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Double Dark Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Servings: 8 -10
Author: Maria Jose Martin
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Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cup Plain flour
  • 2 cups Sugar
  • 3/4 cup Cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp Baking soda
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 1 cup Buttermilk shaken (refer notes for substitute)
  • 1/2 cup Vegetable oil I used Sunflower oil
  • 2 extra large Eggs room temp (refer notes)
  • 1 tsp Vanilla essence
  • 1 cup Hot coffee refer notes

For Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

  • 200 gms Cream cheese softened (I used Philadelphia full fat cream cheese)
  • 175 gms Unsalted Butter softened
  • 225 gms Semi sweet chocolate I used Hershey's semi sweet choc chips
  • 1 tsp Vanilla essence
  • 1 3/4 - 2 cups Icing sugar

For sugar syrup

  • 1/3 cup Sugar
  • 1/3 cup Water

For chocolate Shards

  • 125 gms Baking chocolate

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F / 180 C. Prepare two 8-inch or 9 inch cake pans – Line with parchment, then butter 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 or large measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla, gently whisk. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine – scrape up from the bottom to catch any pesky flour mixture hiding below.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack to complete cooling.
  • For the icing
  • Melt the chocolate in MW or using a double boiler method. Let it cool. Cream together the softened cream cheese and butter. Make sure there are no lumps. Add Vanilla essence and mix well. Add melted chocolate. Combine. Add 1 cup of icing sugar and mix well. Do a taste test and add the rest of the icing sugar accordingly and combine well.
  • For the sugar syrup
  • Mix together water and sugar. Heat it till the sugar dissolves and let it boil. Remove from fire and let it cool completely.
  • For Chocolate shards
  • Melt 125 gms of baking chocolate in MW or using a double boiler method. Spread the melted chocolate (there is no need to cool it) on a parchment/baking paper. Cover it with another parchment paper of same size. Roll it into a tube, refrigerate it with the seam side down for 2 hours. Unroll the tube and the chocolate will crackle itself. Shards is ready. Use as per your liking. Check out the video here, to see how it's done.
  • Assembling of the cake
  • The cake has to be cooled completely before icing. Place one of the cakes on a cake board & brush it with sugar syrup, make sure the entire cake is brushed. Place some icing on top of it & spread using a spatula. Place the other cake on top of this and repeat the process. After the top layer is placed and covered with icing, apply the icing around the sides as well. Now you can decorate the cake with Chocolate shards.
  • Refrigerate the iced cake. Keep the refrigerated cake @ room temp for 20-30 mins, before serving.

Notes

Buttermilk substitute: 1 cup buttermilk = 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar + enough milk to make 1 cup. Let stand for 5 minutes 1 cup buttermilk = 1 cup plain yogurt.
You can also use an electric beater or a manual whisk to make the batter.
Since I didn't have extra large eggs, I used 2 whole eggs and 1 egg white. To make I cup hot coffee, I added 3 tsp of instant coffee powder to 1 cup hot water.
The cake batter is very thin and almost runny. I wouldn't recommend using a spring form/loose bottom tin for baking this.
I used two 9 inch cake pans. My cakes were ready in 25 mins. It's ok to bake one cake at a time, if your oven cant fit 2 pans together. I've also baked this cake in two, 7 inch round pan and with the excess batter I got 12 std size cupcakes. Adjust the baking time of the cake, depending on the size of the pan you are using.
When I baked the 7 inch cakes, I cut each cake into 2, to get a 4 layered cake.
I baked the cake one day in advance. I wrapped the cooled cake in cling film and stored at room temp. The iced cake can be refrigerated for 3-4 days in an airtight container.