Best chocolate cake

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Matthew Dekay & Lee Burridge – Für Die Liebe

Radu arrived yesterday from Barcelona and I thought it would be a good idea to surprise him with our favourite chocolate cake. We are chocolate lovers, especially me, and I’ve already tried lots of recipes, but each time I had something to object. It was either too sweet, too much cream or the batter was not moist enough, and so on. This is why I decided one day, I should try to simply make it how I feel it should be and what ingredients I would like to taste in it. It was as expected. This is my all time favourite chocolate cake and since I love it so much, I always make it the same, more or less.

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I’ve made a type of batter that is more on the moisten side, like a kind of brownie but not that dense. For this I’ve added 2 chocolate bars and some oil, besides eggs and the dry ingredients. I also try as much as possible to make whatever I cook as healthy as possible..LOL…like a chocolate cake can be healthy. Anyway I think that by replacing some ingredients to healthier ones, or adding less sugar, can make at least a little difference. This is why I always add milled oatmeal or whole grain flours, instead of regular white flour in cookies and cakes, since I never notice the difference anyway. And since the cake has lots of chocolate I’d recommend a good one, the one that you like to eat as is, because this is what you’re going to be tasting in the end.
I also considered I shouldn’t spend too much time on making a chocolate cream from scratch, since the chocolate already on the market is as good as it’s going to get! So why waisting time on mixing butter, cream, eggs and cocoa, when I’m never going to achieve something as good as my favourite chocolate? Given this, I’ve made 2 types of creams, one from chocolate with a little milk and another one is a cream mix made by Dr. Oetker, CremeOle. What I love about this one is that it’s not too sweet, so it comes as a good contrast. I don’t know if this cream is available in other countries, but if not, you can replace it with some other cream that is made with cold milk.
This time I’ve also added some caramelised hazelnuts. It is good, but I honestly prefer the chocolate cake simple, or sometimes if I also want some hazelnuts here and there I use a chocolate that already has hazelnuts in it.

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Batter:
• 12 tbs milled oatmeal
• 3 tbs cocoa
• 1/3 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp backing powder
• a pinch of salt
• 5 tbs powdered sugar
• vanilla extract
• 8 eggs
• 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1/4 cups hot milk
• 200g of your favourite chocolate(this time I’ve used Milka)


Make some coffee to moisten the batter.

Cream 1:
• 500 g of your favourite chocolate(I’ve used Milka, as for the batter)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cups hot milk


Cream 2:
• 2 x CremeOle
• 2 x 400ml cold milk from the fridge


Some fruits:
• 60 g frozen or fresh raspberry(I used a mixture of berries this time because I couldn’t find simple raspberries at the store, but I prefer raspberries for this cake)
• 1 1/2 sliced bananas


Wafers for layer cakes.

Caramelised hazelnuts(this is optional, I liked it better simple, without hazelnuts):
• 200 g hazelnuts
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon


Cream(optional)

For the batter, mix the dry ingredients. Boil the milk and add the chocolate in it to melt, stirring until is smooth, if it hasn’t melted completely microwave just a little, otherwise not. Add all ingredients except the egg whites, over the dry ingredients. If the chocolate mixture is too hot, wait until it’s at room temperature. Beat the egg white and incorporate them as well(do this as the last step to have them as fluffy as possible).

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Add into the oven and cook at higher temp 356°F(180°C) for first 15 minutes, then decrease to lower temp, at 320°F(160°C) for another 30-45 minutes. Try to open the oven as little as possible for checking. Let it cool in the oven. Once it has cooled, slice it in 3 with a special knife for cutting bread. This cake has more liquid creams so it’s hard to make it in a shape of a cake. I usually use a large glass bowl and make the layers in it, but this time I’ve used smaller ones and I’ve cutted the batter in shapes to fit. The remaining batter will be crumbled and added later as a layer.

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Moisten the first layer with coffee.

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Add a layer of berries.

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Make Cream 1, by mixing the chocolate in the hot milk until smooth, or microwave if necessary. Add over the berries.

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Add the remaining crumbled batter

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Add a layer of banana slices.

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Cook all ingredients for caramelised hazelnuts for about 5 minutes, steering continuously. Immediately add on cake. I will make a note here: I didn’t expect this, but the hazelnuts have moistened from creams and I think it would make sense to add the caramelised hazelnuts between 2 layers of wafers..

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Let the caramelised hazelnuts cool then prepare CremeOle as directed on the label and add over the hazelnuts.

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Add cream on top if you like so. Delicious!!

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