Black Chocolate Party Cake

I’m back! I’m not going to pretend like I haven’t been back from our trip for a while, or that I have any excuse for not baking recently, I’ve just been lazy. Well, I was sick last weekend, but aside from that, I’ve just been lazy. On Saturday, I decided to change that. This week, while the rest of the group is baking the Bernachon Palet D’or (which I baked in May 2010, but apparently never tasted), I decided to bake the black chocolate party cake, which Marie baked back in 2009, though I’m not sure when the rest of the group might have done it. I chose this one because of the cakes I have yet to bake it was the one I actually had the right ingredients on hand for.

This goes together like a basic sour cream/butter cake, but with the addition of ground nuts and cocoa.

Once you’ve got the ingredients prepped, and you’ve ground the walnuts, you mix them into the flour/(turbinado) sugar mixture.

After that, like any of Rose’s butter cakes, add the butter and some of the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix/beat well.

Then add the rest of the liquid in batches, beating after each addition.

Pour into a prepared bundt pan, and bake!

Near the end of the baking, make the chocolate syrup. This is basically sugar, water, cocoa, and a bit of flavour (Coffee liqueur and vanilla). Brush this onto the hot cake, and use plastic wrap to pull any puddles up onto the cake.

I think I need heavier duty plastic wrap (or just to learn to read instructions better), since my plastic wrap got a little melty, and when I was trying to move the cake around after forgetting to put a plate under (over) it, I ended up cracking it in half. Oh well, if you take the first slice from the place where it’s cracked, nobody’ll notice! As Jay said, “That’s what frosting’s for.” He sounded a little disappointed when I told him this cake didn’t get frosting. 😉

Tasting impressions: It’s a good chocolatey cake, and the walnuts definitely add a little something. I like that they’re finely ground, so they add flavour, but no nut texture spoiling the nice soft cake. I know this cake was inspired by the golden lemon almond cake, and if I’m asked to compare them, I’d definitely have to say I prefer the lemon/almond combo, which surprises me a little, considering how much I like chocolate.