Inspired by a recipe from Kraft Canada, and fit for any occasion, this uber easy decadent chocolate cake is made with only one  bowl (that’s right, only one!) Easy to make, easy to clean up after, super easy to eat and enjoy. What’s not to love?

Courtesy of bunchofpants

The Things You’ll Need:

3 full squares semi-sweet baking chocolate

6 tbsp butter

¾ cup sugar (whichever kind you prefer)

2 eggs

1 ¼ cup flour

¾ cup water

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp baking soda

How to Put It All Together:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Melted chocolate and butter in a large microwave safe bowl. Stir until completely smooth.
3. Add each of the remaining ingredients one at a time, mixing with an electric beater after each new addition, until everything has become one rich mixture.
4. Grease a 9” pan. Pour mixture evenly into the aforementioned pan.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes.
6. Allow to cool, then garnish with a chocolate sauce or icing from a jar, and fresh seasonal fruit.
7. Serve and allow everyone to think you’ve slaved away for hours over a hot oven to bring them a divine chocolaty indulgence.

Courtesy of .ben*

To make this dessert suitable for Easter dinner, simply adjust the decorating style. Add a few mini chocolate Easter eggs or a chocolate bunny to keep it festive.

Also, if you have the time, salvage the egg shells used whilst baking and paint them. These can be used as table decorations, not only providing a little more flair to your Easter this year, but also making a small memento of your 2010 celebration, which can be admired in years to come.

This moist cake combines the fruits, nuts, and spices from the New World that the Spanish conquistadores discovered in 1508. Chocolate was part of this Mesoamerican tableau. Brown sugar and ginger arrived much later, but this cake pays homage to the riches of the original jungles and river valleys.

Makes 1 (9-inch) bundt cake.

Cake Ingredients
2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 scant teaspoon grated fresh ginger
4 large eggs
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
11/2 cups cooked pumpkin puree or 1 (15-ounce) can
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon dark rum
1/2 cup cocoa nibs
1 cup pecans, broken into small pieces

Glaze ingredients
8 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon light corn
syrup
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously grease a standard Bundt cake pan with oil or butter, then dust flour on the greased inside of the pan. Fluted Bundt pans, especially, need a lot of grease for the cake to release.

To make the cake, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and brown sugar with a whisk until light and fluffy. Add the vegetable oil and pumpkin puree and stir until smooth. Add half of the flour mixture and mix until it is absorbed. Then add the rest of the flour mixture followed by the vanilla, rum, cocoa nibs, and pecans. Switch to a rubber spatula to stir the mixture until smooth. Use the rubber spatula to scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick or bamboo skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out with just a few crumbs, not batter. Allow the cake to cool in the pan to room temperature before inverting in onto a wire rack.

To make the glaze, combine the chocolate, butter, milk, corn syrup, and salt in a stainless steel bowl over a saucepan of simmering water over medium heat and stir as the ingredients melt together. Pour the glaze over the cake after the cake has cooled to room temperature. You’ll have extra glaze left over, which you can pour into the center of the cake or save to serve with plated slices.

Enjoy!

About: This recipe is courtesy of Susie Norris who just launched her new gift/recipe book Chocolate Bliss: Sensuous Recipes, Spa Treatments, and Other Divine Indulgences in bookstores nationwide.

We featured Bittersweet in our Chocolate Manufacturers – Guide for Chocoholics.

About Bittersweet:

The company was founded in 2005 and then in 2007, they started to handcraft their own Bittersweet Origins chocolate bars. The founders were from AskJeeves who decided they wanted to do something completely different.

photo courtesy of Bittersweet Cafe

About the products:

These Bittersweet Origins chocolate bars are created in very small ‘micro-batches’ by the Bittersweet chocolatier, Seneca Klassen.

Seneca takes the 50-pound bags of cacao beans which come from Dominican Republic, Bali or Venezuela and takes the chocolate through the whole process from the bean to the bar – and there are a number of steps. It takes four days to create the chocolate bars. And because Seneca works in such small batches, every bar made at a different time – even from the same plantation, will taste different. Like fine wine. Each is a unique vintage. And the flavor is really amazing – a whole range of tastes from fruity to nutty to spicy to earthy.

Chocolate tasting is a lot of fun and a unique experience. The Bittersweet people are putting together Chocolate Clubs with regular tasting events so folks can develop their palates.

In my tasting experience – you snap the chocolate (the noise tells you how well the crystals lined up), you melt it slightly in your hand and smell it, you take a bite and chew it and then you take another taste and suck it. Quite a process – just like wine-tasting.

Bittersweet has focused on handcrafting their chocolate (both their bars and their wonderful chocolate drinks), and chocolate pastries and that same attention to detail is reflected in the look and ‘vibe’ at the actual stores. The furnishings at each of the three stores are different. In Danville the tables are old farm furniture from Hungary, the paintings on the walls were created by the artist-daughter of one of the founders, the benches are of wood from old barns – you get the idea. And all created by craftspeople, not a factory.

The cafes are comfortable hangouts. You can sample any of the chocolates you want. You can buy a cup of hot chocolate and read all afternoon.

photo courtesy of Bittersweet Cafe

And now, this month, Bittersweet is adding its own roasted coffee to its product line. The company will be roasting beans (again in small batches), and then serving that very fresh coffee in their stores the next day. Yet another micro-batched, bean-oriented product that comes from farms around the world.

Bittersweet likes to suggest that even in tough economic times you can have a ‘whole worldwide adventure in your mouth’ with their chocolates. It’s a whole panoply of different nuanced tastes that originate in Africa and South America.

It is fun that every batch is a little different. The beans all comes from sustainable and organic, pesticide-free farms where the company has a direct relationship with every grower.

And, right now, Seneca is in Hawaii planting thousands of cacao trees for his own plantation.

Location:

Bittersweet has three locations – Danville, Rockridge and Fillmore in San Francisco. For more info, please visit Bittersweetcafe.com or their blog. You can also find them on Twitter: @bittersweetcafe.

Ingredients:
-> 375ml(1 1/2 cup) sugar
-> 5ml (1tsp) vanilla extract
-> 5 x-lg eggs ,separated
-> 200ml (3/4 cup) cooking oil
-> 200ml (3/4 cup) water
-> 450ml (1 3/4 cup) cake flour
-> 15ml (1 TBLSP) baking powder
-> 60ml (1/4 cup) cocoa
-> 2ml (1/4 tsp) salt

Syrup
-> 375ml (1 1/2 cup) water
-> 5ml (1tsp) vanilla extract
-> 375ml (1 1/2 cup) sugar
-> 15ml (1 TBLSP) coffee powder

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 190c.
Beat the sugar,vanilla extract and egg yolks together.
Add the oil and water, beating well.
Add the dry ingredients and mix well.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into batter.
Turn the batter into a greased 24cm by 34cm oven pan or scoop  into cupcake liners.

Bake for approx. 30 minutes (if you chose to make it into cupcakes bake only for 15-20 minutes).
I used muffin size cupcake liners.
Makes 21 cupcakes.

Syrup
Heat the ingredients together and pour over the hot cake . Leave it to cool.

Chocolate Ganache

300g callebaut or lindt
250ml double thick fresh cream

Bring the cream to boil, remove from stove and add your chocolate. Mix until all chocolate is melted. Pop into the fridge and stir every 10 minutes until it reaches the desired consistency for piping.
You can add some coffee in your cream when boiling for coffee ganache.

Looking at the ingredients, one is inclined to think that this cake is very sweet, but that is not the case at all.
It can also be served as a dessert.