The Chocolate Cake to End all Chocolate Cakes

When I've made chocolate cakes in the past, they've left a little to be desired. My last attempt had a nice dark cocoa coloring, but was really dry and fell apart easily - which made for really messy slices. Recently, I had renewed hope when my co-worker and friend told me about a chocolate cake recipe she perfected for her sister's wedding. One of the lessons she learned was that the Bake Even Strips by Wilton are absolutely necessary to prevent the cake from falling in the middle. 

This recipe is based on the Caramel Mousse Cake Recipe from Chocolatier Magazine.

Cake 

1 ½  cup sugar

2/3 cup oil

2 large eggs

1 ¾  + 1 tablespoon Cake Flour, sifted

1 ¼  teaspoon baking soda

1 cup cocoa powder (Hershey's Special Dark)

½ cup sour cream

1 cup buttermilk

Chocolate Coffee Buttercream Frosting

½ cup of butter (1 stick)
½ cup of shortening
4 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp almond extract
liquid (water, milk, coffee, etc - we're using coffee here)*

Chocolate Leaves

Wilton Candy melts or your favorite chocolate, melted. 

*For the coffee I mixed one package of the single serve Starbuck Via with a few tablespoons of hot water until the it dissolve. You can also use a few tablespoons of (cooled) strong coffee or espresso.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Sift all of the dry ingredients together.  Beat the sugar, oil, and eggs until light. (about 8 minutes) Combine the sour cream and buttermilk in a separate bowl. Alternatively add dry and wet ingredients to egg mixture, mixing after each addition. Pour into greased baking pans.  Bake until cake tester comes out clean. (Start checking at 18-20 minutes.) This makes 1 8in x 3in cake.

The cake was split, filled, and frosted with a coffee buttercream. I’ll admit, I’ve been making buttercream for so long that I stopped measuring the ingredients, so this is just the basic recipe. Cream the butter and shortening together until smooth. Add the almond extract. Add the (sifted) powdered sugar in small batches so that you do not end up with the 'cloud' of powdered sugar when you start the mixer. When the frosting becomes too stiff, add the cooled coffee, a little at a time, until you reach a smooth, spreadable consistency. The icing needs to be a little stiff if you are going to pipe decorations. The cake was piped with Wilton tip #21.

To make the chocolate leaves, I found a leaf that I liked (I think maple leaves look great) and traced it onto an index card. From there, I used my template to trace the leaf shape onto parchment paper. While you can also use waxed paper, I've found that the cooled chocolate releases much more easily from parchment paper.

HINT: If you fold the parchment paper into a rectangle a little larger the leaf, you only need to trace and cut once for multiple leaves.

Place one side of the parchment leaf into melted candy melts. Carefully place the leaf on a baking sheet for flat leaves, or in a curved flower form for rounded leaves.  After the chocolate has cooled, peel the parchment paper off the chocolate (it can be reused to make more leaves). Arrange the leaves decoratively on and around the cake.

I thought the cake was a bit plain, so I used a pastry brush to add gold luster dust onto the leaves.

I wasn't the only one to enjoy this cake - it was a hit at work! It was everything that a chocolate cake should be. It had a rich cocoa flavor, it was moist, and it didn't fall apart when sliced.