Rustic buttermilk chocolate cake

It's been a big baking weekend. Numerous batches of hot cross buns, birthday cakes and party food has seen my kitchen buzzing quite a lot recently.

My mouth watered at the sight of this rustic chocolate cake. I love baking with buttermilk and baked this cake twice this weekend, once as an 8" round cake and once as an 8" ring. Both took similar times to cook but neither rose evenly. I also discovered that its soft, crumbly finish meant that it would have been better served layered with chocolate ganache or topped with whipped cream than shaped into a birthday cake and decorated with fondant. Oh well - it still tasted amazing!

I found the layout of the original recipe quite confusing, so here is my simplified version of it with metric measurements.

Rustic buttermilk chocolate cake

Ingredients

• 1 cup hot strong coffee
• 85 g dark chocolate
• 1 3/4 c (245 g) flour
• 3/4 c (60 g) dutched cocoa
• 1 3/4 c (385 g) sugar
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 t vanilla essence
• 1/2 c canola oil
• 1 c buttermilk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line an 8" (20 cm) round tin.
2. Pour hot coffee over dark chocolate and stir to melt. Set aside.
3. Combine sifted flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda with salt and sugar.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla essence, canola oil and buttermilk to combine.
5. With your mixer on a slow speed, gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Add the coffee mixture next and mix slowly until just combined. (Do not over-mix.)
6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. This is a very thin mixture.
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Serve frosted with ganache or whipped cream.

Rustic buttermilk chocolate cake
- pre-frosting