Chocolate Cake

This is a fairly simple recipe for a rich, moist chocolate cake. It is good with the mousse icing I posted last time, or with a ganache icing (I'll post that some other day) or even a simple buttercream.

1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 ozs unsweetened chocolate (melted)
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream
1 cup boiling water

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then melted chocolate. Alternately blend in dry ingredients (1/3 at a time) and sour cream, beginning and ending with dry. Add boiling water and blend well.

Pour batter into 2 waxed paper lined 9 inch round cake pans. Bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, remove and finish cooling on racks before icing.

I use Baker's unsweetened chocolate (in the blue box here in Canada). This is one time when I don't use European chocolate because I've never found an unsweetened one. You can't use a dark chocolate, even a high cocoa one, the cake just won't turn out right.

I have used this recipe for a long time, and always get raves. I have done shaped cakes with it, but you have to watch the baking times carefully.