Black Magic Chocolate Cake
19 Jan
Several weeks ago, Alexander asked me to **pleeeaaassee** make him a chocolate cake. Nothing too fancy, just a good old chocolate cake. Ah, the simple tastes of a 9 year old.
In the interest of trying a new recipe, I pulled out my TWD baking book, and baked up Dorie’s Cocoa Buttermilk Cake, with chocolate ganache icing. It was quick to make, and I made sure to watch the baking time very closely, so the cake wouldn’t be overdone, or worse, dry.
I frosted it up using my new Wilton turntable that I received as a Christmas gift, and set it aside until after dinner.
How many ways can you say dry cake? Oh, it was dry like cardboard. I was so disappointed, I threw the leftover cake into the trash.
A few days later, I was ready to try again. Only this time, I tried a cake recipe similar to Ina’s Chocolate Cake, which has never let me down with dryness. I found this recipe for Black Magic Cake on allchocolate.com (what a great name!), and instead of round layers, I baked a 9×13 pan.
Now this is what I wanted – a perfectly moist cake, iced with a smooth lemon frosting. Ahh, it was perfect.
And of course it should be – the recipes for this cake and Ina’s are identical. Absolutely identical.
Black Magic Cake - adapted from allchocolate.com
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk*
1 cup strong black coffee OR 2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee plus 1
cup boiling water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Heat oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla. Using mixer, beat on medium speed 2 minutes (batter will be thin). Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes (round pans), 35 to 40 minutes (rectangular pans) or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost as desired.
The second one does look de-licious! Sorry about the Dorie cake! My family (especially my husband) isn’t big on cake, and here I am making the TWD for tomorrow (Berry Surprise Cake), he probably won’t even take a bite, because he REALLY doesn’t like white/yellow cake. He’d probably have some of the chocolate one.
I enjoy cake, but it’s probably just as well that no one else does, just another thing I don’t have to worry about EATING! Sigh.
I tried the Black Magic cake this fall (I got it from a Hershey’s cookbook) after seeing it recommended on Cakecentral.com. It was really moist, and it came together quickly, too! The lemon frosting looks so good!
Ugh! What a disappointment about the first cake. Nothing bites more than when you are looking forward to a dessert so much and it just falls flat. That second cake looks triumphant, though! I hope everyone enjoyed it.
So interesting — you can really see how much moister the second one is. I have not made Dorie’s chocolate buttermilk cake, but I did find her chocolate chocolate cupcakes to be quite dry. So I am much more likely to come looking for this post next time I want to make chocolate cake than I am to use my (otherwise beloved) Baking book!
How is it that there is a website called allchocolate.com and I never knew about it?! That black magic cake looks fantastic! Then again, I probably would have eaten the buttermilk cake!
That’s funny!
I’ve made the Dorie cake, but as cupcakes, and as cupcakes, they work out fine.
The bottom one looks like my grandmother’s chocolate mayo cake.
Oh, yes. You can definitely see the moistness in the second cake. I love the comparison.
Oh my goodness! That second cake looks so moist and delicious! And lemon frosting? YUM!
I made the Dorie cake last year and wasn’t wowed by it. I assumed it was just me and my subpar baking. The second one certainly looks scrumptious.
That cake looks so moist and delicious
!
That’s too bad about Dorie’s Cocoa Cake. I have her Baking from My Home to Yours. I made the pecan shortbread and was a bit disappointed, they turned out greasy and a bit too flat…humph