Nigella's Chocolate Fudge Cake
Why I Love This Recipe
Earlier this month is was my oldest daughters 20th birthday. I asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she requested a Chocolate Fudge Cake.
This is a Nigella Lawson recipe. The only thing I did differently was to add strawberries in the middle of the layers.
Ingredients You'll Need
Cake:
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream (no wonder its so moist)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (finally! someone who's not afraid to use some vanilla!)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup corn oil
1 1/3 cup chilled water
Fudge Icing:
6 oz bittersweet chocolate (if you can find it, use a minimum 70% cocoa...I could only find 62%)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
My addition:
2 pints of strawberries, sliced in half
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350'. Butter and line the bottom (with parchment paper) of 2 8" cake pans.
You're gonna need a few bowls
In one large bowl, combine the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla.
In another bowl....with a hand mixer (or stand mixer) beat together the melted butter and corn oil until just blended then beat in the water
Add all the dry ingredients all at once and mix together on a low setting, add the egg mixture, and mix some more until its all blended together.
Pour your batter into the prepared cake pans
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the toothpick tester comes out clean.
Cool the cakes in their pans, on a cooling rack for 15 minutes before removing
Allow the cakes to cool completely before even thinking about icing them.
For the Icing:
Melt the chocolate, either using a double boiler (or bowl over a small sauce pan) or in the microwave...which ever works best for you.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter until its....well....creamy. Add the powdered sugar and beat some more...and now it's fluffy, right? Add the vanilla and chocolate and mix together until it's all nice and smooth and oooooh so sinful looking
Spread some icing on the bottom layer part of the cake....and top it with some strawberries
Add the second layer and ice away.
If you have some chocolate leftover then shave some off using a potato peeler, and sprinkle on top