Decadent Chocolate Cake

Since learning a few tricks of the trade from a good friend I am now hooked on cake baking. It is so much easier and far less stressful to make a great cake when you know a few of these tricks! I made a chocolate cake a few weeks ago with a cream cheese vanilla filling and iced with a rich chocolate kahlua icing. It was absolutely declicious and I was really pleased with how it turned out. Hope you enjoy the photos and the recipe and are perhaps inspired to bake a cake for your family and friends.

The first step is to bake the cake itself. For the cake I used a recipe from my cookbook The Guy Can't Cook by Cinda Chavich. The recipe is as follows:

The Guy's Chocolate Birthday Cake

Recipe adapted from the Guy Can't Cook by Cinda Chavich

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup dutch cocoa powder
• 1 cup boiling water
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup melted butter or canola oil
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter one 9 inch spring form pan and line bottom and sides with parchment paper.
2. Measure cocoa into mixing bowl and stir in the boiling water. Cool 10 minutes, then beat in eggs one at a time with an electric mixer.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture, beating on a low speed. Then add buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla. Continue beating for 2-3 minutes.
5. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes to one hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
6. Cool the cake for 15 minutes in pan before removing it to cool completely on a wire rack.
7. Once the cake has cooled completely, slice the rounded top from the cake to create a level top. Then slice the cake in half so that you have two layers. Brush each layer on both sides with a simple mixture of 3/4 cup icing sugar, 1/2 cup cold coffee and 1/4 cup kahlua.

The next step is to make the filling for the cake. I chose to make a cream cheese filling because I thought it would contrast nicely with the chocolate in the cake and the chocolate icing. You could fill the cake with anything - fruit, jam, icing etc. Be creative!

Cream Cheese Filling

Recipe by Erin Reimer

Beat together the following ingredients until smooth:

• 1/3 cup cream cheese
• icing sugar (about 1 cup)
• vanilla extract

Add the icing sugar to the mixture until it is the desired consistency - remember you want it to be fairly thick so that it stands up as the filling without oozing out between the layers. Once the desired consistency is reached, spread the filling onto the bottom layer of the cake. Top with the remaining layer and place cake in the fridge to give the filling time to solidify a bit (even 15-30 minutes will be sufficient).

Now that the filling is inside the cake, make the icing while the filling is solidifying in the fridge. I used the icing recipe from the same cookbook the cake recipe came from.

Creamy Chocolate Icing

Recipe from The Guy Can't Cook by Cinda Chavich

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup dutch cocoa powder
• 2 tsp kahlua
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1/4 cup whipping cream or milk

Whisk butter until fluffy. Stir in the cocoa and kahlua. Gradually add the icing sugar until the icing is thick. Beat in enough cream to create a spreadable icing. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the icing and garnish with a fresh sprig of mint.

Here are a few photos of my finished cake:

I really loved this cake! It turned out so nicely and received rave reviews from our friends who helped us eat it! It is really rich cake so make sure to cut it into small slices!

Enjoy!