Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake and Basket Weave

Two weeks ago, we had the last night of beginners cake decorating at the Cake and Wedding Cottage.

The evening was bittersweet. The class was fantastic, and I had so much fun. It was great to meet the folks in the class, and I learned so much more than I ever expected. Although I may not do the over-the-top fancy decorating that we did for many of the cakes in the class all of the time, I learned so many tips that will make me a better decorator, even for simple cakes. I think I will take the second course in the series, just not right away. My weeks were more than a little bit crazy the first two months of the year with all of the baking required for class–so I need a chance to catch my breath before I go at it again!

But the evening was also bittersweet because we were working with chocolate icing for the first time. Amazing, super chocolatey icing, done up as a basket full of flowers. And since the evening had a chocolate theme, I decided to go chocolate all the way, with a triple chocolate fudge cake from the Sky High Cookbook. It made for a fantastic chocolate evening, with a delicious day to follow.

But before we get to the recipe, a note about basket weave. Of all the techniques we learned in class, it is hands down my favorite. In fact, I would go as far as saying I’m a little bit in love with basket weave. It’s easy to put on, it looks FANTASTIC, you can use it to cover less than perfect icing or cake surfaces, and–the best part–you can use it to apply the so called *dessert* icings, real butter buttercream and cream cheese. Two of my favorites!

Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake
Adapted from Sky High

This recipe makes a seriously HUGE cake–three super tall 8 inch layers. Since I knew we were going to be piling a ton of beautiful roses on top of the cake, I decided to only do two layers and make some cupcakes with the rest of the layers. I ended up with about a dozen cupcakes and two big layers of cake. So when you make this, be ready for a big cake with an awesome flavor. The cinnamon and coffee give this cake a different and unexpected twist that will please the chocolate lovers in any crowd.

Ingredients:

• 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 ¼ tsp baking soda
• 1 ¼ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup milk (I used skim)
• 1 ¼ cups hot, strongly brewed coffee
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mayonnaise (I used low fat with no effect on the cake)
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 ¼ cups sugar

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. Line the base of each pan with parchment.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

Put the chopped chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Bring the milk to a simmer over medium heat. Pour the hot coffee and milk over the chocolate. Let stand for a minute, then whisk until smooth. Let the liquid cool slightly.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the eggs, mayonnaise and vanilla until well blended. Beat in the sugar. Add the dry ingredients and mocha liquid alternately in 2 or 3 additions, beating until smooth and well blended. Make sure you have the shield on your blender when you do this, because it really makes a mess! Divide the batter among the prepared pans.

Bake for 25 to 28 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out almost clean. You want those few crumbs to cling, so the cake still has a fudgey character. Let the cakes cool in their pans for 10-15 minutes before turning onto a wire rack and carefully peeling off the paper. Leave to cool completely before icing.

Ice with your favorite chocolate icing. This is a death by chocolate cake, so no chocolate is too much!

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