This is a great chocolate cake recipe, that makes very moist, chocolatey cake, all without making much of a mess (all ingredients are mixed in one saucepan on the stove). The cake is a consistency that makes it ideal for cake sculptures. The recipe comes from my mom, who got it from a Madame Benoit cookbook.
The batter is mixed entirely in one sauce pan (plus one bowl for mixing the dry ingredients). This recipe makes enough for one 10×15 pan or 2 8×8 pans.
Melt in sauce pan on low heat, stirring continuously:
4 tbsp butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
Add on burner:
1 cup milk
Maintain low heat, stir until it thickens a bit.
Take off burner. Add in order:
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
2 egg yolks
Mix in separate bowl, then add:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
Mix, then add and mix
1 cup milk
Bake at 350° F for about 22-25 minutes (until a wooden toothpick, inserted into the center of the cake, comes out relatively clean). In my convection oven 23 minutes at 350°F works well.
Icing
I prefer this cake as a two-layer cake with a cream cheese icing in the middle, and whipped cream on the outside. This is a good combination, as the whipped cream isn’t too heavy.
The cream cheese icing can be made by softening cream cheese, and adding to it powdered sugar and lemon juice to taste (e.g., 1 lb cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp lemon juice).
Sculpting
Any sculpting should be done after cake is layered, but before the outer icing is applied. Whipped cream can very easily be colored using food coloring, allowing one to decorate colorful cake sculptures.
David Maddison
The Subulate Palpomere 