Moist Chocolate Cake

I bought a Kenwood stand mixer last Tue, (thanks 2 Yew & Gene for the Jusco vouchers), in order to try out the new mixer, I got little girl to choose the type of cake to bake on Fri, and she chose this - Moist chocolate cake.

I went to Cold Storage during little girl's school time, thinking of buying a box of Hershey's coco powder and chocolate bar, however, I didn't see the brand, thus briefly took a tin of the trade mark Van houten coco powder from the shelf, paid and went home. Once home, while unpacking, to my horror that the said tin was not Van houten's at all, it was a brand called "Tudor" (it looks so close to the Van houten's)! What a careless me, didn't open my eye big enough, sigh! Gotta go back to Cold Storage to get it changed, what an incident!

I found the moist chocolate cake from My Kitchen, the cake is really moist and so full of chocolate flavor, this recipe is definitely a keep, little girl oledi reminded me again & again to bake her the cake next time, ;)

Moist Chocolate Cake

Ingredients (5' x 8' loaf pan)

1 cup cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup caster sugar (I cut down this by 2 tbsp)

2 large eggs

125g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

Chocolate Paste:
½ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp instant coffee (I excluded this)
¼ cup sugar (again cut it down by 2 tbsp)
½ cup hot water
¼ cup fresh milk
Pinch of salt
Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Grease the loaf pan and line the bottom with baking paper.
2. Chocolate Paste: Combine cocoa powder, instant coffee, sugar, hot water and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk the mixture until the sugar is melted, then add in milk and mix well. Set aside for later use.
3. Sift together flour with baking powder for 2-3 times. Set aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter together with sugar until creamy. Add in vanilla essence, and eggs one at a time. Beat until light and fluffy.
5. Fold in sifted flour in batches, alternate with chocolate paste. Start with flour and end with flour.
6. Bake for 45-50 minutes.
   
   
   

While the cake was baking, the hse was infused with chocolate aroma, it was pretty difficult for me not to eat a piece after it came out from the oven, ;p I cut the cake half (of course I did steal a slice, too tempting!) after cooling off and got each placed on a container cover (used the container upside down, as the following pic), this not only was easier for me to fill the cake with ganache, also to store it neatly and keep it away from the ants to party b4 little girl gotta see it in the morning (don have to buy any cake board or box).

Ganache

Ingredients

8 ounces (227 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter

1 tablespoons cognac or brandy (optional, I omitted)

Direction:

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set aside.
2. Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil.
3. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth.
4. If desired, add the liqueur.

Read here for more details & tips.

As the ganache recipe makes enough to cover a 9 inch cake, I had plenty leftover, spooned it to little cups to make some sinful chocolate cups.

Chocolate anyone?