Chocolate Velvet Cake

I don’t like chocolate cake, I love chocolate but not chocolate cake…I know, I know, I am just not right in the head.  Mostly it is because I LOVE a dense cake – soft and pillowy and melt in the mouth worthy.  And you just don’t get that from a chocolate cake.  Seriously, unless it is Red Velvet (and I argue that Red Velvet isn’t REALLY a chocolate cake) the crumb of chocolate cakes leave me cold.  Now my wife…argh, my wife…she wants her cakes done and she loves chocolate!  Her favorite is German Chocolate (which I cannot stand, and yet, I make it for her using her mom’s recipe – when I locate it again I’ll post it for y’all.  It really is quite good, and the homemade frosting is more amazing than any can or jar or tub of the stuff you’ve ever had before – but I just don’t crave it).

I needed something like…Chocolate Velvet.

*drools like Homer Simpson*

YES, we will make CHOCOLATE VELVET CAKE!

I adapted this from the famous Brick Street Chocolate Cake recipe floating around the internet (the original is totally worth making, but I wanted to do a little something different with mine – I wanted to grandma it up and make it more moist).

Chocolate Velvet Cake:

2 cups sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

4 large eggs

2  cups cake flour

1 cup dark chocolate baking cocoa, sifted

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon expresso powder (or really strong coffee)

1 small box instant chocolate fudge pudding mix

2 cups buttermilk

1 cup chocolate chips (any flavor – honestly.  I may even try white next time!)

Chocolate Icing:

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup baking cocoa, sifted (it is better to use light cocoa)

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (sift it if you are making it for someone important, otherwise, don’t bother)

3 tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Beat sugar, butter & vanilla in large bowl until creamy.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, letting them incorporate fully.
4. Mix in cake flour, baking cocoa, soda, salt, chocolate pudding and buttermilk. (Be careful, the buttermilk WILL splatter, put it in a bit at a time and be patient!)
5. Stir in semi-sweet chocolate chips. (Tip: I always forget these and end up scattering them across the top and pushing them in with my fingers.  This cake is very forgiving.)
6. Pour into greased bundt cake pan.
7. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
8. Adjust baking temperature down to 325° and continue baking 30-40 minutes more, until cake tester comes out clean.
9. Let the cake cool for as long as you can stand it, then pop it out on a plate and pour the icing over it.

Chocolate Icing :

1. Heat water, butter and vanilla together in sauce pan on stovetop until melted.
2. Remove from heat.
3. Stir in one cup cocoa.
4. Stir in powdered sugar. (Again, sift if you are feeding this to a crowd, if not…skip it.)
5. Stir in heavy cream, until you get the desired consistency.
6. Ice cake by filling the hole in the middle of the cake first, then spread icing over cake top and pour over the sides. Icing will harden as it cools. (This is important, because when you cut into it for the first time the icing flows out from the center in a delightful flood.)

I have made this for my office, and a coworker said to me: “Most people like a little frosting with their cake, my family…we like a little cake with our frosting.  Welcome to the family.”

Also, I want to point out that this Chocolate Velvet cake is a marriage saver…I no longer have to make a cake for me and a cake for my wife.  Now we eat this cake together, a blissfully chocolate solution.