THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE. Not to be dramatic or anything (I’d never!). Its soft, moist, rich and topped with a tangy chocolate cream cheese frosting.
Notes
The best chocolate fudge cake ever and so easy to make!
Boiling water blooms the cocoa powder which amps up the chocolate taste.
Make your own buttermilk with milk and lemon juice if you can’t get your hands on any.
You can split the cake in half and add frosting to the middle and the top. Or you can just pile the frosting high on top of the cake like I did.
Ingredients:
Chocolate Fudge Cake:
200g plain flour
75g cocoa
175g golden caster sugar
2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp of baking powder
Half tsp of salt
2 large eggs
175ml buttermilk or 160ml milk with the juice of half a lemon
175ml boiling water
2 tsp instant coffee
60ml vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:
75g unsalted butter, softened at room temp
150g cream cheese
Pinch of salt
150g icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
75g dark chocolate, melted
Directions:
FOR THE CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE
Preheat your oven to 160c standard / 180c fan.
Grease an 8×8 inch cake tin with butter. Line the base with baking paper and dust the sides with cocoa. This creates a non-stick coating.
In a large mixing bowl, add the plain flour, caster sugar, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt.
Sift in the cocoa powder to make sure there are no lumps and whisk to combine with all the other dry ingredients.
If you’re making buttermilk with milk and lemon juice, do this now and leave to sit for 5 minutes.
Measure out the boiling water in a jug and mix in the instant coffee until dissolved.
Add the eggs, buttermilk, boiling coffee mixture, vegetable oil and vanilla to the dry ingredients.
Whisk until there are no lumps of dry ingredients.
Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.
Remove from the tin and allow to completely cool on a wire rack.
FOR THE CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
In a medium sized mixing bowl, add the butter, cream cheese, salt, icing sugar (sifted), and vanilla. Use a spoon to gently mix together before using an electric whisk so you don’t get icing sugar everywhere!
Whisk until light, pale and fluffy. Add the melted chocolate and whisk for another couple of minutes until light, smooth and creamy.
Top the cooled chocolate cake with a big pile of icing and smooth over with a palette knife.
Serve and enjoy!