We had some friends over for dinner so I thought I’d make a fancier cake for the occasion. Or I was just in the mood for chocolate; who needs an occasion, right?
The recipe comes from Country Living’s “Mom’s Best Cake Contest.” One of the winners, indeed.
The Recipe
| 1/2 cup(s) | butter |
| 1 cup(s) | brown sugar |
| 1 can(s) | (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk |
| 1 cup(s) | chopped pecans |
| 2 cup(s) | all-purpose flour |
| 3/4 cup(s) | unsweetened cocoa |
| 2 cup(s) | granulated sugar |
| 1 1/2 teaspoon(s) | baking soda |
| 1 1/2 teaspoon(s) | baking soda |
| 1 teaspoon(s) | salt |
| 2 large | 2 large eggs |
| 1 cup(s) | sour cream |
| 1/2 cup(s) | canola oil |
| 1 teaspoon(s) | vanilla extract |
| 1 teaspoon(s) | white vinegar |
| 1/2 cup(s) | fudge topping |
| 1/2 cup(s) | chocolate chips, melted |
1. Make the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms of two 9-inch round cake pans and fit a circle of parchment paper large enough to cover 1 inch up the side of each cake pan. Heat the butter, brown sugar, and sweetened condensed milk in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar is dissolved. Do not boil. Divide the sugar mixture between the prepared pans. Sprinkle 3/4 cup pecans over sugar mixture and set aside to cool. Combine the flour, cocoa, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Add the eggs, sour cream, oil, vanilla, and vinegar, and 1 cup hot water and mix with a wooden spoon until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into the cake pans — over sugar mixture — and bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake center comes out clean — 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cakes in the pans for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pans and turn cakes out onto a cooling rack. Remove the paper and cool completely.
2. Assemble the cake: Spread the fudge topping over the sugar mixture side of one cake layer. Place the second layer over the first and drizzle with the melted chocolate and the remaining 1/4 cup pecans. Frost the cake sides with your favorite chocolate icing.
My Alterations
Looking at the recipe, I knew that if I didn’t cut it in half — even with guests coming over to help us eat it — I would end up with a massive cake again. Seeing as this is my twenty-fifth cake this month, I’m pretty much drowning in cake and not really interested in leftovers. So I used half of every quantity listed (although I didn’t want to figure out what half of 3/4 cup is, so I just used 1/3 cup instead).
There were a few errors in the recipe; firstly, the ingredients list calls for two lots of baking soda, so I just assumed it meant baking powder for one of them. Luckily, the amounts were the same, so it took most of the guesswork out. In the directions, there is mention of adding a cup of hot water to the batter, but that is not listed in with the ingredients. That threw me for a minute, but since the water is definitely needed to thin the batter before baking, it wasn’t a problem. Just a lesson in Reading Carefully, I guess.
I couldn’t track down condensed milk, so I used evaporated milk instead. I think it’s a bit thinner than condensed milk, so the sugar/butter/milk concoction was quite thin. When I poured the cake batter over the top, it sort of all mixed together instead of layering. Ah well.
I used dark chocolate chips for the drizzling part of the recipe, because I don’t have any milk chocolate chips and didn’t want to buy anything extra. Dark chocolate is better, anyway, so it’s all good. The caramel sauce is aimed for drizzling over ice cream. I figured it would work in other settings, too.
The Result
The baking parchment (greaseproof paper) worked really well, as you can see:
There would have been a lot of mess in my oven (okay, okay, a lot more mess) if not for that paper keeping most of the batter from bubbling over. The cakes baked in good time, and even though I halved the recipe, I had enough for two good-sized cakes. I even managed to layer them on top of each other and added the required caramel sauce and stuff.
The Verdict
Heavenly. Divine. Rich, decadent, lovely. The cake itself is just perfect, and I will probably use that as my basic chocolate cake recipe from now on. I think the sour cream really gives it a richness and depth of flavour that wouldn’t be there with just normal milk. Yum! The cake really does remind you of a praline turtle candy, so it’s a well-named recipe. It really deserved winning that cake contest, I have to say.
The Rating
5/5
I love this cake! It’s one of the best. I know I’ve said I don’t like nuts in my cakes, but I might have to repeal that statement for this one in particular. The caramelized topping worked amazingly well with this moist, rich chocolate cake. Delicious.
