Tomorrow is V's birthday. But, since we both have to work tomorrow V decided he would like to celebrate it today. Basically it means he gets spoiled and I make him a cake. Some years I go all out and make a fancy cake. I never really make cakes since there are only two of us and a multi-level cake is just too much for us to eat. This year I'm pretty burnt out so I decided to go with a more simple chocolate cake. Luckily, simple doesn't mean boring.
I made Martha's Easy Chocolate Cake. It was definitely easy. It calls for an 8 inch pan, I only have a 9 inch one so I used that instead of buying a new one. It turned out fine, it's just not as thick this way. Which honestly isn't necessarily a bad thing because this is a super rich cake. I also doubled the chocolate glaze recipe to make sure there was plenty. I'm not sure the original amount would have been enough.
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan; line bottom with parchment paper. Butter paper, dust with cocoa powder, tapping out excess; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, wisk together cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture alternating with sour cream, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
- Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Allow to cool before attempting to take out of the pan. I transferred it directly to the cake stand. Martha says to put it on a cookie sheet first.
Chocolate Glaze (this is the recipe, doubled)
8 ounces coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate ( ended up using a tiny bit more because I wanted it more like a ganache than a glaze)
1 cup heavy cream
In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Pour over chocolate; whisk until smooth. Let cool until thick yet pourable, 2 to 3 minutes.
This cake was very rich and yummy. I added sprinkles to the top to make it festive. And I love sprinkles. We watched Tootsie while eating cake and now we are watching The Expendables. We have a very diverse television. Enjoy!
