Chocolate Cake, for Me
When your Valentine doesn't love Chocolate, but you do.
Apologies for the delayed newsletter. I blame the sunshine and above-freezing weather up here in northern Michigan. For Valentine’s Day, Jason and I played Blood on the Clocktower with friends, took a sunny long walk in the snow, watched a covey of ruffed grouse eat berries from a tree, and snuggled with the cats while watching the winter Olympics.
I love my husband. I love chocolate cake. My husband does not love chocolate cake.
I usually make a pavlova for Valentine’s Day—Jason’s favorite. You can find that recipe in the Chicago Tribune. In our house, Jason nibbles the fruity candies like sour patch kids, Nerds gummy clusters, or Haribo anything (except the gummy bears). I, meanwhile, keep a bar of dark chocolate in my desk drawer to devour. Today you get the Valentine’s Day recipe that I make for myself: chocolate cake.
Luckily a great chocolate cake is one of the simplest recipes. The best ones have a common ancestor: the chocolate cake on the back of the box of Hershey’s cocoa powder. Yes, Ina Garten’s perfect version, Beatty’s Chocolate Cake, is practically the same as the Hershey’s version. And this one isn’t far off either.
But I’ve added a couple of flavors and ingredients that I adore. And I don’t care if you like them or not.
Prunes add moisture and a fruity, round, fudgy richness, allowing me to cut back on the oil and the sugar, thus preventing a greasy cake. Adding some brown booze somehow both lifts the flavor and deepens it with a warming spiciness. I prefer splurging on Armagnac, but Bourbon or rye whisky also shine. A bit of hot coffee doesn’t lend coffee flavor, but makes the chocolate more chocolatey and it blooms the cocoa powder. I don’t have time for a buttercream and I want something more intense, so ganache it is. A wee dash of corn syrup ensures it stays shiny, smooth, and never splits.
Oh, I topped this one with candied fennel seeds—not sprinkles. I love that licorice note of the fennel seeds and the decisive crunch.
It’s hard to walk by this cake without snagging a slice.
Recipe notes:
I can’t emphasize this enough: The flavor of your chocolate cake is directly correlated to the quality of your cocoa powder. Use a high-fat Dutch-processed cocoa powder like Valrhona or (my favorite) Cocoa Barry Extra Brut. You’re already ordering things online, so you may as well get some good cocoa powder.
You can either make this in a half-size Bundt pan or an 8-inch round cake pan. I prefer the Bundt.
This recipe can be doubled to fit in a standard, full-size, 12-16 cup Bundt pan.
Chocolate Bundt Cake
When you need to make yourself a chocolate cake.
Makes one half-sized bundt, serves 4-6 people, or 1 chocolate fiend for 3 days.
