Devil's Food

Look at these smooth juicy sweet apricots! Do your mouth water by just looking at it?  Fresh apricots are not cheap in this part of the world.  While whiling away my time after work in one of the high end mall near my work place, came across these apricots in the supermarket and they were on sale  - only RM9.90 per punnet.  So juicy and sweet!


Ok..this post is not about apricots.  The recipe which I'm going to share with you have got nothing to do with apricots or any fruits at all.  I just can't resist showing you the picture of these wonderful fruit, ..lol!

Actually all I want to share with you is a lovely and easy to bake Devil's Food cake which is oil-based.  This recipe is from 'Bake' by Nick Malgieri.  You know that I'm quite lazy at times.  I baked this a couple of weeks ago - at that time, I just itched to bake something but don't want too complicated a recipe.  Searched through the mountains of books that I owned, found this recipe which is just perfect and of course, delicious as well..hope you'll try this.  It's so easy to make.

I doubled the recipe for 2 cakes..one for us and the other for my neighbour who is ever so happy to receive any bakes from me..:D

 Look at this!  It's so moist.

 The texture is similar to steam cakes.

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream..yummy!

Here's the recipe..makes two 23cm round layers, 5 cm high. (since I want the cake without any frosting, I made single layer but doubled this recipe to get 2 cakes but taller than 5 cm)

110g unsweetened chocolate, cut into small pieces (I used semi-sweet chocolate)

240 ml boiling water (boil, then measured)

225g granulated sugar (since I used semi-sweet choc, I reduced the sugar to 100g)

195g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

225g light brown sugar (I used 100g as I think 225g is way too much)

120 ml vegetable oil, such as safflower

110g soured cream (if you've been following me, yup, this is the one ingredient that became my deciding factor into baking this cake! haahahaa)

2 medium eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2tsp vanilla extract

1. Prepare two 23 x 5 cm cake tins, pre-heat oven to 180dC.

2. Place the choc in a large mixing bowl and pour the hot water over it. shake the bowl to make sure all the choc is submerged, then let stand for a few minutes to melt the choc.

3. In a mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, salt and b.o.s. and set aside.

4. whisk the choc and water until smooth, then whisk in the brown sugar, oil, soured cream, eggs and vanilla one at a time, whisking smooth after each addition.

5. Whisk in the flour mixture about one third at a time.  Batter will be very runny.

6. Divide the batter between the cake tins and bake until risen and firm about 30-35 mins.

7. Let cakes stand in the tins for 5 mins, then unmould to racks, turn right side up and cool completely. to finish as a sandwich cake, use your choice of frosting.

Oh, by the way, today is my sis birthday..Happy Birthday, Dear Sis! May Lord Buddha bless you with good health, happiness and keep you safe always! Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu!