Dark, dense, and delicious (so good it could be Voodoo) cake with salted caramel icing

Dark, Dense, and Delicious (So good it could be Voodoo) Cake

So I had one of those days yesterday when you just feel down, and as I wondered around in my miserable angst-ridden skin, I had a ‘mmm’ moment (not to be confused with Oprah’s ‘aha!’ moments – but profound nevertheless!). I needed cake – but cake that was not posing as anything else other than being it’s truly sinful self. No carrots, nuts, yoghurt, apples or cinnamon. Bad, but oh-so-good, cake. Sexy cake.  Chocolate cake! MMM! So I went off to the supermarket to shop for the ingredients for my ‘go to’ cake, only to discover on arriving home, I’d forgotten to buy some of the key ingredients. I know! Whassup with that?! I was seriously losing my ‘mmm’ moment, when I decided, on a whim, to google another recipe, using the ingredients I had remembered to buy. And there it was, first time lucky,on a blog called ‘Tricia’s Kitchen’, the cake I’d been dreaming of (comfort eaters unite!).  I have adapted her recipe slightly – in essence I made it a little more ‘Voodoo fabulous’, with the addition of a salted caramel ‘icing’. I didn’t have any sour cream and so I used double cream, soured with a teaspoon of lemon juice.  I cannot tell you how sublime this cake was (well I could, but then this blog would need a PG rating…yes, THAT good!).  So if you want to be a kitchen goddess and feel like Martha Stewart – do not pass go, do not collect $200, BAKE THIS CAKE!

Dark, dense, and delicious (so good it could be Voodoo) cake with salted caramel icing

Serves 12 (or 8 women with PMS)

2 cups of sugar

1 cup oil (sunflower or canola)

2 xl free-range eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup HOT coffee, made with 3 tsp of good instant coffee powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup cocoa

2 cups cake flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 cup sour cream

Icing

2 tins Caramel Treat

1 tsp Maldon salt, (or according to your taste), optional

Preheat the oven to 160C.  Spray two, round cake tins with non-stick spray, or grease and flour them.  In one large mixing bowl, combine the sugar and oil. In another, the remaining dry ingredients (whisk to remove any lumps). Using an electric mixer, cream the sugar and oil, adding the eggs one by one until they are combined and the mixture is nice and creamy (about 5 minutes of mixing). Slowly add the milk, HOT coffee and vanilla extract to this mixture, stir with a metal spoon to combine, ( I accidentally threw mine in all at once – and it was fine). Add the dry ingredients in 3 batches to the wet mixture, using the electric mixer on low-speed. Lastly, add the sour cream and stir to combine. Do not panic – the batter is quite thin! Pour into your greased cake tins and gently tap to release any air bubbles. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Allow to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before gently turning out onto wire racks to cool.

For the icing, scoop the caramel treat into a mixing bowl and add the Maldon salt. Stir until the caramel is smooth – not too much though, as the caramel tends to thin the more it is stirred. Use caramel to fill the middle layer of the cake and as the topping, once your cakes have completely cooled. Decorate as you wish. Swoon.