Mom's Chocolate Cake - Danish Sheet Cake
Mom’s Chocolate Cake © kvalifood.com
Mom’s chocolate cake is the classic Danish sheet cake: a thin, soft chocolate cake glazed with plain water icing, scattered with grated chocolate and cut into squares. The batter is stirred together from butter, sugar, eggs, cocoa and buttermilk. No whisking, no cake tin — just a sheet pan.
The sheet cake belongs to the Danish coffee table, where the cake had to be baked in one go and cut into many pieces. It is related to the dream cake and the other sheet cakes, but differs in the cocoa in the batter and the water icing on top.
The buttermilk is not incidental. It gives the bicarbonate of soda something to react with, and it leaves a slightly tangy crumb that balances the sugar. Whole milk can be used, but the flavour becomes flatter. The recipe uses both bicarbonate of soda and baking powder, and that is deliberate — the cake has to rise quickly in the short baking time.
The cake bakes for only 15 minutes on the lowest shelf. It should be just barely set, not baked through. A dry sheet cake cannot be rescued with icing.
It has stood on the table at children’s birthdays, school parties and afternoon coffee, where many pieces had to come out of one bake. It keeps soft for a couple of days under a tea towel.
Ingredients
Yields ca. 24 pieces
Cake
- 300 g plain flour
- 75 g butter (or margarine)
- 300 g sugar
- 2 eggs
- 50 g cocoa
- 200 ml buttermilk (or whole milk)
- 5 g bicarbonate of soda (1 tsp)
- 5 g baking powder (1 tsp)
- 2½ g vanilla sugar (½ tsp)
Icing and topping
- 200 g icing sugar
- ca. 2 tbsp boiling water
- chocolate, grated
Directions
Stir the batter
Heat the oven to 390°F (200°C). Grease a standard sheet pan of about 16 x 14½ inches (40 x 37 cm).
Let the butter soften — it should have the consistency of mayonnaise. Stir it well together with the sugar into an even mass.
Add the eggs one at a time, stirring constantly.
Sift the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and vanilla sugar together. Stir the sifted dry ingredients and the buttermilk in a little at a time, until the batter is even.
Bake
Pour the batter into the greased sheet pan and spread it evenly.
Bake the cake on the oven’s lowest shelf for about 15 minutes. The oven must be heated all the way through before the cake goes in.
Glaze
Let the cake cool completely in the sheet pan.
Stir the icing sugar and boiling water together into an icing that can just barely flow out. Add the water a little at a time — the 2 tbsp are a starting point, not a target.
Spread the icing over the cooled cake and scatter grated chocolate over it. Cut the cake into squares once the icing has set.
Notes
The oven must be at the right temperature from the start. The baking time is only 15 minutes, and an oven that is not heated through ruins the rise.
Buttermilk is the first choice. Whole milk works, but the crumb becomes less tangy.
Both bicarbonate of soda and baking powder belong in the recipe — do not skip one of them.
The icing’s consistency is controlled with the water, not with the icing sugar. Add the water a little at a time.
The cake keeps soft for 2-3 days in a cake tin or under a tea towel.
See Also
Chocolate Cake
Classic Brownies
Dream Cake from Brovst
Gateau Marcel - The World's Best Chocolate Cake
