Easy Fudgy Loaf Cake

Easy, Fudgy Loaf Cake - made July 23, 2010 from Chocolate by Nick Malgieri

This is one of those recipes I'd been meaning to try for awhile but never seem to get to. I finally got to it because I had some milk I bought for another recipe so I thought I'd leverage ingredients while I could. This was very easy to throw together which is what I did while Ina Garten's Brownies were baking in the oven. I'd already packed my regular size loaf pans so I ended up making this in 2 mini loaf pans and 2 round ramekins. You only see 1 mini loaf in the picture because the other broke when I turned it out of the pan. That was baker error - I upended it out of the pan while it was too warm and it broke apart. Needless to say, that was the taste test loaf.

While it was still warm, this was a great cake - soft texture, not too overwhelmingly chocolatey and just a nice crumb. Once it cooled to room temperature though, it was a little crumbly and I didn't think it was anything special. It didn't slice that neatly and had an almost dry mouthfeel. Not sure I'd make again or if I did, I'd warm it up before eating. Unfortunately I'd only tried it warm and didn't try it at room temp until after I'd given the rest away. Oops.

2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 large egg
¾ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

One 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ¾ inch loaf pan, buttered and the bottom lined with parchment or wax paper

1. Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325˚F.
2. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Use an electric mixer set at medium speed to beat the butter and sugars together until light, about 5 minutes. Beat in the chocolate and continue beating until smooth. Scrape bowl and beater(s) and beat in the egg. Continue beating until creamy and smooth, another minute or two.
4. By hand, using a rubber spatula, stir in half the flour mixture, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl well. Stir in the milk and vanilla, then the remaining flour mixture.
5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for about an hour, or until well risen and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then unmold, remove paper and finish cooling on a rack.

Storage: Keep the cake wrapped in plastic at room temperature for several days. For longer storage, wrap and freeze.