Decadent: Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Oh! For the love of chocolate.

Sometimes it pays to be a little lazy. This Chocolate Buttermilk Cake, a Tish Boyle creation, called for shredded chocolate inside the chocolate batter. Shred? Oh that sounded like too much work, particularly since I was baking this at 10pm on the eve of Deepavali, the festival of lights celebrated by Hindus the world over. Yes, I kept my baking to the very last minute and I had one day to make 6 desserts. Yes, I am silly that way.

So, shred the chocolate? I resorted to "roughly chopping" instead and ended up with uneven chunks of dark chocolate. Doesn't matter, I thought - it'd melt in the batter as it bakes anyway. Right?

Well, they didn't completely melt away in the batter which was .... PERFECT. Apart from the rich, chocolate flavour of the cake (for Tish's recipe is really solid), there are chunks (oh! thank goodness for my laziness) of chocolate within the cake. In every bite, literally, you bite into soft, almost melted chocolate that's sandwiched in the tender and moist crumb of the cake.

Oh, and I must admit: I increased the quantity of the chocolate too. :) I just couldn't help myself.

Really. You need to try being lazy. This cake turned out better than I could have hoped for. It is super, duper chocolatey. I mean, really. Super duper.

I can't take credit though.

Just like all her other cakes which I've tried (her pound cake is great too), Tish Boyle's Buttermilk Chocolate Cake is a winner. Using buttermilk almost guarantees a very soft and almost creamy texture which - to use a cliche - melts in the mouth.

Tish's recipe is for individual cakes baked in mini bundt pans. I didn't have mini bundt pans plus I really wanted to make a whole cake. I baked mine in an 8-inch round tin and had to extend the baking time by about 10 mins so that the center was cooked through.

The cake doesn't need icing. I just decorated it with some powdered sugar which I dusted through my brand new stencil - isn't it pretty? It's not a terribly sweet cake either which means you can eat more than a piece with a little less guilt :)