![Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse With Fleur de Sel](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/01/11/dining/mc-bittersweet-chocolate-mousse/mc-bittersweet-chocolate-mousse-mediumThreeByTwo440.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
Chocolate Dump-It Cake
![Chocolate Dump-It Cake](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/01/11/dining/ah-chocolate-dump-it-cake/merlin_147611010_cc3b9466-1485-485c-a638-f464b3cabcec-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 1 hour 45 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 2cups sugar
- 4ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 1stick unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
- 2cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
- 2teaspoons baking soda
- 1teaspoon baking powder
- 1teaspoon salt
- 1cup milk
- 1teaspoon cider vinegar
- 2eggs
- 1teaspoon vanilla
- 1½cups Nestle's semisweet-chocolate chips
- 1½cups sour cream, at room temperature
Preparation
- Step 1
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place a baking sheet on the lowest rack to catch any drips as the cake bakes on the middle rack. In a 2- to 3-quart pot, mix together the sugar, unsweetened chocolate, butter and 1 cup of water. Place over medium heat and stir occasionally until all of the ingredients are melted and blended. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.
- Step 2
Meanwhile, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, stir together the milk and vinegar. Grease and flour a 9-inch tube pan (Tip: Be meticulous, and really work the butter and flour into the crevices of the pan. This is a moist cake, so it really needs a well-prepared pan to keep it from sticking).
- Step 3
When the chocolate in the pot has cooled a bit, whisk in the milk mixture and eggs. In several additions, and without overmixing, whisk in the dry ingredients. When the mixture is smooth, add the vanilla and whisk once or twice to blend. Pour the batter into the tube pan and bake on the middle rack until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool on a rack. (This can be tricky -- if someone is around to help, enlist him.) Let cool completely.
- Step 4
Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler, then let cool to room temperature. Stir in the sour cream, ¼ cup at a time, until the mixture is smooth.
- Step 5
When the cake is cool, you may frost it as is or cut it in half so that you have 2 layers. There will be extra icing whether you have 1 or 2 layers. My mother always uses it to make flowers on top. She makes a small rosette, or button, then uses toasted slices of almond as the petals, pushing them in around the base of the rosette.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
For true chocolate lovers, to improve this recipe immensely:
(1) Up the unsweetened chocolate in the cake recipe to 5 ounces and consider using a premium chocolate like Guittard, Scharffen Berger, or Valrhona instead of "any old" chocolate at the grocer's like Baker's or Hershey's.
(2) Similarly, for the icing, substitute premium 60% cocoa butter chocolate chips for the inferior Nestle's semi-sweet chips.
Instead of using flour to dust the cake pan, dust with unsweetened cocoa powder. Just adds a bit more chocolate!
A trick I learned from a French pâtissier: When called to butter and flour a cake pan, replace flour with sugar. It makes for a sweet and slightly crisp outside and helps the cake rise (more to "grab" on to). Never failed me yet.
Substitute the cup of milk with a half cup of coffee mixed with a half cup of milk.
I've made this cake for years -- I love the texture and tangy frosting. I always feel confused, however, by the tube pan. So drippy! Use a bundt or regular cake pan.
Saw this recipe and just had to make it! Based on many reviews I decided on 5 oz choc, buttermilk in lieu of milk/vinegar, 1 C. coffee in lieu of water, dust greased bundt pan w/cocoa powder, cool 20-25 min and it released beautifully, used a chocolate ganache based on very mixed reviews of frosting recipe. My ganache is bomb: 5 oz. MILK chocolate chips, 1 1/2 tsp. veg oil, 1/2 C. heavy cream...melt choc chips and oil, remove from heat and whisk in heavy cream until smooth. AH-MAZING CAKE!
For history buffs: Sour cream chocolate frosting was originally published in 1952, in Helen Evans Brown's "West Coast Cookbook." Her friend, James Beard, included it in his James Beard Cookbook. It has been re-published by many sources varying proportions of chocolate to sour cream. Brown's recipe, uses only 1/2 cup of sour cream adding: "This consistency will allow fancy swirls that will stay for this icing neither runs nor hardens…." adding - when slightly cooled a pastry tube may be used.
I made this in a 13x9 pan, used half the icing. Everyone loved it. It really is best if you make it a day ahead of serving, the flavors have time to blend and mellow. Love the simplicity of the icing.
For those unaccustomed to tube pans and probably younger than 50 or so: the tube pan Hesser uses is not the big angel food pan where the tube part comes out. This would be a 9 or 10 inch one piece tube pan which may be unavailable now. That's why it requires careful prep. There's no forgiveness here if you forget an inside edge or corner. Do line the bottom with waxed paper. It was my mother's "go to"cake pan for everything in the 40's and 50's.
Because I had to bring cakes to a special event, I did a test run, following the recipe to the letter. It was well received by my testers (my three children and a couple of friends).
On the big day, I made two changes:
1. Subbed buttermilk for the milk + vinegar
2. Used classic vanilla buttercream frosting between the layers
Very good results - buttermilk kept chocolate cake moist. Vanilla frosting was delicious and lightened & sweetened up an intense cake. Also - don't overbake!
The directions call for a cup of water to be mixed in with the butter and sugar but there is no water listed in the ingredient list. Just wanted to make sure that was correct??
A stick of butter is 4 oz or 113 grams.
Four oz chocolate is the same.
1 cup of sugar is ca 200 g
1 cup flour 130 g (a bit less if sifted)
1 cup milk, water, etc is 236 ml
1 teaspoon is 5 ml
2 teaspoons are a desset spoon), 10 ml
1 tablespoon is 15 ml
To measure chocolate chips, you'd treat them as a liquid, therefore 1-1/2 cups would be ca 354 ml.
Our measurements are often much less precise than metric measures would be. Good luck!
The accompanying photo does NOT show a tube cake as called for in the recipe - it's always odd when the picture doesn't match.
I didn't have the right kind of pan, so I cooked it in two regular cake pans, and it turned out beautifully - so don't worry if you don't have a bunt pan or tube pan. It did stick a little on the bottom when I turned out the pans, so be sure to really grease and flour them (I used Pam). I cooked them for about 20 minutes at 375; and they could have gone a couple minutes longer I think to help with the sticking.
A tip I learned from Cooks Illustrated... when butter/flouring a pan for chocolate cakes, use melted butter and unsweetened cocoa mixed together and brushed into the pan. With this method, you don't get the white flour baked in to the surface of your cake. Works particularly well for bundt cakes.
I halved recipe and baked for 20 mins. per another commenter and cake came out well. But!! Beware baking in a regular cake pan. The reason the recipe calls for a tube pan is that the batter is liquid enough it needs more surface area to cling to to rise evenly. My cake in a regular cake pan was fully cooked but collapsed in the center. Don’t care for my own purposes, but if I were to bake for company would use tube pan (or some improvised alternative) for sure.
I put this in the oven before realizing I forgot the water. I used 5 oz. chocolate and buttermilk. Cooked it in a bundt pan. It needed 45 minutes to bake, and fell slightly when I tested it at 33 minutes. I just dusted it with powdered sugar instead of frosting. The cake is amazing, moist, delicious. I think the water is a mistake in the written recipe. Will make again, without water.
I don’t see water in the ingredient list.
Interesting that the ingredient list doesn’t include water but it is included in the preparation steps.
Amazing. Skip icing or find another, but there’s no improving on this cake
Cups to Grams conversion. Alterations in (brackets). 400g caster sugar 115g chocolate (inc to 140g overall inst) 113g butter 240ml water, (boiled then add 2tsp of coffee powder and 1tsp cocoa powder) 240ml milk, (substitute for buttermilk or 180ml sour cream and 60ml milk)
Per other baker's notes, I used cocoa powder instead of flour for dusting the pan. I also used a traditional bundt pan instead of a tube pan, and replaced the milk + vinegar with buttermilk. I will happily make this again - so good!
I dumped the flour in all at once (well, it did say dump-it cake) and the batter was very lumpy. Thought I‘d risk it and didn‘t remove the lumps. They were still there when the cake was baked. It did not impact the flavour which everyone liked. (Used coffee instead of water.) For icing I used milk chocolate and cream cheese, decorated with cocoa nibs. Lovely!
Made this for a picnic. Loved the cake! Moist, rich, and classic. I too substituted some of the plain liquid for coffee. Icing wasn’t our favorite, not quite enough sweetness or airiness for our taste. Easy recipe to follow!
I’ve made a lot of cakes recipes and this is one might be my new go-to. I used two 9” pans and cooked for about 15 min, till the tops lost their wobble. Put a layer of lemon curd and butter cream in the middle and topped with a lemony whipped cream. Rich but not dense.
Also try creamy peanut butter in the middle. Scrumptious!
I added 5 ounces of chocolate to the cake and still feel like there could be more chocolate flavor. Also, I used a bundt pan and there was some serious overflow. Cake still came out tasty, but something to be aware of! Definitely don’t ignore the recipe’s recommendation of adding a sheet pan below the cake.
Make sure you let the chocolate mixture really cool or it’ll curdle
Used Greek yogurt in place of sour cream. Also used spray & sugar to coat the sides of the pan
I was wondering about doing this too - how well did it keep?
Not that chocolatey. Baked according to recipe except Used chocolate glaze instead of the sour cream foisting. Baked in a Nordicware bundt and looked great - dusted with cocoa powder and came out easily. Wasn’t that sold on it.
I made this yesterday and per the comments, I split into 2 springform pans and buttered and sugared each. BIG mistake. The cake tasted great but it wouldn’t release from the pans. It was a big mess. I’ll make the cake again, but next time in a single buttered & floured pan.
I attempted to make this last night- we haven’t tasted it yet, but it’s not pretty. It is bubbly looking which fell. It looks like a soft brownie, not the pretty birthday cake look I was going for. I’m. Im not going to try this recipe again…
I had major trouble with this. In my attempt to follow the directions to not overmix, I ended up with flour lumps that did not magically resolve in the oven. Plus it fell in the middle as it cooled and then stuck to the pan terribly, despite very thorough pan prep. Just a complete mess. Guess I haven’t found my new go-to recipe.
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