death-by-chocolate-cake-harare

Death by Chocolate Cake Recipe

Death by chocolate cake is by far my all-time favorite cake. I love the simplicity of this chocolate cake recipe. This one can also be made from everyday ingredients that are readily available in Harare. It’s called death by chocolate because of the way it’s so packed with flavor. I wouldn’t be surprised if this one becomes your favorite too.

To get the best results when baking this cake I recommend you use natural cocoa powder and sour milk (Lacto). Maybe ndakaroiwa (I’ve been bewitched), but I just can’t start baking without a pint or so of sour milk. I’m not affiliated to the Dairiboard but my favorite is super Lacto. Inoita (It works)!

Without much chit-chat here’s the recipe.

Death by Chocolate Cake – The Zimbabwean Recipe

Dry ingredients

  • 2cups cake flour
  • 1teaspoon baking powder
  • 2teaspoons baking soda
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients

  • 3/4cup oil
  • 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
  • 3eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla or chocolate essence
  • 1 cup freshly brewed strong hot coffee

Method

** please make sure all ingredients are at room temperature to achieve the best result

  1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees
  2. Grease 2 8inch tins and line them with baking paper
  3. Measure and sift the dry ingredients at lest 3 times
  4. In a separate bowl add the eggs, buttermilk, oil, essence. Mix until combined
  5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients
  6. Add the hot coffee and whisk or beat on low speed until the butter is completely combined
  7. Divide batter evenly between pans
  8. Bake for 30mins.

The recipe above is how you would bake this cake in Zimbabwe. However, If you’re like me and like binging on baking videos from YouTube. I’ve shared a video from a great recipe website delish.com. The video shows an alternative way of making the same cake. I must admit I’m a sucker for great baking videos, and this video is one of those fun ones to watch.

If you’re just starting out, and would want to learn how to bake other types of cake. You can check out the Simple Vanilla Cake Recipe for beginners that I shared a few days ago. After than you can also subscribe to get notifications whenever I share a new recipe.

Vanilla Cake Video Thumbnail

Vanilla Cake Recipe – Video

If you want to learn baking, the easiest recipe to start with is that of a Vanilla Cake. You can bake a vanilla cake with ingredients that you can find from lots of shops in Harare.

My favorite thing to do on weekends is to binge on youtube videos from The Cooking Foodie. I experiment with a lot of their recipes using local ingredients. What I watched this weekend I couldn’t resist sharing with you. It’s a very simple classic vanilla cake recipe video, I’ve shared the video below.

A lot of people in Harare now appreciate that baking can be a fun way to earn extra income. With the holidays around the corner, a lot of people will be buying cakes. I will be using my blogs to share recipes and resources you can use to get started.

For this blog, I thought to share my favorite video from The Cooking Foodie from November. Below the video, I’ve put a vanilla cake recipe with ingredients that you can find locally. If you’re a beginner at baking, this one is for you.

Disclaimer:

I’m not related to The Cooking Foodie channel. However, I do love their videos. In other words, I’m not paid for sharing with you any of their work. They do some great work and deserve the credits for such awesome videos.

Without further ado, enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the cake:

  • 2 1/3 cups (290g) Flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 2 teaspoons Baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
  • 1/2 cup (120ml) Oil
  • 1½ cups (300g) Sugar
  • 1/2 cup (115g) Butter, softened
  • 3 Eggs 1 cup (240ml)
  • Buttermilk (more if needed)
  • 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract

For the frosting:

  • 2/3 cup (150g) Butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup (120ml) Heavy cream, cold
  • 1¼ cups (160g) Icing sugar
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
  • 1¾ cups (400g) Cream cheese

Decoration:

  • confetti sprinkles

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