Chocolate Birthday Cake
This cake recipe is easy to make and always moist. You don't need a mixer. A whisk works fine, or even just a fork in a pinch. It has been the most-requested birthday cake recipe at my house for over 30 years. The batter and frosting make fine cupcakes too. The fudge frosting does not adapt well to piping. Mix up a small batch of buttercream frosting to write Happy Birthday on the top of the cake and make embellishments if you'd like to.
Ingredients
- 4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour lightly spooned into cup then leveled
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup strong coffee
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Prepare two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans by lining the bottoms with parchment paper and greasing the sides with oil or solid vegetable shortening, preferably organic.
- Heat chocolate gently in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until melted. Turn off heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl stir sugar, flour, baking soda (put through a strainer to avoid clumps) and salt until thoroughly blended.
- In small bowl or large measuring cup for liquids stir together the coffee, oil, and sour cream until thoroughly mixed.
- Add coffee mixture to the dry ingredients in large bowl and use whisk or hand mixer to mix until blended.
- Add eggs to the batter one at a time (half of beaten eggs), mixing well with each addition.
- Add the melted chocolate to the batter, whisking until batter is uniform in color.
- The pans should each contain about the same amount of batter. Place on the center rack of the preheated oven.
- Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the middle of the pan comes out with just moist crumbs and no gooey batter.
- Let the cake layers cool in the pans on a cooling rack before unmolding, adding frosting, and serving.
Notes
This recipe was inspired by the Rosie's Famous Chocolate Sour-Cream Layers recipe from "Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book" by Judy Rosenberg published by Workman circa 1991.
Chocolate Fudge Frosting
This frosting is super fudgy and decadent.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 1 stick butter
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Mix the sugar and cream in heavy medium saucepan. Place over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly so sugar dissolves. Simmer for 6 minutes from the time the mixture boils. Mixture will be frothy.
- Remove the pan from the heat and immediately add unsweetened chocolate and the butter. Stir until butter and chocolate melt and mixture is uniform. Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Pour liquid frosting into a microwave-safe container or bowl, cover, and refrigerate the frosting until cool but not completely hardened. (If you over-chill, then microwave very briefly so it can be scooped out of the bowl or container.) Process the mixture in a food processor or beat with heavy duty mixer until the frosting is lighter in color and somewhat fluffy. Spread onto cooled cake layers. Makes enough frosting for one 8 - 9 inch two-layer cake.
Notes
This recipe was inspired by the Satin Fudge Frosting recipe in Abby Mandel's book "More Taste than Time" published in 1988 by Simon & Schuster.Â
