Extremely Rich & Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe.

Warning: This recipe is not for any chocolate lover, it is only for those who would die without the existence of chocolate and its goodness.

This is one of my favourite chocolate recipes, I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. Here is the recipe for this luscious cake. I will be posting the icing recipe and display the finished cake, so do look out for it.

Extremely Rich & Moist Chocolate Cake (Serves 6)

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar (You may reduce this if you prefer it not to be too sweet)
2 small eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
1 & 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
A pinch of salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven at 175°C, grease and flour 2 cake tins with cocoa powder.
2. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt into one bowl.
3. Cream butter and sugar with electronic mixer, until light and fluffy. Beat eggs in very slowly, one by one. Stir in vanilla extract.
4. Combine in flour mixture alternatively with milk, mixing until incorporated. Pour into the 2 cake tins.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or when a skewer comes out clean when poked into the middle of the cake.
6. Allow the cake to cool in the cake tin for 10 minutes before removing it to cool completely on a cooling rack.

Please note that the oven temperature and baking timing varies across ovens. Results for this cake will depend on the relationship you have with your oven. Here are some photos to guide you along.

The cake mixture waiting to be placed into my oven.

One layer of the cake cooling off on the cooling rack.

The 2 layers waiting to be iced.

Watch out for the rest of this post, for the icing recipe and finished cake.

The evolution of my cupcake designs.

I love baking cupcakes. It is so fun to decorate and it really allows me to get creative. Cupcakes are appropriate for many occasions too. I spot it at weddings, birthday parties and even at corporate events. It is also almost mess-free as I do not have to wash the cake tin as thorough, as compared to baking a whole cake.

Here’s how my cupcake designs vary from the year 2006 till now. I hope to give you bakers some inspiration.

A single mini-chocolate cupcake, lightly dusted with icing sugar. The recipe book behind is one of my favourite baking books.

Double chocolate cupcakes with chocolate fudge. A real delightful overdose of chocolate. These were baked for my church friends.

Mini-peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate fudge. This is one of my personal favourites.

My friends C and El came over to my place for a baking session one day and we got really creative. It was a lot of fun. We used pink icing with marshmallows and chocolate chips. We made faces, flowers and somewhere in that photo lies an old man.

These chocolate cupcakes with colourful beaded sugars were for a Director friend on his big night at an SMU play.

This garden-themed birthday cake was for my friend’s birthday party. C, El and I had crazy fun decorating this cake. It took us more than half a day. There were flowers, soil, grass, bees, butterflies, clouds, the sky and a rainbow found in this cupcake creation.

I hope to bake more soon, probably after Chinese New Year.

Carrot Cakes, the medieval dessert.

In the Middle Ages, sweeteners were low in supply and costly. Hence, people used carrots to make sweet desserts – due to the ingredient’s easy availability. In the 1960s, the carrot cake became a dessert one would most likely find on a dessert menu in the United States.

I’ve only ever baked a carrot cake once using this recipe from Allrecipes. I halved this recipe (which serves nine) and I got a perfect squared-size cake. However, the cream cheese frosting in this recipe turned out too sweet. Anyone has a carrot cake frosting to share, that isn’t too sweet and ‘hardens’ a little for easy storage?

Anyway here’s a photo of the carrot cake that I baked. The only complaint was its overly sweet frosting. This super moist cake ranks really high on my list of favourite things to bake. I welcome all advice on baking carrot cakes.

 

Electrical versus Convection Ovens.

In Singapore, it is not typical for every household to own a convection oven such as this one (shown below) from GE Appliances. In my opinion, Singaporeans in general do not have a culture of baking or cooking using such an oven. It may even be considered as a liability in a home, unless there is a member of the family who loves to bake since she was 14!

I sulked for 9 years without any oven at all, and could only bake when I attended my Food & Nutrition classes in Secondary School – until it was my 23rd birthday! I got this (tiny) electrical oven as a gift.

 

Although this oven cannot bake large cakes or portions at one go, it has served me well. However, I would still want to upgrade to a convection oven when I move to another place in the middle of this year. If there is anyone out there who is willing to share with me their woes (or satisfaction) with an electrical oven, I’m here to listen.

 p/s: Any suggestion for a particular brand of convection oven I should look out for (that isn’t too expensive)?