Description
This extra dark chocolate cake with salted caramel sauce has a subtle spice which recalls the flavor of sheet cake. It is extremely rich, so be prepared to make your slices small! Delicious with a tawny port!
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups boiling hot coffee
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ¼ cups white sugar
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup half-and-half
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar, or as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease three 9-inch round cake pans.
- Combine cocoa powder and chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Pour boiling hot coffee over top and whisk until chocolate chips have melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool.
- Sift flour
- baking soda
- cinnamon
- baking powder
- and salt together in a large bowl.
- Combine sugar
- butter
- and vegetable oil in a separate bowl; beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs
- one at a time
- beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract. Add flour mixture in 3 batches
- alternating with the cocoa mixture
- beating batter briefly after each addition. Spread 1/3 of the batter into each prepared cake pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
- 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Run a table knife around the edges of each pan to loosen. Invert one layer carefully onto a serving plate and invert the remaining layers onto a cooling rack. Let cool
- about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile
- combine sugar and salt for the caramel sauce in a small
- heavy-bottomed saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat
- stirring constantly
- until liquefied. Just after mixture begins to smoke
- slowly add half-and-half
- stirring constantly
- until fully incorporated. (Be careful as the addition of cold liquid makes the molten sugar foam up.) Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- Pour 1/2 of the caramel sauce on top of the bottom layer of the cooled cake. Add the second layer of cake
- top with remaining caramel sauce
- and add the final layer of cake. Dust lightly with powdered sugar.
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 25 mins
Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Servings: 15