Dark Chocolate Cake

Decadent Dark Chocolate Cake with Mousse Filling

~ kdenner0001 ~ Leave a comment
This wonderful cake started my love of the art of creating cake combinations. It was first brought to me as a birthday gift by a client (along with the recipe). The vanilla mousse is a lovely counterbalance to the dark chocolate icing. Enjoy. (The picture isn't pretty because I cut 9 inch cakes in half horizontally and they were perhaps too thin. Well, and maybe it was that I put down the strips of wax paper on my cake plate too far in, so that when I pulled them out, the cake imploded. ) Lesson learned: to keep your rim of your cake plate clean, do not put the wax paper strip in too deep.
This wonderful cake started my love of the art of creating cake combinations. It was first brought to me as a birthday gift by a client (along with the recipe).  One of my favorite gifts to this day!  Sorry about the ugly picture.  The cake imploded when I took the wax paper strips from under it after I iced.

 

Dark Chocolate Cake

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter, softened

1 ¾   cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa

1 ¼ teaspoons of baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1-1/3 cups water

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour tow 8 inch round baking pans.
  2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla: beat on medium speed of mixer. Sift and stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add alternately with water to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pans.
  3. Bake 35-40 minutes for 8 inch pan and 30-35 minutes for 9 inch pan or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.  Cut the cakes horizontally to make four cakes.

 

Quick and Easy Mousse

1 large box of Instant Pudding (I use Cookies and Cream)

1 can Eagle Brand Condense Milk

½ cup cold water

1 8 ounces container of Cool Whip

 

In a medium bowl mix condensed milk and cold water.  Add pudding and stir until dissolved.  Refrigerate for 5 minutes or until set.  Fold in Cool Whip.

Note: 2 small boxes of pudding can be used instead of one large.  Fresh berries can be folded into vanilla or white chocolate pudding.  This makes a great filling for white cake.

 

Dark Chocolate Icing

½ cup butter (1 stick), melted

2/3 cup Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa

¾ cup powder sugar

1/3 cup milk

2 teaspoons of vanilla

Directions:

  1. Melt butter and stir in cocoa. Alternately add powder sugar and milk beating to a spreading consistency.  Add a small amount of additional milk if needed.  Stir in vanilla. (Or add some of your favorite  liquor)

Makes 2 cups of frosting.

 

To Assemble:

  • Put 1/3 of the mousse filling between each layer of cake. Ice the cake with the icing. Refrigerate.