Chocolate Dump-it Cake

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Chocolate Dump-it Cake

This came from the New York Times

It hasn't been fully tested by us with its optimum modifications.

Ingredients

2 cups sugar (14 oz / 400 g)
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate (~~original recipe says 4~~)
1 stick butter, plus more for greasing the pan
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375°F with one rack in the middle. Place a baking sheet on the lowest rack to catch any drips.

In a 2-3-quart pot, mix together

2 cups sugar (14 oz / 400 g)
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 stick butter
1 cup of water

Place over medium heat and stir occasionally until all of the ingredients are melted and blended. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

Sift together:

2 cups all-purpose flour (10 oz / 285 g)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

In a small bowl, stir together:

1 Cup milk
1 teaspoon cidar vinegar

Grease and flour a 9-inch tube pan (Tip: Be meticulous, and really work the butter and flour into the crevices of the pan. This is a moist cake, so it really needs a well-prepared pan to keep it from sticking).

When the chocolate in the pot has cooled a bit, whisk in

the milk mixture
two eggs

In several additions, and without overmixing, whisk in the dry ingredients.

When the mixture is smooth, add 1 teaspoon vanilla and whisk once or twice to blend.

Pour the batter into the tube pan and bake on the middle rack until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. (check at 35 min.)

Let the cake cool for 10 minutes, then remove it from the pan and cool on a rack. (This can be tricky — if someone is around to help, enlist them.)

Let cool completely.

Notes:

The most time consuming/difficult part of this is making sure the pan is sufficiently greased & floured. It really does take a lot. Furthermore, because of all of the grease/flour, the surface doesn't always look pretty, it can be somewhat mottled. Therefore:

A half batch of this chocolate icing is awesome on this.

For reasons we can't figure out, this cake is better the second day. It's like stew, or lasagne; although it's pretty awesome the day it's made, it's better after having sat for a day (or two).

Helpful hints from the NYT website

For true chocolate lovers, to improve this recipe immensely:
1. Up the unsweetened chocolate in the cake recipe to 5 ounces and consider using a premium chocolate like Guittard, Scharffen Berger, or Valrhona instead of "any old" chocolate at the grocer's like Baker's or Hershey's.
2. Similarly, for the icing, substitute premium 60% cocoa butter chocolate chips for the inferior Nestle's semi-sweet chips.
Instead of using flour to dust the cake pan, dust with unsweetened cocoa powder. Just adds a bit more chocolate!
I've made this cake for years -- I love the texture and tangy frosting. I always feel confused, however, by the tube pan. So drippy! Use a bundt or regular cake pan.
Saw this recipe and just had to make it! Based on many reviews I decided on 5 oz choc, buttermilk in lieu of milk/vinegar, 1 C. coffee in lieu of water, dust greased bundt pan w/cocoa powder, cool 20-25 min and it released beautifully, used a chocolate ganache based on very mixed reviews of frosting recipe. My ganache is bomb: 5 oz. MILK chocolate chips, 1½ tsp. veg oil, ½ C. heavy cream...melt choc chips and oil, remove from heat and whisk in heavy cream until smooth.
A trick I learned from a French pâtissier: When called to butter and flour a cake pan, replace flour with sugar. It makes for a sweet and slightly crisp outside and helps the cake rise (more to "grab" on to). Never failed me yet.
I made this in a 13x9 pan, used half the icing. It really is best if you make it a day ahead of serving, the flavors have time to blend and mellow.
Because I had to bring cakes to a special event, I did a test run, following the recipe to the letter. It was well received by my testers (my three children and a couple of friends).
On the big day, I made two changes:
1. Subbed buttermilk for the milk + vinegar
2. Used classic vanilla buttercream frosting between the layers
Very good results - buttermilk kept chocolate cake moist. Vanilla frosting was delicious and lightened & sweetened up an intense cake. Also - don't overbake!
For those unaccustomed to tube pans and probably younger than 50 or so: the tube pan Hesser uses is not the big angel food pan where the tube part comes out. This would be a 9 or 10 inch one piece tube pan which may be unavailable now. That's why it requires careful prep. There's no forgiveness here if you forget an inside edge or corner. Do line the bottom with waxed paper. It was my mother's "go to"cake pan for everything in the '40s and '50s.

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