Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

One can never have too many recipes for chocolate cake. Discuss.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Ha. The opening statement sounds a little like one of those GE essay topics we used to do back in school. One that I probably would have no problem finding the words to write about.

Anyway, yeah, so. When raspberries were sorta cheaper (I won't delude myself into saying they are cheap cheap), what can one do with them? Besides eating them fresh like that (it's really easy to just pop pop pop those little red jewels into your mouth), why not pile a whole heap of them onto a chocolate cake? You get your necessary anti-oxidants from those super fruits, and you get satisfaction from (what else?) chocolate.

Raspberry oh raspberry, lemme count the ways I love thee so

The cake was extremely extremely moist. Refer to above picture if you need some reference. Add a layer of chocolate ganache, and whoohoo, you've got one really chocolatey cake right there. I liked how the raspberries helped to cut through the sweetness of the dessert. An overall satisfying dessert.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake (adapted from Steph at Raspberri Cupcakes)
(makes one 6" cake)

95g plain flour
170g sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp Valhrona cocoa powder
3 tbsp hot water
85g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
6 tbsp (about 90ml) buttermilk
1 large egg
1 large egg white

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Grease and line a 6" or 7" cake tin with baking paper.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Sift and set aside.
With an electric mixer, combine cocoa and hot water until a thick paste forms.
Add butter, buttermilk, egg, and egg white; beat until combined.
Whisk in flour mixture until smooth. Pour into prepared greased cake tin. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 30 - 40 minutes (the baking time differs depending on the size of the cake tin used. Check at the 30 min mark and see if the cake needs additional baking time, do not overbake the cake - no one likes a dry cake).
Transfer to a wire rack, cool for at least 30 minutes, remove from cake tin and cool completely.
Top with chocolate ganache and fresh raspberries (optional). Serve.