of us, a WHOLE cake was not an option (not to mention, healthy eating week starts this week).  I have a small approx 6 inch casserole dish I thought would be the perfect size for two. 

I found this recipe on Food Network and tweaked it a little because some of the flavors were a little powerful. 

Ingredients (I cut everything in half)

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans (3/4 + 2 tbs flour)
• 2 cups sugar (1 cup sugar)
• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder (1/4 + 2 tbs Hershey's Cocoa Powder)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda  (1 tsp baking soda)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (1/2 tsp baking powder)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt  (1/2 tsp kosher salt)
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken (1/2 cup buttermilk, make sure to shake)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (1/4 cup veg oil)
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature (1 egg)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (1/2 tsp + spillover vanilla)
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (1/3 cup of coffee)
• Chocolate Buttercream, recipe follows

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then Pam and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.

Forget to take your egg to warm up to room temp?  Put your egg in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes.

With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Your batter will look like soup, have no fear.  Its normal.  I was really worried, but it has all the ingredients it needs to rise. 

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Since I was using a dish thicker than a traditional cake pan, I started checking around 25 minutes to ensure even cooking.  It only took about 35 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Chocolate Frosting: (I halved everything)

• 6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (recommended: Callebaut) (4.5 ounces of semisweet Ghirardelli chips)
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (1 stick of butter)
• 1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature (1/2 egg yolk, use a knife and cut the yolk in the shell)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (1/2 tsp vanilla)
• 1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (1/2 + 1/8 confect sugar)
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder (1/4 tbs instant coffee powder)

Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended.

Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.
My recommendation is to use less coffee (unless you like the flavor) so it does not over power the chocolate flavor.

And serve with a side of vanilla ice cream.  This was so far a BIG success!  It was moist and so flavorful.  I topped it with almonds for an added crunch.  Definitely a winner and will make this again.