Dark Chocolate Cake

One of the most sought after chocolate cake recipes is one that is moist and rich.  The following formula will give you such a chocolate cake and you will want to keep this recipe in your collection.  Trust me..!  It is exceptionally good.  Try this cake  filled with Bavarian Cream, Chocolate Mousse, Raspberry or Strawberry Mousse or Peanut Butter Mousse.

Double the recipe for 3-10″ cake pans, 3-7″ cake pans, and 3-4″ cake pans for a small tiered cake.  All of my cake recipes can be turned into tiered cake recipes by simply doubling the recipes without the need for any special manipulations of ingredients.  It is when the recipes get into large quantities that the baking powder can be reduced and there is a special formulation for that process.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare 3- 10″ cake pans by spraying pan release on the pan bottoms and walls and lining the cake pans with rounds of parchment.

You will need to sift together and set aside:

2 2/3 cups cake flour

1 1/2 cups Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa

1 Tablespoon baking soda

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Whisk together:

1 1/2 cup  strong coffee

6 ounces buttermilk

6 ounces sour cream

Cream together:

6 ounces unsalted butter softened to room temperature

3 cups granulated sugar

then add to the butter/sugar:

5 whole eggs

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Process:

Cream the butter and sugar together and then add the eggs one at a time.  Add the vanilla and make sure the bowl is well scraped down.

Alternate the dry ingredients with the coffee/sour cream/buttermilk mixture in thirds starting with the dry then ending with the dry ingredients.  Again, scrape down the bowl well.  Make sure there are no lumps of flour or butter in the batter.

Divide among the cake pans evenly.  Bake for 25-30 minutes and cool in the pans.   Remove from the pans and chill completely before filling.

A note about Hershey Special Dark Cocoa:

I have tried many different types of cocoa.   My supplier, Peterson Cheese supplied great imported cocoa but I found them to be rather grainy.  One day, I tried Hershey Special Dark Cocoa and I haven’t looked back.  This cocoa is a soft powder that absorbs into the cake batter.  This recipe used to yield a thin liquid batter, but with the Hershey Special Dark, the batter has more heft and is oh so dark!  There is nothing more lovely that a rich dark almost black cake and that is what you will get by using Hershey Special Dark Cocoa.