A dense but moist chocolate birthday cake, mixed all in a pot over medium heat, then dumped into a cake pan to bake.
Chocolate Dump-It Cake
True to its name, this chocolate birthday cake is made by dumping all the ingredients right into a pot over medium heat. The dense, fudgy cake batter then gets poured into a pan and baked. Topped with an easy icing of melted chocolate chips swirled with sour cream, this dump-and-bake cake always impresses.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 1 stick unsalted 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
- 1 ½ cups Nestle’s semisweet-chocolate chips
- 1 ½ cups sour cream, at room temperature
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place a baking sheet on the lowest rack to catch any drips as the cake bakes on the middle rack. In a 2- to 3-quart pot, mix together the sugar, unsweetened chocolate, butter and 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.
- Meanwhile, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, stir together the milk and 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 and eggs. In several additions, and without overmixing, whisk in the dry ingredients. When the mixture is smooth, add the 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, about 30 to 35 minutes. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool on a rack. (This can be tricky - if someone is around to help, enlist him.) Let cool completely.
- Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler, then let cool to room temperature. Stir in the sour cream, 1/4 cup at a time, until the mixture is smooth.
- When the cake is cool, you may frost it as is or cut it in half so that you have 2 layers. There will be extra icing whether you have 1 or 2 layers. My mother always uses it to make flowers on top. She makes a small rosette, or button, then uses toasted slices of almond as the petals, pushing them in around the base of the rosette.
- For true chocolate lovers, to improve this recipe immensely, 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. 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!
- Substitute the cup of milk with a half cup of coffee mixed with a half cup of milk.
- Use a bundt or regular cake pan instead of a tube pan to avoid drippiness.