Chocolate Birthday Cake For The Boss
No, not Bruce Springsteen. MY boss at the Huron River Watershed Council. The office tradition there is that you bring a treat for the co-worker whose birthday is after yours. My February birthday was followed by the Executive Director's June birthday. I asked her what she wanted. "Well, fruit is always good," she said...and I'm thinking, "Fruit? Really? No."...but then she thankfully followed up with "But I really like chocolate too." Whew.
I wanted a really good, dark chocolate Bundt cake, and I actually made a Practice Cake using a recipe from Southern Living. (My family loves it when I make Practice Cakes. And Mistake Cakes. And Mistake Cookies.). They gave this cake an "A" and it was very good - chocolately, moist, and very very sweet. Too sweet, I thought, plus, like so many southern recipes, the ingredients kind of scared me - 16 ounces of chocolate syrup AND a cup of buttermilk AND a cup of butter AND 8 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate. Yikes. So I found a second recipe, and this is the cake I brought to work, to rave reviews.
Double Chocolate Chip Cake with Chocolate Ganache
CAKE
1 cup cocoa
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped in small pieces (I used 2 oz unsweetened, 4 oz semi sweet)
3/4 cup boiling water
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
10 TBS butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 TBS vanilla
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Heat oven to 350. Lightly grease and flour bundt pan.
In large pyrex bowl (note: you will be adding the sour cream to this mixture, so make sure you have room for that), combine cocoa and bittersweet chocolate. Pour boiling water over chocolate and stir until melted and combined.
In medium bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
In large bowl, cream butter and sugar and vanilla. Add eggs and mix well.
Fold sour cream into the chocolate mixture and gently stir until combined. Add to butter mixture.
Add flour mixture to butter and chocolate mixture. Blend well and add chocolate chips.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool slightly on rack and remove from pan to finish cooling.
GANACHE
9 oz semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
Place chocolate in medium bowl or 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup. In small pan heat cream on medium heat until boiling. Pour cream over chocolate and stir until smooth. Cool before drizzling over cake (good on ice cream too).