Apr 16

Apr 16 Chocolate cake // 1910's recipe

I have a problem and it is all of mine doing. Honestly I think if I anyone would find about out it I would have to turn in my pearls in the housewife association for home-made-meals and circle petticoats. But since internet is a safe space where people respect each other and don’t snitch, I suppose I can tell you. Just keep your smelling salts on hand. …. I don’t have a good chocolate cake recipe in my repertuar. I have a brownie recipe that I love, cake recipe for rum balls, but a chocolate cake recipe that I want to return to like a stalker preys after its victims? No. Every time I have tried a new chocolate cake recipe I have always been disappointed. It never seams quite right.

This is where I would tell you that I finally have found a great chocolate cake recipe and once you bake it your life will never be the same. Alas I don’t like to lie. So here goes my honest recipe review. I have a cookbook from the 1913 from whom I have been meaning to cook a few recipes for more than a year but never have. Luckily it contained a chocolate cake recipe with which I could finish my mini chocolate series. It also had a interesting step where you melt chocolate in boiling water, something I have seen. So I decided to try it. It was fine. Tasty cake that my boyfriend and I gladly ate after dinner. On the plus side, it stayed surprisingly moist for days in the pantry. However it was lacking the chocolate punch. It was surprisingly light in the chocolate flavour which was improved in the second batch after I added chocolate ganache. The cake has a potential. So if you want to try a 100+ year old chocolate cake recipe for your next dinner party or are after a cake lighter in chocolate flavour, give this a go. Why not?

Chocolate cake

cake
100 grams dark chocolate (I used 56%), finely chopped
120 ml boiling water
115 grams butter, room temperature
200 grams sugar (the original recipe asked for 335 grams)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp rose water (I would skip it as I don’t think it does anything in this recipe)
2 eggs
125 ml sour milk
225 grams plain flour
1 tsp baking soda

ganache
170 grams dark chocolate
150 ml cream

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Pour the boiling water over chocolate. In a large bowl cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in the vanilla extract and rose water. Add the eggs one by one, making sure you mix in the previous one is mixed in before adding the second. Add and mix in the milk and lastly mix in the flour and soda until just mixed in and can’t see any more flour. Bake for 40 minutes or until done. Let the cake cool down.

While the cake is heating melt the chocolate in bain marie and heat the cream until you see small bubbles around the edges. Pour the cream over chocolate and mix in until uniform. Let it cool down as well. Once the cake is cooled pour the ganache over and let it set.