5 oz Semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 oz Bitter chocolate (I confess
-to using 2)
2 Sticks unsalted butter,
-softened
2 1/2 c Sugar
6 Eggs (room temp)
3 c Sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 ts Salt
1/4 ts Baking soda
1 c Sour cream (room temp or
-close)
2 ts Vanilla
1 tb Almond extract
(You definitely need a stand mixer for this baby)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a bundt or 10″ tube pan. Add a large
scoop of sugar to the pan and rotate pan to cover interior with sugar.
Gently tap out excess, allowing as much sugar as possible to adhere to the
pan.
Melt chocolate; cool. Cream butter and sugar in mixer until very thick and
pale, at least 6 min. Beat in eggs, one at a time, with a full minute’s
beating after each addition.
Sift together flour, salt and baking soda. With machine running at low
speed, add dry ingredients alternately with sour cream. Add vanilla and
almond extracts. Remove bowl from mixer. Pour slightly more than half of
the batter into another bowl.
Add melted chocolate to remaining batter and stir until blended.
Alternately spoon the two batters into pan; use knife or spatula to “swirl”
together. Bake 1 hour; toothpick will not come out clean because cake is so
big; it will bake a little more as it cools in pan. (Do not overbake or
cake will be dry.) When to remove is always a crap shoot for me; however,
cake tastes great even if slightly undercooked; the kids actually prefer it
that way. Cool about 20 min. in pan before unmolding on rack.
“They” claim this is even better after it sits, well-wrapped, overnight.
Make sure cake is completely cooled though, or it will lose that crunchy
coating.
Yields
1 Servings