I’m craving a chocolate cake. Not an airy angel food cake. Not an elegant genoise. Not a dense truffle cake or rich and pretty torte. I’m craving a moist, fudgy, in-your-face powerhouse of a chocolate bundt. I’ve been craving chocolate cake for the past year, and it’s time to act.
The secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.”-Mark Twain
Here’s my first pass at a recipe, adapted from several I found online and tweaked to my taste. It’s moist, rich, moderately heavy, and intensely satisfying.
The traditional Kahlua cake was made by adding Kahlua and packaged pudding mix to boxed chocolate cake mix. When I was younger, this made a pretty delicious cake. But my taste buds are more demanding than they used to be, and the packaged pudding and cake mixes are less than satisfying. How hard can it be to make it from scratch? I made some serious tweaks to the traditional recipe. First, the Kahlua was a bit over the top, so I reduced it by a third. And feel free to substitute any interesting liqueur for the Kahlua. Second, I added a bit of extra-virgin olive oil; not enough to taste, but enough to significantly increase the moistness. Third, I used our Dark Chocolate for Baking as the base–the Ghana chocolate has a bold, fudgy flavor. Fourth, I replaced the chocolate chips with Milk Chocolate for Baking, which adds a caramelly sweetness to the cake. Finally, I brought in our Pacari Ecuador Natural Cocoa Powder, which has a light, but complex flavor. I’m pretty happy with this first pass of a recipe, but don’t be surprised if I tweak it some more!
And remember, Real Bakers weigh stuff. In grams.
Deep Chocolate Kahlua Cake
Ingredients
- 4 ounces (114g) Dancing Lion Chocolate Dark Chocolate for Baking, melted and slightly cooled
- 2 1/4 cups (330g) flour
- 1/4 cup (25g) Pacari Ecuador Natural Cocoa Powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (16g) baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon (2g) salt
- 2/3 cup (180g) Kahlua or other liqueur.
- 1 cup (230g) sour cream
- 8 tablespoons (115g) butter, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (55g) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 cup (250g) brown sugar
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (235g) boiling water
- 1 1/2 cups (120g) Dark or Milk Chocolate for Baking, chopped into chip-sized pieces
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 335F.
- Brush the bundt pan well with melted butter, then dust it with flour.
- In a small bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a 2-cup measuring cup, whisk together the Kahlua, sour cream, olive oil, and vanilla. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together until light. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then fold in the melted chocolate.
- Stir in a third of the flour mixture until barely blended, then stir in a third of the Kahlua mixture. Repeat twice more until everything is incorporated, but don’t overmix.
- Stir in the boiling water, then the chocolate chips.
- Pour into the bundt pan, smooth the top, and bake until a skewer comes out moist, but clean, about an hour.
- Cool half an hour in the pan, the turn out onto a rack and cool completely, or as long as you’re able to stand the smell without cutting into it.