Dark Chocolate Cake
This is a classic cake to make for a dinner party or when you want a special cake. This recipe makes 3 cakes so you can layer each one with icing or fresh cream and fruit.
Ingredients
Serves: 12
- 500ml (2 cups) boiling water
- 90g (3/4 cup) cocoa
- 375g (3 cups) plain flour
- 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 250g butter, softened
- 500g (2½ cups) caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla essence
Directions
Prep:30min ›
Cook:30min ›
Ready in:1hr
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease three 23cm round cake tins.
- In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool.
- Sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla essence. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture.
- Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared tins.
- Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool before icing the top of each cake and sandwiching them together with icing and/or jam.
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Reviews and ratings
Global ratings:
(1657)
Reviews in English (1354)
I am a pastry chef, and this is the only chocolate cake that I will make from now on. I separated the eggs and whipped the whites separately with some of the sugar, then folded it all together to make is extra airy. This recipe could easily be flavored with coffee, juice, or buttermilk in place of the water. FANTASTIC! - 02 Nov 2003 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)
My Mum and I found this recipe and decided to use it for my Sisters wedding cake. It was perfect! Everyone loved it. We made 3 tiers. The bottom tier was 2 batches (we made them seperately and cooked them together, I don't think it would work if you doubled it) It was huge and took 2 hours to cook. The 2nd tier was 1 batch. We made the top layer carrot. It was iced with white chocolate truffle icing and it was just amazing. I'm going to put a photo of it on this site. - 23 Jan 2007 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)
This recipe makes a very pure, clean-tasting chocolate cake with a fine crumb and a texture that can be moist or dry depending on how long you bake it and how long you let it air-dry. I followed other reviewer's suggestions: substituting butter-flavor Crisco for butter; creaming with the sugar for over 2 minutes; and baking in a single 10-inch springform Bundt pan. It came out quite well on the first try. I also tried whipping the egg whites separately, but that made little difference, as this is a pretty solid, moderately dense cake, so I wouldn't bother with that in the future. The flavor is such a pure, moderate chocolate cake that it would be perfect as a base for a wide range of desserts using added flavors. Vanilla whipped cream would be a great accompaniment. Unaccompanied, it's nice but a little too plain. Caution: grease the pan quite well, as the cake is clingy when hot and you don't want to tear it. - 04 Dec 2003 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)