Best Chocolate Cake Recipe Ever... with Peanut Butter Icing!
I recently baked for a huge crowd and needed to make a large quantity of sweets. I immediately thought about making a chocolate cake because everyone I know is a chocoholic. I topped the chocolate-y goodness with a peanut butter icing that made the treat even more decadent and delicious.
Of course, you can divide the quantity if you're baking for a smaller crowd. I actually think the cakes come out more moist and fluffy when they're baked in mini-cake pans. Enjoy!
Ingredients
Yields: 16
1-1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips4-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, + extra for greasing the pans
12 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons instant coffee powder
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons imitation brandy extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup peanut butter icing (see tips)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with 1-1/4 cups of sugar for about 7-8 minutes. You'll get a pale yellow foam and the texture of the egg yolk will be thicker. Add the brown sugar, vanilla and brandy extracts.
In another bowl, combine the flour, instant coffee powder, salt and baking powder. Sift all the dry ingredients.
Place the chocolate chips in a separate bowl and heat for 30 seconds in the microwave. Beware! Don't burn them...
Cream the butter with the remaining cup of sugar (whisk using a standmixer to get as much air as possible in the butter). Add the egg mixture and the dry ingredients. Mix well. Add the melted chocolate.
Divide the batter into 4 mini 6-inch spring form pans that were previously greased with butter and lined with parchment paper.
Bake the cakes for 10 minutes at 375°F, then lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for another 30-35 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Spread half the amount of peanut butter icing (see tip section for recipe) onto the cake. Let stand for about 20 minutes. Then cover the cake with the rest of the icing.
Serve with a nice cup of hot tea.
Bon appétit!
Tips
For the peanut butter icing: Mix 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, 1/3 cup peanut butter, a drop of vanilla extract and about 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter using a handheld mixer. Thin the icing with about 1-2 tablespoons of whole milk depending on how thick you like the icing to be.
The addition of the coffee really helps make the flavor of the chocolate more intense.
Sifting dry ingredients helps get rid of nasty lumps of flour and also to aerate the mixture when liquid is added. It's very important for all of your baking so you get a moist result.
To guarantee quality baked goods, use the best butter you can find.
If you're very cautious, you can slowly melt the chocolate in a double boiler (use a pot filled with hot water, lined with a piece of cloth so the bowl does not move and place the bowl filled with chocolate on top). For the double boiler, I always like to add a little kitchen towel underneath the chocolate filled saucepan. The saucepan won't jiggle and there won't be any splatter of water in your chocolate.
I used mini-sprin gform pans for an even, homogenous cake and a faster baking time. If you decide to bake the cake in a larger cake pan, extend the cooking time to at least 15 more minutes.
Contrary to most icing on cakes, for this one I don't wait to cool the cake completely before icing it. The purpose of spreading some of the peanut butter icing right away is to have melt and get into the cracks of the cake. Delicious...
