Once Upon A Chocolate Life: Beatty's Chocolate Cake by Ina Garten

Monday, September 21, 2015

Beatty's Chocolate Cake by Ina Garten

I am a huge fan of the Barefoot Contessa otherwise known as Ina Garten and in fact bake from her books a lot. I have scrolled through the pages often and have seen a fabulous chocolate cake with shiny chocolate that looks delectable but for whatever reason have never made it, until today! And I am so happy that I did because this cake is light, moist, sweet, and has a rich chocolate flavor.

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

13/4 cups flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup butter milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare two 8 inch round baking pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, then spray with baking spray or butter and flour.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, powder and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until combined.

In a separate bowl add eggs, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla, mix to combine. With the mixer on low speed slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With the mixer still on low, add the coffee until just combined, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a spatula.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, the. Turn out onto wore rack, remove parchment and cool completely.

Chocolate Frosting

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, Not chocolate chips

2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened

1 large egg yolk at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

11/4 sifted powdered sugar

1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water

Chop the chocolate and place in a bowl over simmering water. Stir until just melted the set aside to cool to rom temperature.

In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment beat the butter until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eg yolk and the vanilla and beat an additional 3 minutes. Turntable he mixer on low and add the powdered sugar then beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy. Turn mixer to low speed and add the coffee and the melted chocolate, mix until just blended. Don't whip. Spared the frosting on the cooled cake.

Note: The egg yolk makes the frosting shiny, you can omit it and just whip the frosting a bit more. Also, I used 2 9" square pans although the recipe calls for round. I cut one in half and made this cake.