Chocolate Cake

Another treasure from Rose Beranbaum.  This recipe makes 2 9" cakes and 2 6" cakes.  Go ahead and make it, as long as your mixer holds 5-6 quarts.

What You'll Need

• 10.5 oz. whole eggs
• *1 pound, 3/4 oz. hot water (2 cups plus 4.5 teaspoons) measure/weigh this water after heating, and then use right away
• 18 g. vanilla
• 1 pound, 1/2 oz. sifted cake flour
• 4.5 oz. Dutch processed cocoa powder
• 1 pound, 5 oz. sugar
• 1.5 oz. baking powder
• 10 g. salt
• 12 oz. unsalted butter, softened

How to Make It

Spray cake pans with pan spray.  Line the bottoms of the pans with parchments circles, and spray again.

Combine cocoa and water with a whisk.  *(Cover it immediately and cool.  Don't skip the covering step, or you'll lose some water through evaporation and your cake will be dry and stupid). 

Combine eggs, 1/4 cooled chocolate mixture and vanilla.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour, sugar baking powder and salt.  Mix on low to combine.

Add softened butter and the rest of the cocoa mixture.  Mix on medium for 2 minutes.  Scrape down bowl.

Beat in egg mixture in 3 additions, beating for 20 seconds between additions.  Scrape bowl as necessary.

Bake at 350 degrees, F, until cake springs back when pressed on top.  Cake can just barely be pulling away from the sides of the pan.  Smaller cakes will be done first, of course.  Start checking them at 25 minutes.

When done, cool in pans for 10 minutes then turn out and reinvert to let cakes cool right-side up.

NOTE:  While I adore Rose, I find that the whole mixing the cocoa powder with hot water thing and then covering it can be a bit tedious.  Since I'm a bit lazy, I tried just adding the sifted cocoa powder in with the other dry ingredients and just using room temperature water.  This worked just fine, with no discernable difference in texture from the original method.