A Classic Cake
Our blog may be mostly devoted to Scandinavian and mostly Danish baked goods, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know when to appreciate an absolute classic dessert. Of course, we love to make the more complicated recipes, like Danish pastries and choux buns, but once in a while, all we want is something easy to whip up. For us, this usually takes the form of simple sheet pan cakes. We have shared several of these recipes over the past year and a half, like our æblekage (apple cake), drømmekage (dream cake), and honningkage (honey cake).
Our Chocolate Cake
So, today we are sharing our recipe for the most classic of all the classics: chocolate cake. In our humble opinion, a good chocolate cake should be moist, fluffy, and very chocolatey. However, to achieve this chocolate flavor without adding melted chocolate (which tends to make for a denser texture), we love to add coffee to our cake. This is not revolutionary by any means, as many bakers do this, but we think the coffee really brings out the cocoa powder’s chocolate flavor even more. It also balances out the sweetness of the cake, which makes the cake even more delicious. So, if you don’t have coffee, feel free to substitute it, but know that it will change the flavor of the cake!
How to Make Chokoladekage
As we mentioned before, what makes this cake truly amazing is how easy it is to whip up. Start with your eggs and sugar in a bowl, and whisk this until the eggs have tripled in size and are a lighter color. Then, add your wet ingredients (making sure that your coffee has cooled down so that it doesn’t scramble the eggs. Next, combine your dry ingredients in a separate bowl and fold them into the egg mixture bit by bit. Pour into a lined baking tin and bake until a skewer or knife poked into the center comes out clean. Enjoy this – it’s super rich and chocolatey so pairs beautifully with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Leave us a comment and rating below if you try it out!
Chokoladekage (Chocolate Cake)
Ingredients
CAKE
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 200 grams (1 cup) granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) vegetable oil
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) coffee or espresso (you can also dissolve 1 tsp instant coffee in 60 ml water)
- 120 grams (1 cup) all purpose flour
- 80 grams (1 cup) cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) milk
GANACHE
- 113 grams (a little over 1 bar) chocolate
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) heavy cream
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Prepare a loaf tin by buttering the bottom and sides and lining the bottom with parchment paper. We used a 9 inch round tin, but you can use a square or rectangular pan instead! Please note that if you use a larger tin, you may want to 1.5x the recipe so it is not too flat of a cake!
- Add eggs and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer or a mixing bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar together until light in color and doubled or tripled in size. Use a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, or an electric hand mixer – it will be really difficult to whisk by hand, but it can be done!
- Add in vanilla extract and mix to combine.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
- Combine coffee, milk, and oil in a separate bowl or container.
- Alternate mixing in the dry and wet ingredients to the batter, adding in half the ingredients each time. Be sure to sift in the dry ingredients to avoid lumps. Mix on low speed between additions.
- Once the batter is combined, pour into the baking tin.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. It can be hard to tell whether a chocolate cake is done, but try not to overbake or the cake may be dry!
- While the cake is cooling, heat up cream on the stove until just below simmering. Add chocolate to a heatproof bowl on the side. Pour over the warm cream and add a pinch of salt. Let this mixture sit for a few minutes, then stir until all the chocolate has melted and you have a glossy mixture.
- Cool down the ganache in the fridge until it reaches a thicker consistency for decorating the cake. Make sure the cake is cool as well before topping with ganache.
- We like to decorate ours with a spoon and create swirling patterns! Enjoy!
First time I’ve seen your website. And just watched your charming video on how to make the tower cake!
You’ve done a lovely job. The pictures are gorgeous, and your instructions are clear and detailed. So important when it comes to baking!
I’m going to look forward to make several of these cakes!
Thank you!
Hi! Thanks so much, we are so happy to hear that you like the website. Excited to hear how the recipes go 🙂