Orange Coffee Cake with Chocolate Streusel

Orange and chocolate are great friends. Both grow in tropical climates, and as always, I marvel at the creativity of the individual who once thought, “hmm, I like chocolate, and I like oranges…I wonder what would happen it I paired chocolate and orange together?” Brilliance, that’s what.

I adapted the recipe for this coffee cake from one in the Better Homes & Gardens Baking book, using orange zest instead of chopped peel and milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet.

The great thing is that once you zest your orange, you can use the juice from it in this recipe as well. You could probably do without the pecans if you wanted to, but they add a nice crunchy texture.

Ingredients

For the chocolate streusel

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chocolate chips

For the orange coffee cake

3 3/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
zest of 1 medium orange
12 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
8 ounces sour cream
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, and cocoa powder. Add butter and rub in with your hands until the mixture has a texture like coarse crumbs. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and orange zest. Mix well, using your fingers to distribute the zest as evenly as you can.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar for 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add sour cream, milk, orange juice, and vanilla and beat until well-combined.

Add flour mixture in several batches, beating until combined as you go. Continue beating for about 2 minutes until the mixture is smooth.

Pour half of the batter into your prepared pan. Top with half the streusel mixture and use the back of a spoon to gently press the streusel into the batter. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

This cake can be served warm, or at room temperature.

Roman’s Holy Communion Cake

My nephew Roman made his first Holy Communion yesterday, a huge rite of passage for young Catholic kids. When I was little, I remember “playing communion” with Nilla wafers, and I recall my own first communion very well. I have the dress and veil I wore in a cedar chest in my bedroom, along with other family heirloom garments like my grandmother’s wedding dress and my grandpap’s Navy sailor suit.

Roman requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for his communion celebration, and the look on his face when he first saw it was priceless. He got an enormous piece, of course.

I’ve made this cake in cupcake form before, and adapted the recipe for two 8-inch rounds here. This would also make at least 24 cupcakes, or a 9 x 13 sheet cake.

Ingredients

Dark Chocolate Cake

3 cups flour
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups water

Chocolate Buttercream

1 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3-4 tablespoons milk
3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Vanilla Buttercream (for accents)

4 tablespoons butter
Scant 1 cup powdered sugar
About 2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon

Preparation

For the cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 8-inch round cake pans with baking spray. Line the bottom of each pan with a circle of parchment, and spray a second time.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Make three wells; place vinegar in one, vanilla in the second, and vegetable oil in the third. Add water and stir very well to combine; the batter will bubble up just slightly as the ingredients come together. Your batter will be fairly thin, but should be mostly lump-free.

Divide batter evenly between the pans. Bake for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Be careful not to over-bake; the sides of these cakes set up pretty quickly and can burn if you let them go too long.

Remove cakes from oven and carefully run a knife around each edge to loosen them from their pans if they’ve stuck at all. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes in the pans, then carefully flip out onto wire racks (removing the parchment for each cake bottom) to cool completely.

For the frostings

To make the chocolate buttercream frosting, in a large bowl, sift together powdered sugar and cocoa powder and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed for about 1 minute; add salt and beat another 30 seconds.

Add powdered sugar and cocoa and beat on low speed to incorporate as much sugar into the butter as you can. I cover my mixing bowl with a kitchen towel during this step to prevent a sugar storm.

Add three tablespoons milk and two teaspoons vanilla extract; beat for three minutes.

Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and add the final teaspoon vanilla extract, then beat for another minute.

To make the vanilla buttercream frosting, in a medium bowl, sift powdered sugar and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed for about 1 minute; add salt and beat another 30 seconds.

Add powdered sugar and beat on low speed to incorporate as much sugar into the butter as you can.

Add 1 tablespoon milk and the vanilla; beat for three minutes. Add remaining milk a half-tablespoon at a time to reach a consistency that can be easily piped.

To assemble and decorate

Flip one cake upside-down onto your cake plate; spread a medium-thin layer of frosting on top. Carefully place your second cake on top of the first layer and frost the top, then the sides.

Fit a piping bag with your desired tip; pipe decorations as you like. I decorated Roman’s cake pretty simply, with his name, a top border that looked a bit like rosary beads, and crosses on the sides.

Here, Roman marvels at his cake (and did not lick it).

Neapolitan Cupcakes

Meet the most adorable cupcakes I’ve ever baked. I wanted to make something challenging today, and I must say: mission accomplished.

These treats are a many bowl, multi-step endeavor, but they are worth it. I adapted this recipe in both ingredients and process from one I originally saw on another blog called Cooking Classy, using vanilla extract instead of scraped seeds from a vanilla bean and a different recipe for the strawberry frosting altogether.

The two batters have very different textures, and you’ll want to make sure you use the “spread with a toothpick” method to get the vanilla layer to fully cover the chocolate layer as I’ve outlined in the instructions below. While I did have some specs of chocolate pop through the top of my vanilla layer, it’s easy to cover those with frosting.

I’ve also included plenty of tips that saved me time (and dishes, being a baker without a dishwasher) throughout the process. I recommend reading through the recipe a few times to get familiar with it, as well as with your ingredients, before you start. You’ll end up with a few extra egg yolks from this, but you can reserve those for another use (mine are destined for lemon curd).

Ingredients

Vanilla Cupcake Layer

1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk (any kind but skim)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 egg whites (reserve one of your yolks for the yolk in the chocolate layer)

Chocolate Cupcake Layer

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup boiling water
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup flour

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup strawberry puree
About 3 cups powdered sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup cupcake tins with paper liners. Good news: this recipe makes exactly 24 cupcakes.

To make the cupcakes, begin by making the chocolate base for your chocolate batter first, then as it is cooling, make your vanilla batter and finish your chocolate batter once your base is cool. This will save time, believe me!

In a small mixing bowl, combine cocoa powder and baking soda. Add boiling water and whisk until smooth; allow to cool while you prepare the vanilla batter.

Prepare the vanilla batter:

In a small bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a glass measuring cup, combine milk, egg whites, and vanilla extract and whisk together until well-combined.

In a mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar. Cream together until light and fluffy.

Add the flour mixture and milk mixture alternatively in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. You want to scrape your bowl very, very well and frequently throughout the process. Your vanilla batter will be light and fluffy when it is finished; almost mousse-like. Set vanilla batter aside while you make the chocolate batter.

Prepare the chocolate batter:

In a mixing bowl, combine melted butter, vegetable oil, sugar, and mix until well-combined. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla; mix until combined. Add chocolate base, then heavy cream, mixing after each addition. Add flour, beating on low speed until combined.

Using a 2-inch cookie scoop, scoop chocolate batter into each cupcake well. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, you can use 2 tablespoons of batter in each well.

Using the 2-inch cookie scoop again, scoop vanilla batter and carefully layer over the chocolate batter. Use a toothpick to gently spread the vanilla batter, which is much lighter and fluffier than the chocolate batter, over the chocolate layer completely. Your wells should be about three-quarters full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven, and remove cupcakes from the pans onto wire racks to cool completely.

Prepare the strawberry buttercream:

If you’ve never made strawberry puree, it is very easy. Place strawberries in a food processor (or blender) and puree until smooth. You can pass the puree through a sieve to remove the seeds if you like, but I leave mine in.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed for about 1 minute. Add the first 2 cups of powdered sugar about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing until very well-combined.

Add strawberry puree in small batches, mixing well between each addition, then add enough additional powdered sugar – mine took about 1 cup – to make a stable buttercream.

Frost cupcakes using a small offset spatula. You can pipe them if you prefer, but I like the old-fashioned look of a hand-frosted cupcake.

Lemon Pound Cake with Poppy Seed Filling

Yesterday, I wondered: what should I do with a ton of leftover poppy seed filling? I should slather it into a lemon pound cake, that’s what.

This cake calls for lemon extract, and believe me when I tell you that you won’t be able to achieve the necessary level of lemony goodness in it with zest and juice alone. The fine folks at McCormick’s (which Mike always reminds me is a Maryland-based company) make lemon extract that you’ll likely find in the baking aisle at your local grocery store. It is absolutely worth the $5.

If you’d rather not use the poppy seed filling, you can omit it and just serve your cake as-is. I’m a huge fan of poppy seed though, so for me this is pretty close to pound cake heaven. You can serve it warm without glaze, or wait for it to cool and glaze it. Either way, it is delicious.

Ingredients

For the cake

1 1/2 cups poppy seed filling
4 teaspoons lemon juice
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
1 cup 2% milk
zest of 1 medium lemon

For the glaze

2 cups powdered sugar
About 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt pan very well, then dust with flour.

In a small bowl, combine poppy seed filling and 4 teaspoons lemon juice, mixing well; set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add vanilla and lemon extracts and mix well.

Add the flour and milk alternatively in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour and mixing until just combined after each addition.

Add lemon zest and beat until just combined.

Pour about half of the batter into your bundt pan, then spoon in poppy seed filling and gently spread to create a ribbon. Top with remaining batter.

Bake for 60 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes, then carefully invert the cake onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

When the cake is cool, combine powdered sugar and lemon juice, about a teaspoon at a time, in a large glass measuring cup. You want a very drizzly consistency for your glaze so that it can easily drip down the sides of your cake. Pour over cake and allow to set before serving.

Remember: if you want to serve this cake warm – and it is dee-lish-ous warm – you can leave it unglazed.

Orange Almond Cake (gluten-free!)

What exactly is gluten? In simple terms, it is a protein present in wheat, which provides stability to breads, cakes, cookies, and other baked goods. Gluten-free baking relies on other ingredients that can bind together and provide structure, ranging from eggs and nut flours to thickeners like xantham gum.

As a savvy baker, I understand that gluten-free recipes can bring about a number of challenges, and I’ve been sorely disappointed by nut-based, high-egg-volume cake recipes in the past. I baked this as a trial run for our seder, which will take place on the first night of Passover in just a couple of weeks. The recipe came from a food blogger in Australia, hence the use of grams below. The preparation is fascinating, as I think you may agree once you read the directions. I’m happy to say that it turned out very well; my plan for the seder is to add some slices almonds to the top, which will brown nicely during baking.

Ingredients

2 medium oranges
6 eggs, at room temperature
250 grams sugar, processed to super-fine consistency*
250 grams almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder

*To make regular sugar super-fine, place it in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse several times until you get a consistency like sand.

Preparation

Wash the oranges well. Place them in a large cooking pot with plenty of water and bring them to a boil. Turn down to a simmer, and simmer for 2 hours, checking frequently. Remove oranges from the water and allow to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment, extending the paper over the sides.

Remove the ends of the oranges, which can be bitter, and place the oranges, skin and all, into a food processor. Pulse to a smooth consistency.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together very well. Add orange puree and whisk together.

Add almond meal and baking powder, stirring with a wooden spoon to blend completely.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Be careful not to over-bake; the sides and bottom of the cake will darken considerably and you do not want them to burn.

Remove from oven and cool in pan for about 10 minutes; remove the cake from the pan, leaving it in the parchment, and place it on a wire rack to cool completely. Remove parchment; store at room temperature.

Note: this cake is very moist, and according to the original recipe it becomes even more so after a few days. Be sure to store in an airtight container.

Chai Tea Cupcakes

The Better Homes & Gardens Baking Book – an awesome Christmas gift from Mike – bills these treats at chai tea muffins, but their ingredients and preparation method are much more cupcake-like to me. I debated about calling these “cuffins,” or perhaps “muffcakes,” because I’m still on the fence. And besides, it’s fun to make up words.

So, what’s the difference between a cupcake and a muffin? To me, the simple answer is: the kind of fat you use, and how you mix your ingredients. Cupcakes tend to employ butter and a creaming method, where you blend sugar into the butter, then add your other wet and dry ingredients, sometimes alternatively. Most muffins involve vegetable oil, and a process of combining dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another, then mixing the wet into the dry. As you’ll see below, these treats use the creaming method and butter – and are in my opinion more cupcake than muffin.

Regardless of what you call them, these treats smell delicious! Were it not for my current No Sweets for Lent endeavor, I would have eaten one the moment my chai nutmeg drizzle had set.

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 1/4 cups milk
4 chai tea bags
8 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
11/2 cups flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt

Chai Nutmeg Drizzle

3/4 to 1 cup powdered sugar
About 5 teaspoons chai tea
Dash of nutmeg

Preparation

Heat milk in a saucepan over medium heat until it simmers. Add chai tea bags and steep for 5 minutes. Remove the bags, pressing to release as much tea as you can. Allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners; you will likely need an additional 6 liners, as my batch yielded 30.

Combine flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, ginger, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add flour mixture and milk mixture alternatively in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour and beating until just combined.

Using a 2-inch cookie scoop, scoop dough into muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until tops are light golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool in muffin pans for about 1 minute, then remove to wire racks to cool completely before drizzling.

To make the chai nutmeg drizzle, prepare a cup of chai tea with water and allow it to cool.

In a small bowl, place 3/4 cup powdered sugar and add tea, 1 teaspoon at a time, mixing until you reach your desired drizzling consistency. Add a dash of nutmeg to taste.

Fit a small pastry bag with a plain tip and pipe over cupcakes. Allow to set before serving.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Years ago, before I began a serious baker, I marveled at the Starbucks black bottom cupcake. I had no idea what was in it – I simply knew it was delicious, and that it was the only cupcake in existence that didn’t need frosting. How could one achieve such a thing? What was that spongy, chocolate chip-studded white layer? This remained a mystery, until today.

The black bottom cupcake is surprisingly simple to make, requiring basics that you likely have in your pantry. The batter could certainly hold its own without the cream cheese/sugar/egg/chocolate chip filling, but that would defeat the entire black bottom purpose. Although it’s Lent and I’m refraining from sweets at present, this will be on the top of my list to make once Easter arrives. Next time, I might increase my filling quantity, perhaps even doubling it, so that I can add more filling to each cupcake.

Ingredients

Filling

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
dash of salt
1 egg
2/3 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

Cupcakes

2/3 cup cocoa powder
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups water
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; my recipe yielded 33 cupcakes, just shy of three dozen.

In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and sugar; beat until well combined. Add egg and salt and beat until very well combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

In a large bowl, sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add water, vegetable oil, vinegar, and vanilla extract and mix very well.

Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop batter into cupcake wells, filling just over half full. Drop a heaping teaspoon of the cream cheese filling mixture into the middle of each.

Bake for 20 minutes; remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Owl Cupcakes

My goddaughter Maureen just turned four a few days ago. When asked what kind of cupcakes she wanted for her birthday party, she said “both,” meaning both cupcakes and frosting. So her mom, my cousin Barb, asked again – what did Mo want the cupcakes to taste like? She answered “pink.” Hmm.

Mo’s birthday party was held at a nature center near her house, where we learned about owls, turtles, and other Southern Maryland wildlife, so her cupcakes were nature-themed. While I don’t know if there are any pink owls in nature, there certainly were at her party.

Mo helped me bake the cupcakes and make the frosting, and she’s a great helper. As she licked a frosting-coated beater, I asked her if it tasted pink, and she said “yep!” Mission accomplished.

Note: the recipe below is designed to feed a crowd and yields 45 cupcakes. You can adjust as necessary to make fewer if you don’t need this many. Also, we did a dozen owls and then used M&Ms to make caterpillars, flowers, and mushrooms on other cupcakes, so if you want all owls, you’ll just need to adjust the quantity of sandwich cookies for the eyes.

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

3 3/4 cups cake flour
3 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 eggs
2 1/4 cups sugar
6 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups canola oil
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
red liquid food coloring

For the frosting & decoration

1 recipe vegan vanilla frosting
red liquid food coloring
cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
M&M candies

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Place eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat for another 30 seconds.

Add vanilla and canola oil and beat on medium speed for 1 minute.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour, scraping the sides of the bowl frequently. Add a few drops of red food coloring at a time until you reach your desired color; remember, batter will lighten as cupcakes bake. Batter will be very thin.

Using a quarter-cup measuring cup, scoop batter into prepared pans. Bake for 12-13 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before frosting and decorating.

To frost and decorate:

Prepare vanilla frosting, reserving a small amount to use as “glue” for the owl eyes. Add a few drops of red liquid food coloring to the frosting with your mixer running on low to medium speed to achieve a light pink color.

For the owls:

Twist apart chocolate sandwich cookies carefully, leaving the cream all on one side. Reserve plain sides for another use, like making a pudding pie crust.

Place two cookie halves on each cupcake; dot with white frosting, then place an M&M for the pupil on each eye. Add another M&M for the beak.

For the other nature-themed cupcakes:

Place M&Ms as you like; we made caterpillars with green bodies and red heads, flowers, and a few cupcakes that were totally covered in M&Ms to look like mushrooms.

Serve very shortly after cupcakes are decorated, as the cookies will begin to soften from the moisture in the frosting.

Here, Mo and I are relaxing in the hollowed-out trunk of an enormous tree. Birthday parties for four-year-olds can take a lot out of you…especially if you’re the guest of honor.

Banana Coffee Cake

When one’s bananas are overripe, banana bread is an obvious solution. But this time, I wanted to do something different…and so to the internet I went. On another blog, Tide and Thyme, I discovered the recipe below, and although I still think the preparation process is a bit odd everyone proclaimed the end results to be delicious.

Next time, I’d reduce the streusel quantity by about a quarter, as it seemed like a bit much. I’d also add a drizzle icing, which was included in the original recipe but I didn’t use this time – and I’d make it a chocolate drizzle. I might also toss some pecans into the streusel for extra crunch.

Ingredients

For the streusel:

12 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the cake:

2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe bananas
8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray, set aside.

Make the streusel: in a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or rub in with your hands, like I did) until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs; set aside.

Make the cake: in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat bananas until they become liquefied. Add butter and mix until combined; the mixture will look very lumpy but that’s okay. Add sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla and mix until combined.

With the mixer running on low, carefully add flour and mix until just combined. The batter will be fairly thin for a cake, but this is okay.

Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan; cover with streusel mixture, then top with remaining batter and remaining streusel.

Bake 50-55 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely before serving.

Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

I love recipes that employ old-fashioned methods in preparation; melting chocolate on a low flame, beating an egg with a fork, actually mixing batter by hand. This is one such recipe, put to use because I had a container of sour cream staring at me from next to the buttermilk I’d been baking with all last week. Somewhere along the line, I began keeping sour cream on hand in the same way that I always have various baking chocolates, canned pumpkin, and molasses in my pantry. I never know when inspiration will strike and require a cultured dairy product.

This recipe comes from one of my favorite books, Miriam’s Kitchen, an exploration of the connections between food, family, and cultural identity. I read Miriam’s Kitchen at least once a year, usually in the fall, and I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for some time. The end result has great chocolate flavor, but is slightly drier than I’d like it to be – such can be the case with chocolate cakes, and is perhaps why they’re often paired with fudgy icing. This icing is a thick version of a chocolate drizzle; if I make this cake again, I might use a chocolate buttercream or a fudge frosting instead to add a bit of moisture.

Ingredients

For the cake

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cup cake flour

For the icing

3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt pan very well and flour lightly.

In a small saucepan, melt butter and chocolate on very low heat, stirring frequently to combine.

In a large mixing bowl, combine egg and sugar; beat with a fork to combine, then add sour cream and beat again to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.

Place a sieve over the mixing bowl and sift in cake flour and baking soda, then mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

Add melted chocolate and butter, mixing with the wooden spoon until combined.

Pour batter into prepared bundt pan; bake for 35-40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Prepare the icing: in a medium saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Remove from heat; add 1 cup powdered sugar and stir until smooth; add vanilla, milk, and remaining powdered sugar to reach a thick drizzling consistency. Pour over cake and spread with an offset spatula; icing will set fairly quickly.

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