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I love this cake to pieces, but can't cook it where I live (elevation: 7000 feet.) It's based on a cake I had a lot in restaurants in the UK called "Fudge Cake," and the 'frosting' is a reflection of that. The main point of it is to use it to frost the cake, and then let it cool enough to let the (well, chocolate sauce) harden into a firm chocolate paste. Now, this sounds a bit silly, but the reason you want to cool it down is so that you can heat it back up. Seriously. This cake was always served hot, with the sauce pooling and seeping into the cake. It's marvelous, marvelous stuff, which is why I went to the trouble of trying to approximate it. As I mention down in the recipe, you can eat it cold, or you can just eat it immediately by pouring it over slices of cake. Cold is no fun and kind of goes against the whole entire point of not using a traditional frosting. Eating it immediately is appealing, but that's even more messy and also means it pretty much has to be eaten all at once, because there's no way to really frost it and save it after you've cut it up. (Well, you can, but it will never be as nice as if you did it properly in the first place).
The cream-cheese frosting is tasty and unusual. I've included it because the fudge one is a little more work, a lot more messy, and etc. So I've stolen the cream-cheese frosting from my friend Claire. It works surprisingly well with the chocolate cake.
Cake Ingredients:
*1 and 3/4 cups flour
*1 and 3/4 cups baking cocoa (better quality means better cake!)
*2 cups sugar
*1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
*1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
*1 teaspoon salt
*2 eggs
*1 cup milk
*1/2 cup vegetable oil
*2 teaspoons vanilla extract
*1 cup boiling (or simply hot) water
Pans: two 9-inch round pans, greased *very* well. I recommend shortening or baking PAM spray-on stuff.
Oven preheated to 350 F.
Cake Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together. In fact, sift them together if you have a sifter, the more the better. The better they are mixed together, the more exquisitely fine the cake will be.
Stir in the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla extract. When you've stirred it fairly well together, stir in the hot water. Mix until you have a smooth batter. It will be a very thin, liquid batter. Pour into the cake pans and bake for 25-35 minutes. You'll have to check it with a toothpick. However, you can usually smell when they are done. The trick is to get them out before you smell them becoming overdone. Set the cakes aside to cool.
Frosting 1 (for Atomic Fudge Cake)
This should be made when the cake has cooled and has been removed from the pans.
*8 ounces of dark chocolate
*3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
*about 1/4 cup powdered sugar
*Two teaspoons of boiling water.
melt dark chocolate in a double boiler (or, float a smaller pot in a larger pot filled with water). Be sure to stir a bit. Turn the stove to a low temp, but keep the chocolate in the double boiler.
Seperately, mix the water and the powdered sugar. When this is smooth, stir it into the chocolate. Then stir the cream into the chocolate, until it has a smooth consistency. Remove from stove.
Put the bottom layer of the cake onto a plate. Pour this fudge-sauce over it, and then use a knife or a rubber spatula to even it out. You want a nice thick coat of the sauce. Then place the second layer on the first layer of cake, and pour the sauce over it. You'll want as much puddled on it as you can and still have it relatively even. spread some around the edges as well. Then, refrigerate. After the sauce has cooled and hardened into a soft-fudge like consistency, the cake is ready to be sliced. You can eat it cold, but the main point of this cake is for the slices to be microwaved.
Slice the cake, put the slice on a plate, and microwave for 30-60 seconds (you want the fudge hot, but not scorched). The cake gets warm, and the fudge gets hot and soaks into the cake. Yummy. If you want to eat the cake immediately, instead of frosting the cake, simply cut slices and then pour the sauce over that.
Frosting option 2
Mix 1 part cream cheese and 1 part butter*. Sift in a little powdered sugar. Mash and fluff this with a fork until it has a traditional frosting-like consistency. Add some blue food-dye for the fun of it. Spread on cake like normal.
* I am sorry that isn't more precise. I copied this from a housemate, and at the time, we just used 1 stick of butter to a half block of cream cheese, because they were packaged and sized so similarly (i.e the stick of butter was exactly half the block of cream cheese).
The cream-cheese frosting is tasty and unusual. I've included it because the fudge one is a little more work, a lot more messy, and etc. So I've stolen the cream-cheese frosting from my friend Claire. It works surprisingly well with the chocolate cake.
Cake Ingredients:
*1 and 3/4 cups flour
*1 and 3/4 cups baking cocoa (better quality means better cake!)
*2 cups sugar
*1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
*1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
*1 teaspoon salt
*2 eggs
*1 cup milk
*1/2 cup vegetable oil
*2 teaspoons vanilla extract
*1 cup boiling (or simply hot) water
Pans: two 9-inch round pans, greased *very* well. I recommend shortening or baking PAM spray-on stuff.
Oven preheated to 350 F.
Cake Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together. In fact, sift them together if you have a sifter, the more the better. The better they are mixed together, the more exquisitely fine the cake will be.
Stir in the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla extract. When you've stirred it fairly well together, stir in the hot water. Mix until you have a smooth batter. It will be a very thin, liquid batter. Pour into the cake pans and bake for 25-35 minutes. You'll have to check it with a toothpick. However, you can usually smell when they are done. The trick is to get them out before you smell them becoming overdone. Set the cakes aside to cool.
Frosting 1 (for Atomic Fudge Cake)
This should be made when the cake has cooled and has been removed from the pans.
*8 ounces of dark chocolate
*3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
*about 1/4 cup powdered sugar
*Two teaspoons of boiling water.
melt dark chocolate in a double boiler (or, float a smaller pot in a larger pot filled with water). Be sure to stir a bit. Turn the stove to a low temp, but keep the chocolate in the double boiler.
Seperately, mix the water and the powdered sugar. When this is smooth, stir it into the chocolate. Then stir the cream into the chocolate, until it has a smooth consistency. Remove from stove.
Put the bottom layer of the cake onto a plate. Pour this fudge-sauce over it, and then use a knife or a rubber spatula to even it out. You want a nice thick coat of the sauce. Then place the second layer on the first layer of cake, and pour the sauce over it. You'll want as much puddled on it as you can and still have it relatively even. spread some around the edges as well. Then, refrigerate. After the sauce has cooled and hardened into a soft-fudge like consistency, the cake is ready to be sliced. You can eat it cold, but the main point of this cake is for the slices to be microwaved.
Slice the cake, put the slice on a plate, and microwave for 30-60 seconds (you want the fudge hot, but not scorched). The cake gets warm, and the fudge gets hot and soaks into the cake. Yummy. If you want to eat the cake immediately, instead of frosting the cake, simply cut slices and then pour the sauce over that.
Frosting option 2
Mix 1 part cream cheese and 1 part butter*. Sift in a little powdered sugar. Mash and fluff this with a fork until it has a traditional frosting-like consistency. Add some blue food-dye for the fun of it. Spread on cake like normal.
* I am sorry that isn't more precise. I copied this from a housemate, and at the time, we just used 1 stick of butter to a half block of cream cheese, because they were packaged and sized so similarly (i.e the stick of butter was exactly half the block of cream cheese).