Best Basic Chocolate Cake

Historically, I’ve typically made a Guinness Chocolate Cake or a Red Wine Chocolate Cake, or the most decadent and delicious, a Mexican Red Wine Chocolate Cake. But the other day I wanted to try to make a strawberry buttercream frosting, and thought a “basic” chocolate cake would go well with it.

I also had the end of a box of Valrhona Cocoa Powder that I had had for awhile and wanted to use up. As you know, I usually use Guittard Extra Dark Chocolate Chips, but this seemed like a good opportunity for cocoa powder.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Everyday Chocolate Cake.

Makes 1 dark and decadent 8″ cake.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup (115 grams or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (80 grams) brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup (235 ml) milk
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
• 1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (80 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

GUIDELINES

1. Heat oven to 325’F.
2. Butter and flour an 8″ round cake pan.
3. Beat the sugars and butter together until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes with an electric or stand mixer).
4. Add the egg and mix slowly until fully combined.
5. Add milk and vanilla and mix slowly until fully combined, and then beat briefly.
6. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix slowly until combined, scrape down the bowl, then beat for a minute or two until smooth.
7. Pour into prepared cake pan and tap against the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake for about 30 minutes, until it puffs up and the center just has the slightest jiggle.
8. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes or so then flip onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

The first strawberry cream cheese frosting I attempted (pictured above) was delicious, but much too runny. It was really a strawberry cream cheese sauce, not frosting. The problem was, I really wanted to keep the fresh strawberry taste, and I knew that was going to have too much water, but I tried it anyway. That does not work. And the following is a delicious, strawberry-filled option!

The two keys are 1) to leave your butter and cream cheese out on the counter well before, so they are truly at room temperature, and 2) cook the strawberries down to the recommended amount.

Makes enough to frost a single-layer, 8″ cake generously.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup (or a 1/2 lb.) fresh strawberries, tops removed and loosely chopped
• 1 TBSP granulated sugar
• 1/2 stick (4oz, 1/4 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup- 2 cups confectioner’s sugar

GUIDELINES

1. Combine strawberries and granulated sugar in a sauce pan and heat on medium low, stirring frequently, until this cooks down to 1/4 cup, has darkened and thickened and looks like preserves. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
2. Using an electric mixer (or a huge amount of elbow grease), beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
3. Add the strawberry, vanilla, and salt and beat until combined.
4. Add confectioner’s sugar to taste and consistency.*

*If your frosting is too runny, you may be able to refrigerate it to your desired consistency, or you might not have cooked enough of the strawberry liquid out. If that happens, you can soak it up with confectioner’s sugar to stiffen up the frosting. I don’t like my frosting too sweet–the strawberries are already sweet and delicious!–so I don’t add much confectioner’s sugar, but you may like it with more! Other recipes use up to 2.5 cups of confectioner’s sugar for this amount of other ingredients.