Chocolate Cake Recipe (Prague Cake)

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This is my first chocolate cake; hopefully the first of many. I’ve made this cake twice in two weeks; changing it up a little each time. Variety is the sauce of life; or is it “zest of life”? Sauce doesn’t sound that awesome unless you’re specifically referring to the tefteli sauce. If you’ve tried it, you’d agree. Anyway, I added a nice little twist to this recipe by including raspberries (inside and out). I always liked raspberries and chocolate. Sweet and tart. Oh and I love sweet tarts too. I can eat them till I can’t feel my tongue…

The base of this chocolate cake comes from Mom’s Dish. Thank you Natalya for this perfect and simple chocolate cake. It’s not as complicated as it seems; I just took way too many photos and liked them all. P.S. My sister just called me and said the slice I left her yesterday was even better after soaking in the raspberry stuff overnight in the fridge.

Ingredients for a 9”, 4 layer round chocolate cake:

1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
1 1/3 Tbsp Instant coffee
¾ cup warm water
8 Egg whites at room temperature
5 Egg yolks (RESERVE the 3 leftover yolks for the Frosting!)
1 cup + ¼ cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups bleached all purpose Flour *measured correctly
2 tsp Baking powder
¼ tsp Baking Soda
¼ tsp Salt

Raspberry Sauce:

1 cup fresh raspberries
¼ cup raspberry jam or raspberry preserves

Chocolate Frosting:

2 sticks of  Butter or 1 cup (has to be room temperature)
1/3 cup Condensed milk
3 Egg yolks
¼ cup Water
2 oz. semi sweet Chocolate

Making the Chocolate Cake Layers:

1. Preheat Oven to 300˚F. A springform pan works best for this cake because it has lovely tall walls. Butter and flour the walls of the pan and line the bottom with parchment paper to prevent sticking to the bottom.

2. Mix cocoa, instant coffee and warm water. Stir to dissolve. Set aside your velvety syrup.

3. Divide the egg whites and yolks (see my egg separating youtube tutorial here). Note: It’s easiest to separate your eggs while they are cold and then just let your whites sit in a bowl while you prep everything else. Place yolks and whites into two large mixing bowls. Remember not to toss the 3 left over yolks; you’ll need them for the frosting.

4. Whisk 5 egg yolks with 1 cup sugar until smooth. Whisk in vegetable oil a few Tbsp at a time and stir until it’s an even consistency. Gradually whisk in the coffee/cocoa syrup. Set aside.

5. In a medium bowl, combine 1 ½ cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder and ¼ tsp baking soda. Gradually add the flour mixture into your chocolaty concoction and stir until well blended.

6. Add ¼ tsp salt to the bowl of egg whites. Tip: make sure your bowl for egg whites is clean and dry before beating or whites won’t rise well. Beat on medium speed for 1.5 minutes (I timed it on my iphone just for you). When they start to get foamy, add ¼ cup sugar and beat on high speed until soft peaks form (another 1.5 minutes). I like how Natalya puts it; if you were to flip the bowl upside-down, the whites would not fall out.

7. Gently fold your fluffy egg whites into the chocolaty batter until you have an even consistency and color in the bowl. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in a preheated 300˚F oven (about 1hr) or until a toothpick comes out almost clean (it should not be gooey). DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR, especially in the first 30 minutes of baking or your cake may fall. You’ll have a nice surprise when you test it around 55 minutes; it grows surprisingly tall!

8. Remove cake from oven, carefully take it out of the pan and let it cool on a wire rack. You want it to rest 5-6 hours. It’s a great idea to make this the day before, cover with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter overnight. I sliced my cake into 4 layers after letting it rest.

Making the Chocolate Cake Frosting:

1. In a small sauce pan, whisk together 3 reserved egg yolks, ¼ cup water, and 1/3 cup condensed milk.

2. Start heating the pan over low heat and gradually increase the heat until it’s just letting off steam but not boiling. Continue whisking until your mixture is the consistency of raw condensed milk.
Remove the mixture form heat and immediately stir in 2oz chocolate, whisking until smooth. Let your mixture cool off to room temperature (I transferred it to another bowl to cool faster)

3. In a separate bowl using a electric hand mixer, beat butter on high speed for 5 minutes. Add chocolate mixture a few tablespoons at a time and continue to beat on high speed between each addition. Beat an extra 2 minutes when it’s all mixed in.

Making the Raspberry Sauce:

1. In a small bowl, combine 1 cup raspberries and ¼ cup preserves/jam. Gently mash raspberries with a fork just to break them up. You don’t want to break up the raspberries too much or it will get soupy

Assembling the Chocolate Cake:

(I bold-faced the layers to make it easier for ya):  

Place your first layer on a pretty serving plate. Spread the top with ½ of the raspberry sauce, but don’t spread completely to the edge of the cake since you don’t want it to run down the sides.
Place the next layer on top and generously spread with about 1/3 of the chocolate cream. Top with the third cake layer and spread the next ½ of raspberry sauce.  Top with the fourth layer and frost the whole cake and sides, using every bit of remaining frosting. Decorate with raspberries on top.

The first one I made was without the raspberries. I cut it into 3 layers and spread a thin layer of cream on each:I also got carried away with decorating the top. Except my wheat looks more like the creature from the Avengers movie. At least I admittedly stink at cake decor. And that’s ok.

Chocolate Cake Recipe (Prague Cake)

4.97 from 27 votes

Author: Natasha of NatashasKitchen.com

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Prep Time: 40 minutes mins

Cook Time: 1 hour hr

Total Time: 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Ingredients 

US CustomaryMetric

Servings: 8 -10

Ingredients for a 9”, 4 layer round cake:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/3 Tbsp Instant coffee
• ¾ cup warm water
• 8 large Egg whites , at room temperature
• 5 large Egg yolks, RESERVE the 3 leftover yolks for the Frosting!
• 1 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar, divided
• 1/2 cup Vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon Baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
• ¼ teaspoon Salt

Raspberry Sauce:

• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• ¼ cup raspberry jam or raspberry preserves

Chocolate Frosting:

• 1 cup unsalted butter , at room temperature
• 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 3 Egg yolks
• ¼ cup Water
• 2 oz. semi-sweet Chocolate chips

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Instructions

How to Make Prague Cake:

• Preheat Oven to 300˚F. Butter and flour the walls of the pan and line the bottom with parchment paper to prevent sticking.
• Mix cocoa, instant coffee and warm water. Stir to dissolve and set aside.
• Separate the egg whites and yolks, than place in the two large bowls.
• Whisk 5 egg yolks with 1 cup sugar until smooth. Whisk in vegetable oil a few tbsp at a time and stir until it’s an even consistency. Gradually whisk in the coffee/cocoa syrup and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, combine 1 ½ cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder and ¼ tsp baking soda. Gradually add the flour mixture and stir until well blended.
• Add ¼ tsp salt to the bowl of egg whites. Tip: make sure your bowl for egg whites is clean and dry before beating or whites won't rise well. Beat on medium speed for 1.5 minutes. When they start to get foamy, add ¼ cup sugar and beat on high speed until soft peaks form for 1.5 minutes.
• Fold your fluffy egg whites into the chocolaty batter until even consistency and color in the bowl. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in a preheated 300˚F oven (about 1hr) or until a toothpick comes out almost clean. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR.
• Remove cake from oven, take it out of the pan and let it cool on a wire rack. Let it rest 5-6 hours then cut into four layers.

To make the chocolate frosting:

• In a small sauce pan, whisk together 3 reserved egg yolks, ¼ cup water, and 1/3 cup condensed milk.
• Start heating the pan over low heat and gradually increase the heat until it’s just letting off steam but not boiling. Continue whisking until your mixture is the consistency of raw condensed milk.
• Remove the mixture form heat and immediately stir in 2oz chocolate, whisking until smooth. Let your mixture cool off to room temperature.
• In a separate bowl, beat butter on high speed for 5 minutes. Add chocolate mixture, a few tablespoons at a time and continue to beat on high speed between each addition. Beat an extra 2 minutes when it’s all mixed in.

To make raspberry sauce:

• In a small bowl, combine 1 cup raspberries and ¼ cup preserves/jam. Gently mash raspberries with a fork just to break them up.

To assemble the cake:

• Place your first layer on a serving plate. Spread the top with ½ of the raspberry sauce, avoiding the edges. Place the next layer on top and generously spread with about 1/3 of the chocolate cream. Top with the third cake layer and spread the next ½ of raspberry sauce. Top with the fourth layer and frost the whole cake and sides, using remaining frosting. Decorate with raspberries on top.

Notes

A 9-inch springform pan works best for this recipe. The cake will overflow a regular cake pan.

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• Nutrition Disclosure

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Russian, Ukrainian

Keyword: chocolate cake, Prague Cake

Skill Level: Medium/ Difficult

Cost to Make: $$