Best chocolate cake recipe

[hermioneweasley]

Want to make a chocolate layer cake for my mother's birthday. It must be very chocolatey and moist. What woukd you recommend? Thanks!

Elizabeth David has a superb one -

125g dark chocolate (70%)
90g butter (softened)
2 tablespoons plain flour (no need to sift)
125g caster sugar
5 eggs

Separate the eggs. Mix together the softened butter, flour, sugar and egg yolks. Melt the chocolate in the microwave and mix it into the flour mixture. Beat the whites until they can stand in stiff peaks. Fold these into the mixture.
Turn into a buttered 15cm/6? cake tin or a 750ml loaf tin and cook in a preheated moderate oven, at 180C/Gas Mk 4, for about 35 minutes. There will be a thin crust on top of the cake but if you test it with a skewer the inside should be slightly sticky ? this is ready to be removed from the oven as it gets firmer as it cools.

As soon as it is cool enough to handle, turn upside down onto a cake rack. When cool, the cake can be covered with either lightly whipped cream or iced with the following mixture:
Break up 90g plain chocolate (70%) and melt in the microwave with 1-2 tablespoons of sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of water. Stir it smooth; add 30g softened butter. Let it cool for five-ten minutes, then, with a palette knife cover the whole cake with the icing, smoothing it with a knife dipped in water. Leave to set before serving.

I cut mine in two and added a milk chocolate butter-cream to the middle before icing, but it?s a pretty moist cake anyway.

Thanks moonlight - sounds amazing

Sounds good Moonlight. How many people will it feed do you think?

Hi OP, depends what you want from a chocolate cake.

I've made this one quite often:

tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/the-best-chocolate-sheet-cake-ever/

It uses cocoa rather than chocolate - personally I prefer this in cakes, I think it gives a darker, richer flavour (it's definitely very moist and a little bit squishy). It's also nicely balanced between sweet and bitter.

Alternatively, I have a recipe that uses applesauce (as in, homemade apple ouree, rather than Colmans!) which is much fluffier and very light, but perhaps only really much use if you have a lot of applesauce sitting around/in your freezer.

It is, and really easy to make too. Strictly speaking it would feed 8 (but no seconds), however, in this house it tends to feed half that.

This is the best IMHO. Never fails.

James martin cola chocolate cake is brilliant. Made it three times so far and its excellent. You'll need to double up to make a good size layer cake, but its just divine and I should know, I'm something of a chocolate cake expert.

i make the abuhamza cake. it is beyond excellent

Thanks for all the tips!

Made the Good Food ultimate choc cake. You were all right, vipers, it's delicious. But instead of the choc filling I used a peanut butter frosting. Oh yes! It's amazing. Thanks all for the recommendation!

Sachertorte. by far the best chocolate cake i have ever made, or tasted. youll find recipes for it all over the internet. bit tricky to get right, but if you do, you will never use cocoa powder in a chocolate sponge ever again.

Courgette Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
350g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder
1 tsp mixed spice
175ml extra-virgin olive oil
375g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
500ml grated courgettes (measure by volume in a measuring jug, but it's about 2 medium courgettes; if using 1 overgrown one, peel first and take out seeds)
140g walnuts , roughly chopped

FOR THE ICING
200g dark chocolate , chopped
100ml double cream

Prep 10 mins
Cook 1 hr
Can be frozen uniced

Method
Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, mixed spice and 1 tsp salt.
In another bowl, combine the olive oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and grated courgette.

Mix the dry and wet mixture until just combined, then fold in the walnuts.

Line a 24cm cake tin with greaseproof paper, then pour in your mixture. Bake for about 40-50 mins, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

To make the icing, place the chocolate in a bowl and bring cream to the boil in a saucepan. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until completely smooth and melted.

Leave the icing to cool slightly and thicken, then spread it over the cake so it's covered and the icing starts to drip down the sides. Serve with a cup of tea or enjoy as a pud with a spoonful of something creamy.

A tip for cooking with courgettes:-

Courgettes can hold quite a lot of water, which can affect the finished texture of your cake.

If your grated courgettes seem watery, place them into a clean cloth and wring out some of the liquid into a bowl.

Then add the courgettes to the cake mixture as normal.

The timing for cakes containing courgette can depend on the water content of your courgettes, so return the cake to the oven for another 10 mins if it needs it.

Simply test with a skewer and make sure it comes out clean.

I baked it in a 20cm cake tin and needed to cook it a lot longer than it said, just had to keep checking it towards the end, an covered with greaseproof paper to stop the top from browning too much.

I had this at the weekend www.sugahfix.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=53 It was amazing, very chocolately and moist to the point of almost being fudgy. Totally put my previous ultimate chocolate cake to shame (sorry Edd Kimber) it would serve 12 easily I'd think.

Whoops just seen you made one already, love the idea of peanut butter frosting!

Mrsvilliers - it was delicious! All disappeared now...