Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake - made October 24, 2012 from Favorite Brand Name Best-Loved Chocolate Recipes

This is the third thing I made for my nephew's bake sale and the only one I had time to make the night before my cousin picked up the baked goods and previously blogged cookie doughs.  This is a perfect cake for a bake sale.  It's quick and easy to put together and because of how liquid the batter is, the baked cake is moist and stays moist for a few days.  I did make one mistake and took the cake out too soon.  You can tell it's underbaked by how dark the top half looks beneath the frosting.  I ended up slicing the edge pieces but held back the two middle pieces as being a little too underbaked to sell (darn, had to eat those myself).  To dress it up a little and make it more visually eye catching, I sprinkled toffee pieces on top of the frosted cake.  It added a bit of crunch and paired nicely with the dark chocolate of the cake and the sweetness of the frosting.

The only caveat is this cake has a pretty soft texture so you don't want to stack it on top of each other or place anything on top of the wrapped cake.  You'll crush the cakiness of the texture into something inadvertently more dense.  For people who like boxed cake mixes (shudder), this has the fluffy texture of a boxed cake mix but infinitely superior flavor.

2 cups sugar

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

1.     Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Line a 9 x 13 pan with aluminum foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

2.     In a large mixer bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of electric mixer 2 minutes.  Stir in water.  Batter will be thin.

3.     Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely.

4.     Frost with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.  Sprinkle with toffee pieces if desired.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

6 tablespoons butter, softened

2 2/3 cups powdered sugar

½ cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup - 1 cup toffee pieces, optional

1.     In a small mixer bowl, beat butter.  Blend in powdered sugar and cocoa alternately with milk, beating well after each addition until smooth and of spreading consistency.  Blend in vanilla.  Add additional milk, if needed.  Spread over cooled cake and sprinkle with toffee pieces if using.