This Chocolate Butter Cake has two layers of moist and tender butter cake that are sandwiched together and frosted with a satiny smooth chocolate frosting. It is the cake I make for birthdays, anniversaries and other festive occasions. All the garnish it needs is pretty candles and maybe some colorful sprinkles or fresh berries.
What makes this chocolate cake unique is that we use both unsweetened chocolate and unsweetened cocoa powder to achieve its rich chocolate flavor and color. Unsweetened chocolate is also known as baking, plain or bitter chocolate. This is chocolate in its rawest form and is known by professionals as 'chocolate liquor'. This means that unsweetened chocolate is just ground cocoa nibs that have been refined and contain between 50-55% cocoa butter (cocao fat). This type of chocolate contains no sugar so it has a strong, bitter taste that is used in cooking and baking but is never eaten out of hand. Scharffen Berger has a very nice unsweetened chocolate that contains 99% cacao that you can find it in most specialty food stores. But you can also use the unsweetened chocolate that comes in squares that is stocked in most grocery stores. Besides the unsweetened chocolate, we are also using unsweetened (natural) cocoa powder (not Dutch processed) in this recipe. It has an intense bitter flavor that makes it well suited for use in chocolate cakes. When adding the cocoa powder to the cake batter, we first need to dissolve it in boiling water and this is done to bring out its full flavor. You may also notice that this recipe contains a little extra leavening (baking powder and soda) and this is to counteract the drying and strengthening affect cocoa powder has when used in batters.
Once the cake layers have been baked and completely cooled, they are frosted with a delicious chocolate butter frosting. Again, we are using unsweetened chocolate and this, along with unsalted butter, milk, vanilla extract, and confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, makes a smooth and buttery chocolate frosting that contrasts nicely with the deep chocolate colored cake. Read more
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น