October 21, 2010

Stressful Red Devil Cake

The Sunday before last Sunday was a really shitty day. The weather was crap, i felt crap from the gym, we went to Coles and that's ALWAYS crap, we didn't get into a fight though so that was a bonus (a story for another time).

So i was feeling like crap..... which i have just established.

The only way to fix this depressive spiral was by making cake, a really big chocolaty cake.

I have had moderate success with cake baking. The cake usually tastes quite good/or delicious but i have a hard time with the "sinking". Hi my name is Lisa and my cakes sink. Not Stink, Sink.

But despite my "sinking" problem i was going to try attempt a cake....once again.

Red Devil Cake

Ingredients

1 cup grated dark cooking chocolate
½ cup milk, mixed with ½ tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar
2 cups soft brown sugar
4 egg yolks
120g softened butter
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ cup milk
2 cups plain flour
2 eggs whites
Chocolate butter icing

Method

Preheat oven to 180oC. Lightly grease and flour a 20cm round cake tin.

Gently heat chocolate, soured milk, half the brown sugar and 1 egg yolk until chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool.

Cream butter and remaining sugar until light and fluffy. Add remaining egg yolks, bicarbonate of soda dissolved in milk, and sifted flour.

Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into creamed mixture and chocolate mixture.

Pour into prepared tin and bake for 50-60 minutes.

Ice with chocolate icing.

Chocolate Butter Icing

Ingredients

60g dark cooking chocolate, chopped
125g softened butter
2 cups icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons warm milk

Method

Melt chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water or on Medium in the microwave. Cool.

Cream the butter in a bowl. Gradually add sifted icing sugar, alternately with the milk, until soft and creamy. Beat in melted chocolate.

Makes ¾ cup


It was roughly 7pm when i started on this adventure, Dinner Time. Poor Marc was trying to make Laksa around me and i had bowls and chocolate EVERYWHERE!

The chocolate grating in this recipe is HARD CORE! i was sweating up a storm, which I'm sure added to the overall flavour of the cake :)

Also the amount of bowls used is RIDICULOUS! i think i had about 6-8 bowls going. So be prepared if you want to make this cake.

Anyhoo, the cake was in the oven and i was eating Laksa which is always amazing. I checked on the cake and it looked fine, maybe a little bit "sinky". Once the cake was out, it sunk a bit more.

When it was time to get the cake out of the tin i had a revelation........"maybe....if i turn the cake upside-down no one will even know it sunk". So that's exactly what i did, and it bloody worked!

I made the icing and iced my now totally flat topped Red Devil Cake. Perfection!

And the taste.........wonderful!

The question to be asked is, is this Red Devil Cake as good as Betty Crocker's Devil Food Cake that can be bought in a packet and made with only 1 bowl? The answer is No.

This cake tasted really good, but I'm pretty sure if want a really chocolaty cake without having to rehydrate myself post baking i will always choose good old Betty.


Concentration......


Upside-down cake with no icing


Finished Product!

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