Simplest, Easiest Chocolate Cake

 

If you do a reasonable amount of cooking or baking, it’s almost guaranteed that you will have the ingredients to make this ridiculously satisfying cake on hand at any given time. The needed equipment is even basic, with a cake pan being the most exotic requirement. It’s also super quick to make with nothing difficult to do. It even has a fun little trick to it.

This recipe is an adaptation of a “6-minute” chocolate cake in Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts. While the way I do it here, does take a bit longer than six minutes, I think it’s the fastest cake I’ve even made. This can totally be your well-kept secret, though, because the cake is fluffy and chocolaty and really much greater than the sum of its parts. Even if you consider effort one of the parts.

I added a layer of rich but equally simple peanut butter frosting to the top of this one-layer cake, which makes it just a tad more celebratory. You could use your favorite chocolate cake topping such as whipped cream, a classic buttery white frosting, cream cheese frosting, or ganache. It is pretty terrific with nothing on it at all, though, or just a dusting of powdered sugar for a finishing touch.

Without the frosting, this is a vegan cake. Instead of the richness of butter or egg yolks, it just gets some oil and a deep dark flavor from a cup of coffee. Instead of volume from egg whites, the batter gets a quick poof from a couple tablespoons of vinegar reacting to baking soda. It’s kind of neat to watch, actually, so if you’re a science-y type like me, it makes for kind of a grand finale. (That’s the fun little trick I mentioned above!)

 

Anyway, this cake is way more deeply, darkly, satisfyingly delicious than it has any right to be. It’s a great recipe to have in your back pocket, and can make you a last-minute dessert hero. Or you can just make it weekly to have on hand. Either way, it will be worth keeping these basic ingredients around (including the frosting ingredients or not) and a few minutes free. It's quick. It's easy. It's good.

Easy Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine salt

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup canola or other neutral-tasting oil

1 cup cold coffee

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

For the frosting

½ cup creamy peanut butter

¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Prepare a 9-inch cake pan by greasing it or spraying it with cooking spray, and dusting with flour. Cut a parchment circle to fit the bottom of the pan and place it in the pan. Spray or grease the parchment. Set the pan aside.

2. In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Whisk together to combine well.

3. In another medium-size bowl, or a large measuring cup, mix together the oil, coffee, and vanilla. Pour into the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

4. Pour in the vinegar and stir very quickly just until the vinegar is evenly distributed.

5. Immediately pour the batter into the prepared pan. Spread out to make even if needed. Bake at 375 F for 25-30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack about 10 minutes. Carefully turn the cake out of the pan, remove the parchment circle, and cool completely on the wire rack.

7. To make the frosting, combine the peanut butter and butter in a medium-size bowl. Beat together with a hand-held mixer at medium speed until smooth. Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla and continue beating until light in color and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

8. Carefully transfer the cake to a serving plate. Spread the frosting just on the top of the cooled cake.

Makes about 8 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting, Chocolate Cake with Porter and Ganache Topping, Flourless Bittersweet Chocolate Torte, Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

One year ago: Savory Parmesan Zucchini Bread

Pumpkin Chocolate Torte

I never seem to get around to making Halloween desserts. It could be that this is a really busy time of year in The Real World and at The Day Job. It’s more likely, however, that all those Halloween candies fill the sweet-loving niche in my life. If I’m smart, I save some fall-colored M&M’s to make these cookies, use some mini peanut butter cups to make these cookies, or avoid eating all of the candy bars so I can make these blondies.

Last year, I got this unique chocolate and pumpkin and spice treat on the table, but didn’t manage to get it posted. (I have some vague memories of last fall being a dark, dark time!) Here it is! It’s dense and fudgy, mostly chocolatey in flavor, moistened and sweetened with pumpkin, and somewhat exotically flavored with Pumpkin Pie Spice. Warm spices are delicious with chocolate (like in this cake), and we all know they’re good with pumpkin, so I suppose it is no surprise that all of these flavors work well together. 

This torte, which is flourless and free of any leavenings, comes out quite thin. When adapting the original recipe, I put in a little more chocolate and changed two egg whites into a whole egg. This probably made the torte denser than it absolutely had to be. I’m okay with that, since the texture is creamy rather than leaden.

If you have a stand mixer, this dessert is rather quick and easy to put together. Most of the ingredients are mixed together in one bowl. While the mixture is beaten for 5 minutes, which is a fairly long time for such things, in order to give the eggs a chance to add at least some fluffiness to the torte, no special skills or techniques are required.

 

While just about any occasion throughout the fall and winter could benefit from the inclusion of this dessert, you certainly can make it just right for Halloween with a bit of simple decorating. I liked the drizzled white chocolate I put on it last year, which gave it a spider web appearance. Melted semi-sweet chocolate is great, too, as are a few seasonal sprinkles. This torte is a little plain without some kind of decoration or garnish, so I would probably at least dollop it with whipped cream. Whatever you do with this potentially Halloween treat, have fun with it!

Pumpkin Chocolate Torte

Based on a recipe from Eating Well magazine

You can replace ¼ cup chocolate chips with white chocolate chips for drizzling on the torte, or decorate or garnish as you like.

1 cup semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips, divided

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon canola oil

4 large eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree

½ cup sugar

½ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

¼ teaspoon fine salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9-inch springform pan very well with cooking spray or butter or oil it as desired. Set aside.

2. In a small saucepan, combine ¾ cup chocolate chips, butter, and canola oil. Heat over low heat until melted, stirring until very smooth. Set aside.

3. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs, pumpkin, sugar, cocoa, vanilla, Pumpkin Pie Spice and salt. Using the paddle attachment, beat the mixture on medium speed for 5 minutes.

4. Add the melted chocolate mixture. Beat until completely combined.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Smooth out the batter. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until the middle of the torte is just set and barely wiggles when shaken.

6. Remove from the oven and cool completely. Carefully remove the outside ring from the springform pan. Melt the remaining ¼ cup chocolate chips. Drizzle over the cooled torte. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Keep leftover torte refrigerated. (I put the ring back on the springform pan and cover the whole thing with plastic wrap to store the torte.)

Makes about 10 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Grandmama’s Pumpkin Pie, Bourbon Vanilla Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Chocolate Porter Cake

As I mentioned on Facebook and on Twitter (@The_Messy_Apron), many of the recipes posted here in the month of March are characterized by the inclusion of dark beers and Irish cream liqueur. This easy chocolate cake carries on that tradition in especially delicious fashion.

This recipe is utterly simple and makes a single-layer 9-inch round cake, making it just the thing for curing a mid-week chocolate desire. It comes together quickly and is wonderfully chocolatey, with an additional bittersweet note from a dose of dark beer. I used a vanilla porter to make it, but you could use some of the Guinness you’re planning to serve at your St. Pat’s party, or an oatmeal stout.

For being so deep and rich with chocolate and a dark brew, this cake is surprisingly soft and fluffy in texture. At the same time, it holds up well to the ganache I poured over the top to serve as icing. I have to admit that I couldn’t taste the vanilla porter in the cake, perhaps because of all that chocolatey goodness, but I think it’s bubbly tendency may help the cake be as soft as it is.

If you didn’t want to use beer, I think you could make a nice cake with milk instead. I’m hoping to try coffee or espresso to see what happens. There are also many other ways you could top this cake, whether it be with a buttercream frosting, cream cheese frosting (like the one on this cake), a simple glaze, or a fudge, caramel, or fruit sauce poured over individual servings of naked cake.

Hmmm. All of these ideas seem worthy of experimentation. Maybe more chocolate cake should be in my future!

Chocolate Cake with Porter and Ganache Topping

Adapted from Food52

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine salt

1 large egg

½ cup sour cream

½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted

¾ cup dark beer, such as Guinness, oatmeal stout, or vanilla porter

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

6 tablespoons heavy cream

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9-inch round cake with cooking spray and coat it evenly with flour. Cut a circle of parchment paper the size of the pan (trace the pan) and place it inside the prepared pan. Set aside.

2. Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into a medium-size bowl.

3. In a large bowl, beat together the egg and sour cream. Beat in the melted butter, beer, and vanilla extract.

4. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir together with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until well combined.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, smoothing it out evenly. Bake at 350 F for about 35 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out free of wet batter.

6. Cool the cake in the pan for 5-10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

7. When the cake is cool, heat the cream and chocolate chips together in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Continue to cook and stir until the chocolate has completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Spoon or pour the ganache evenly over the cooled cake, allowing some of it to run over the sides. Refrigerate until the topping is set.

Makes about 8 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Flourless Bitteresweet Chocolate Torte, Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting