My big brother recently had a milestone birthday and for the occasion I decided to dust off my baking hat to mix up a batch of my all-time favorite chocolate cake recipe. I don’t bake very often because I like to cook to taste and am not so great at following recipes… sort of important in baking. Not to mention if there are batches of baked goods in the house I will eat them all. But seeing as the big brother only turns 30 once, it was worth the risk 😉
I’m quite picky about desserts, chocolate in particular. In fact, I typically don’t care for chocolate baked goods because they usually aren’t as rich as I’d prefer. For perspective, I don’t care for chocolate if it’s less than 72 percent cocoa (milk chocolate is sugar, not chocolate.) I also tend to only test out low maintenance recipes meaning anything that doesn’t require exotic equipment or ingredients. This is a reason why I really love French cooking. French cooking is all about using refined techniques to make simple food rich and elegant. If you spend more time shopping the perimeter of the grocery store (produce, dairy, meats and fish) more often than not, you can find most ingredients for a French recipe already in your kitchen.
True to French form, this chocolate cake recipe is simple but rich. With the baking basics of butter, chocolate, baking powder, flour, cocoa powder, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, water, and salt you can create this wonder of decadent, chocolatey goodness. If you’re not a dark chocolate fiend like me, that is probably the only ingredient you may need to pick up. I also really like that the recipe only calls for 1/3 cup of flour substituting the rest for dark cocoa powder.
On a side note, if you don’t use cocoa powder much I highly recommend upping your intake of this nutritious powerhouse that is chock full of antioxidant boosting benefits. In addition to the antioxidants, cocoa is said to decrease blood pressure and improve cholesterol. See, chocolate is good for you! A word to the wise, non-alkalized cocoa powder has more health benefits than alkalized or Dutch-processed cocoa. Dutch-processed cocoa goes through a washing process that neutralized the acidity of the cocoa which strips away much of the antioxidant activity.
Back to the recipe…. the only pieces of equipment that you need for this recipe other than standard stirring and measuring tools are a small sauce pan, hand mixer, and a cupcake tin. Yes this is technically a cake recipe, but I always prefer cupcakes to cakes because the individual serving is more uniform and less messy than cake slices. But if you are more of a traditional cake person, by all means cake it up and use a regular cake pan. The hand mixer on the other hand is a deal breaker. The recipes instructs to separate the eggs and whip the whites until stiff peaks. If you’re new to this technique, this means when you turn the hand mixer over the egg white foam holds its shape in peaks on the tip of the whisks. Fluffing the egg whites separately and then folding them in is an essential technique for creating a light and delicate batter.
French Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
- 7 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8 ounces dark chocolate (70%+ cocoa), chopped
- 4 tablespoons water
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (I use whole wheat)
- 1/3 cup dark cocoa powder (non-alkalized)
- 4 eggs, separated
- 1 cup granulated sugar (I use coconut sugar)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- cooking spray (I use coconut oil spray)
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 Degrees
- Spray cupcake tin with cooking spray
- Melt butter in medium size sauce pan. Once melted, turn off heat stir in dark chocolate. Once chocolate is melted and add 2 tablespoons of water, baking powder, flour, and cocoa until just combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk egg yokes with sugar, 2 tablespoons of water, and vanilla. Stir in chocolate mixture until just combined.
- In a large bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until peaks are stiff. Gently fold in chocolate mixture until white streaks disappear. Be careful not to overmix.
- Pour mixture into a 2-cup glass liquid measuring cup and pour into cupcake tins. You will have to repeat this about 3 times to get all the batter in the tins. *If you don’t have one, you can skip, but this makes pouring mixture into tin easier.
- Bake for 22-24 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center cupcake comes out batter-free. Rest on top of over for about 5 minutes, then run a knife along the outside of each cupcake to keep them from sticking.
- Continue reading for serving options.
Even though this is the only cake recipe I make, being creative with how you serve them makes the cakes unique every time. I typically reserve these cakes for holidays or special occasions, in which I’ll serve them warm with a couples scoops of gelato, a fruit coulis, or fresh berries. If you want to pre-make these cakes, you can make them the day before, refrigerate overnight, and stick them in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds before serving to warm them up.
Because this particular batch was for a birthday, this was the first time I ever put frosting on the cakes. It’s also the first time I ever made frosting. Even though I was short on time the thought of store bought icing makes me cringe, so I resolved to make the frosting myself. My mom is a gourmet foods teacher (convenient huh?) and was kind enough to share this incredibly easy and tasty buttercream frosting recipe with me.
Again, you probably already have most of these ingredients in your kitchen, and you’ll definitely need a hand or standing mixer as well. An important note for this recipe is to make sure to let your butter come to room temperature before starting. But if you happen to forget to do this (like I did) just put the stick of butter (still wrapped in the paper or in a small dish) on top of your oven while it is baking the cupcakes. This reduces the softening time to about 5-10 minutes.
Simple Butter Cream Frosting
Ingredients:
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cups unsalted butter, room temperature and in slices)
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsp. milk
Directions:
- In a medium bowl, mix powdered sugar and butter with hand mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 2 Tbsp. of milk.
- Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, add in more milk a few drops at a time. If frosting is too thin, add in a small amount of powdered sugar.