What would Martha do?: Glazed Chocolate Cake

It's one of my colleague's birthday on Saturday so at work today we're holding a little morning tea for him. That means that each person will bring in a plate and we get to eat all sorts of naughty things ;) I decided to make a cake for him, and his only requests were either for Fruit Cake or Chocolate cake, so I decided to go with the latter of the two. I chose Martha Stewart's Glazed Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache Glaze, which I've made before in the past and it turned out very nicely, very much like a mud cake.

And of course, I forgot to take photos until it was in the oven, so my photo shoot starts from there! My sister managed to sneak a picture of me chopping up the chocolate for the ganache, which she wanted me to put on here. I had a plan not to put my own photo on the blog, but since she asked so nicely, here I am.

So now you (sort of) know what I look like. Hehe

This was taken when the cake had just come out of the oven and was cooling on the rack. Unfortunately it kind of sunk in one area, although my sister pointed out that this would be a good piece to get due to all the icing that would have to go there. hehe I like the way she thinks! Anyway onto the recipe, this was a very easy cake to make, it was mainly mixing the wet ingredients, mixing the dry ingredients and then mixing them together.

Ingredients for cake:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pan

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for whipped cream (optional)

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

Ingredients for Chocolate Ganache Glaze:

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

Method: (for cake)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch-round cake pan; line bottom with a round of waxed or parchment paper. Butter paper; dust bottom and sides of pan with cocoa, tapping out excess.

2. Sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream and beginning and ending with the flour.

3. Spread batter in prepared pan. Tap pan firmly on countertop once to eliminate large air bubbles. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely (bottom-side up). Set rack with cake over a rimmed baking sheet. Pour glaze over cake, letting it run over sides; spread gently with an offset spatula or table knife to coat. Let set, about 30 minutes.

4. If desired, whip cream and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Serve cake with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Ganache:

1. Place chocolate in a medium bowl. In a saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Pour over chocolate; whisk until smooth. Let cool until thick yet pourable, 2 to 3 minutes.

Hmm, this looked so good, I'm amazed that any was left over for the top of the cake! I'm not sure that I let it set long enough though, it was very runny. I think it still looked great though, and by this morning it was nice and firm over the cake.