Colleen from Oz posted this recipe several years ago. It is so delicious and the only chocolate cake recipe I have used since trying it.

Dances ( who we haven't heard from in years!) helped with an amazing chocolate icing recipe. Together they are a real treat!

Colleen's Chocolate Cake

1 Cup caster sugar
1 Cup brown sugar
2 eggs
250 g margarine (8 ounces)
2/3 Cup cocoa
1 Cup sour milk*
2 Tsp
1 Cup boiling strong coffee
3 Cup plain flour
2 Tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 170C (325F), grease and line two 20cm (8") round cake tins.
Put ingredients into mixing bowl in order listed and turn on mixer. Beat until just combined. Pour into prepared tins and bake 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and leave to stand in tins for 20 minutes. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

Ice with chocolate icing.

*If you have not got sour milk, add a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to milk and leave in a warm place.~
NOTES : This is a very rich, almost black chocolate cake which stays moist for days and freezes well.

Della Dufour's Chocolate Icing (Dances)

1 1/2 Tbl butter
pinch salt
1 1/2 Cup sifted icing sugar
1 Tsp vanilla
5 Tbl cocoa
2 to 3 tbsp hot coffee

Cream butter. Add salt and vanilla. Gradually add cocoa. Add sifted icing sugar alternately with the coffee until the right consistency to spread over cake.

I don't know if you'd want this for a child's birthday cake it's just crazy delicious! I've seen it many places but The Pioneer Woman has it on her sight, it's a Texas Sheet Cake.

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Sheet Cake

Pam, Ina Garten's Parties cookbook has a recipe for a wonderful Chocolate Ganache Cake.

We're getting ready to go to dinner and I don't have time right now to type it for you and I don't know how to send it to the forum but if you will Google "Ina Garten's Chocolate Ganache Cake. then click on The Cookbook store, the recipe is there.

When I worked at Wms-Sonoma one of the employees made it for my 70th birthday and everyone loved it.

jude

AnnT did the one on Pioneer Woman's site a few months back and blogged about it..I've made it a number of times...it's a hit here and as a matter of fact was a birthday cake for my now 10 yr old and his class just last week. I think every child ate their serving.

I used to always make Hershey's Perfectly and usually use leftover nuked coffee for the boiling water.

If I want to make a lunch box cake it's the Buttermilk Brownies aka Texas Sheet Cake..if I want cupcakes or a VERY moist chocolate cake I make the Hershey's.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake

Hmm, now I have the opposite problem of too many recipes that all sound like the best.

Sharon, I may give that one a try. I even googled Caster sugar since I had no idea what that is! It calls for both brown sugar and coffee, so both of those are covered.

The Pioneer Woman cake sounds like it is to die for. It looks like it is as much icing as cake! Maybe that one, because he loves fudge.

Ina's Chocolate Ganache cake calls for a can of Hershey's Syrup. Whoa -- my teeth hurt thinking about it. I'll bet it's fab. We always have Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream for his birthday, too.

By the way, my son is 38. I treat him like he's 12. Isn't that what Mom's are for?

When I found this one, I threw away all other chocolate cake recipes.

BASIC CHOCOLATE CAKE

1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted & cooled
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sour cream
1 cup boiling water (may use leftover coffee)
Milk chocolate icing (recipe follows)

Beat butter and sugar together in large mixing bowl; add eggs; beat until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and chocolate. Sift together dry ingredients; add alternately with sour cream to butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Add boiling water (batter will be very thin). Pour into 2 greased and floured 9-inch layer cake pans. Bake in preheated 350° F. oven 35 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool in pan on wire racks 10 minutes. Turn out onto racks; cool completely. Fill and frost as desired. Yield: 12 servings.

The Best Chocolate Frosting:
4 cups sifted confectioners sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3+ Tblsp. milk

Beat ingredients together until smooth adding enough milk to make of spreading consistency.

Hey Chase! Your recipe says 2Tsp of ? What is that? Vanilla?

I loved the one my mom made for my birthday last weekend, from the back of the Hershey's Cocoa can. Yum!

Sharon, I made Colleen's Chocolate Cake and it was fabulous. A real hit. Just an FYI -- you have to double the icing recipe listed above, and even then don't spread it too thickly or you won't have enough to cover the cake. You really don't want the icing to be too thick. It's just the right amount when doubled.

Thanks so much for this yummy recipe which I will add to "family favorites."

Pam, I' m glad it turned out well. We can both thank Collen from Oz ! This was one of the first recipes I tried from the CF.

You're right about the icing. The recipes didn't come together. I'll make a note for next time which may be sooner rather than latter! LOL

dedtired...was the 2 tsp Vanilla?

This has always been my favorite chocolate cake! The whipped cream filling makes it a lighter cake, frosting-wise, but also takes it over the top.

Perfect Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
Cake
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups boiling water
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Filling
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Frosting
1/3 cup butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 9 inch round cake pans. Stir together the cocoa and boiling water from the first set of ingredients. Set aside to cool. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the cocoa mixture. Mix only until combined. Divide evenly between the three prepared pans, and spread the batter out flat.
3. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, and the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan. Cool cakes on a wire rack.
4. In a medium bowl, whip the heavy cream and vanilla. When the cream becomes thick, add the confectioners' sugar and continue to whip until stiff but not too grainy. Divide into three parts and spread onto two of the cooled layers. Stack the layers onto a nice plate, putting the two creamed ones on the bottom. Place the plain layer on the top. If there is a hump on the top of the cake, trim it off with a long serrated knife. Frost the sides with the chocolate buttercream frosting.
5. To make the frosting, beat the remaining ingredients, butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and cocoa until light and fluffy, about 7 to 10 minutes. Frost sides of the cake, leaving a ridge that sticks up over the top edge. Spread the remaining cream filling over the top of the cake. Garnish with sprinkles, chocolate curls or seasonal fresh fruit.

Arkansas Girl -- I used 2 Tsp of vanilla and I think that was the missing ingredient. At least it tasted great.

Thanks, Teresa. You have no idea how much I love whipped cream. My personal favorite dessert is strawberry shortcake with lots of real whipped cream.

Pam sorry I didn't see your question but you guessed correctly, it's vanilla.

Thanks! Too bad we can edit our posts here!

Sharon, it was pretty obvious that it was 2 tsp of vanilla, so it was not a problem at all. Thanks again for taking the time to post this recipe.

Teresa - the whipped cream filling is wonderful. I use it all over the cake - not just as filling. However, I haven't tried your cake recipe since I usually make the Hershey's special dark recipe. Will have to give yours a try to compare, but thank you for that filling.

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

t=teaspoon
T=Tablespoon
c=cup

2 1/2 c unsifted flour
1/2 c cocoa
2 1/2 t soda
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
3/4 c margarine or butter
2 c sugar
3 eggs
2 t vanilla
2 t grated orange peel (optional)
2 c shredded zucchini
1/3 c milk
1 c nuts (optional)

350 degree oven

mix first 3 ingredients, set aside

Beat margarine and add the next 5 ingredients and add the flour mixture and milk. Mix well. Pour in to greased and floured bundt cake form (springform). Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Cool in pan for about 15 minutes and then take it out of the pan to let cool the rest. Drizzle with icing if desired.

Icing
2 c powdered sugar
3 T milk

Really yummy with a dollop of whipping cream on top. :)

Sharon, can butter be subbed for the margarine in Colleen's cake recipe? I don't have margarine in the house, (never buy it.) and I'm planning on making DIL a chocolate birthday cake. Thanks!

Sally

When I want to make a special chocolate cake, I ALWAYS use the Hershey's Kitchens recipe.

It is, by far, the best I've ever come across.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake Recipe

Sally, I usually buy margarine specially for the cake because I use butter for everything else, but I have successfully subbed butter for the margarine. Honestly I have made that cake more times than most people have had hot dinners because I'm the only bespoke baker in town and they almost always order the chocolate cake :-)
Glad those who've tried it like it :-)

Sally sorry to be late getting back to you but I see the owner of this wonderful recipe chimed in.

Butter would be fine, better than fine! It's a great cake. I think Annie made it as one of the cakes for Amanda's wedding and for sure she would have used butter.

Thanks for a great recipe Colleen......who we don't hear from as much as we should ; )

Thanks! I'm getting started on it in a few minutes. How can you go wrong with chocolate, brown sugar and coffee in the recipe!?

Sally

I'll have one slice of each one here!

I posted a recipe for a Chocolate Raspberry Cake on the Chocolate Cook-a-long thread awhile back.
You might check that thread.
If memory serves, there were a number of great sounding reicpes there.

Or, I would be glad to post that recipe again, if you'd like.

Rusty

I have found that the secret to great chocolate cake made with cocoa is to use Droste's cocoa powder. I usually find it in the foreign food or gourmet aisle of some grocery stores,though sometimes it is found with the other cocoas. Avoid using the Hershey's cocoa as it is too blah.

My favorite chocolate cake is one I have been making for close to forty years. It is the Texas Sheet Cake that The Pioneer Woman has on her website with one exception. My cake has 1 teaspoon of cinnamon in it and the cinnamon turns a really terrific cake into a fantastic cake IMO.

Beverly

I made Colleen Oz's cake, and it was delicious! I thought something might go or be wrong, because it was too easy - just add the ingredients in order and mix. I thought cake was supposed to be much more persnickity, shall we say, than that, with whipping air into the batter at the right time, and not whipping it at the wrong time, Anyway, I'll be adding that one to my T & T collection. The icing didn't work well, but that was my fault. I was trying to do too many things at once, and it turned out too dry. I just wasn't paying close enough attention to my measuring, and skipped the sifting, and probably over mixed it. Even with doubling, it barely spread across the middle and top of the cake. Other than that, things went fine. Thanks for the recipes!

Sally