Getting a rich chocolate flavour in a soft cake is a touch complex, as it requires tricks to keep the flavour intense while maintaining a delicate texture. I used to half-joke that my favourite was a ready-made packet cake mix with melted chocolate stirred through before baking. Packet mixes use modified starches such as tapioca to form a gel, making the cake moist, and will forgo butter in favour of oil to keep it soft when chilled.
Now, when you try to take your favourite butter cake recipe and add expensive dark chocolate, it can often turn out horribly dry and heavy. The reason for this lies in the type of chocolate you use. If a chocolate contains 70% cocoa, it effectively contains 70% starch. So although dark chocolate appears to be fat – of the most delicious kind – it's only actually about 30% fat and the rest is starch. So adding that expensive chocolate is like adding extra flour, and bitterness, to your recipe. This is fine, just so long as you reduce the flour, and increase the sugar to balance the flavour.
Black Forest chocolate cake
Here is my version of a chocolate packet mix formula, intense with chocolate, and with a texture that stays quite soft and moist in the refrigerator. If you like a slightly lighter flavour you can use half milk and half dark chocolate instead.
For the chocolate mixture
200ml milk
25g plain flour
200g 70% dark chocolate
75ml sunflower oil
For the cake
250g caster sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
6 medium eggs
175g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
To finish
Kirsch or brandy
Cherry cake filling (see below)
Sweetened whipped cream
Grated chocolate
Dan step 1: Line the base of two ungreased deep round cake tins with discs of nonstick paper.
1 Line the base of two ungreased deep round sandwich cake tins with discs of nonstick paper.
Dan step 2: Put the milk in a pan with the flour and whisk well, bringing to the boil. Add chocolate
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2 Put the milk in a saucepan with the flour and whisk well while bringing to the boil. Add the chocolate, broken into pieces, and the oil, then stir occasionally as the chocolate melts and the mixture takes on an oily, split appearance.
Dan step 3: Spoon the mix into a mixing bowl, add sugar & vanilla then beat until smooth and glossy.
3 Spoon the mixture into a large mixing bowl, add sugar and vanilla then beat until smooth and glossy.
Dan step 4: Beat in the eggs, two at a time, add the flour and baking powder & stir well til smooth
4 Beat in the eggs, two at a time, then add the flour and baking powder and stir well until smooth.
Dan Step 5: pour choccy into baking tin.
5 Divide the mixture between the tins and bake at 180C/160C fan/350F/gas mark 4 for about 40 minutes until a skewer poked in comes out clean. While the cakes are warm in the tin, wrap them well (I use clingfilm) then leave until cold.
Dan step 6: Take the cakes out of tins. Spoon 2-3 tbsp of kirsch on top. Put cherry mix on top
6 To assemble, take the cakes out of the tins and spoon 2-3 tbsp of kirsch over the top of each if you like. Spread half the cherry mixture over each of the cakes, blob and swirl sweetened whipped cream over one, top with the other cake and spoon more cream over the top. Grate chocolate over to finish.
Cooked fresh cherries combined with cherry jam makes this filling bright and fruit-filled. It keeps well in the fridge for a few days, and doubles as a simple sauce for ice-cream.
400g fresh ripe cherries
Juice of ½ a lemon
100ml cold water
150g cherry jam
2 tsp cornflour
1 Pit and halve the cherries then place in a saucepan with the lemon juice and water. Bring to the boil then simmer for about 10 minutes until the liquid has almost vanished and the cherries are tender.
2 Mix the jam with the cornflour, stir in with the cherries and bring to the boil again. Let the filling cool before using.
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