A most excellent chocolate cake, simple and straightforward to make. I made it exactly as written and the only thing I changed was to add a pinch of salt to the frosting ingredients. From Small Victories: Recipes, Advice and Hundreds of Ideas for Home-Cooking Triumphs, by Julia Turshen. Comments in the recipe are Turshen’s. Makes one two-layer 8-inch cake.
Cake:
- 1¼ cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- ¾ cup (72 grams)Dutch-process cocoa powder (such as Guittard or Droste), sifted if lumpy
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup strong black coffee, at room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting:
- ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips or roughly chopped semisweet chocolate (131 grams)
- ¾ cup sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- Pinch of salt
Filling:
- ½ cup raspberry jam, stirred until smooth (seeded or seedless, whatever your preference)
Make cake: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Use your hands to butter the bottom and sides of two 8-inch cake pans, then line bottom of each with a circle of parchment paper. For good measure, butter the parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add melted butter, eggs, coffee, buttermilk, and vanilla and whisk until batter is smooth. Divide batter evenly among prepared cake pans.
Bake in preheated oven until cakes are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer cakes, still in their pans, to a wire rack and let them cool completely. Once cool, use a dinner knife to loosen edges of cakes from pans and invert them onto a work surface (you might need to give the pan a little whack). Peel off and discard parchment.
Make frosting: Meanwhile, bring a small pot of water to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer. Put chocolate chips in a large stainless-steel or heatproof glass bowl and set it over the pot (the water should not touch the bowl — if it does, simply pour some out). Stir until chocolate is melted. (Alternatively, you can melt chocolate in a microwave in 15-second increments, stirring between increments.) Remove from heat and whisk in sour cream, maple syrup, and salt. Frosting should be smooth and quite silky. Refrigerate frosting until the cakes have cooled. It will thicken as it cools (a good thing).
Once the cakes are cool, put one on a serving platter upside down so that the flat side is facing up. Spread jam over the top. (It will be pretty thick, but will meld with the cake as it sets.) Put second cake on top of the jam-slathered cake, again flat-side up. (If jam makes the layers slip and slide a bit, use a couple of skewers to hold layers together while you frost sides and then remove the skewers to frost the top).
Using a small offset spatula or a dinner knife, spread frosting all over side and top of cake. There’s no need to be perfect with this; I like it kind of rustic looking. But if you’re more of a type-A person, go ahead and smooth the top and sides (and you could even stick strips of parchment paper under the bottom of the cake before frosting it to keep your serving platter clean). Whatever makes you happy.
Let the cake sit about 1 hour before serving. There’s something about letting each element get to know the others that serves this cake very well. In fact, I prefer to make it the day before and refrigerate it overnight, and serve it cold. Either way, slice and serve with some fresh raspberries alongside, if you’d like.