One Bowl Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

 

I baked this chocolate cake yesterday and I knew I had to share this recipe quickly with you. I always receive heaps of fantastic reviews on my Easy Chocolate Cake with Raspberries (yes, it is the most popular recipe on this blog) but I think I just found something even better, even more decadent and just oozing with choclatey deliciousness. The frosting is a bomb! It tastes like chocolate silk (haha! if there was a term like that) and doesn’t have the rich after-taste of the chocolate fudge frosting. And the best part? Its dead easy to make. Both the cake layers and frosting are one bowl, quick mix, simple to assemble and incredibly delicious.

I think the fun part is sticking chocolate sprinkles all around the cake. This is a great way of covering any imperfections (if any) in your cake and I did this a lot when I wasn’t confident about frosting a cake a few years ago. And it looks like it’s ready for a party, doesn’t it? If you can’t find chocolate sprinkles, just go with grated dark chocolate. It works the same way!

 

One Bowl Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes a 3-layered 6 inch round cake

250 g unsalted butter, room temperature
180 g dark chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup milk
1 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
11/2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
250 g (1 tub) cream cheese, room temperature
100 g unsalted butter, room temparature
2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (140 degrees C for fan forced ovens). Lightly grease the base and sides of 3, 6-inch pans and line the bases with baking paper.

Place butter, chocolate, 1 cup of water, milk and sugars in a large saucepan over low heat. Stir occasionally. Once chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth, remove from heat and let cool for 30 minutes.
Sift flours and cocoa directly onto the chocolate mixture. Mix. Whisk in the eggs. Mix until smooth and mixture is well blended. Divide mixture uniformly between prepared pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of each cake layer, comes out clean.

Remove from oven, run a blunt knife gently around the sides (to loosen slightly) and let the layers cool in their pans. Once cooled, turn out on to a wire rack.  Frost with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.

To make the frosting: With a hand mixer or electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Add the cocoa powder and vanilla essence and whip till well blended. Divide frosting for applying around and between the cake layers and for piping on top.

To assemble : Place a layer of the mud cake on a plate or cake stand. Dollop 1/2 cup of the frosting and spread with an offset spatula.
Place the second layer and repeat the same process.
Cover with the third layer. Frost the outside (top and sides) with chocolate cream cheese frosting. Refrigerate for 20 minutes. Using your hands stick the sprinkles all around sides and top of the cake. Pipe remaining frosting on top of the cake.
The cake is best served at room temperature.