Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge Snack Cake With Fudge Icing

Chocolate on chocolate! Can't beat that combo! This recipe is so light and fluffy and chocolately and just plain delicious. The icing spreads on so easily at first but then settles into a nice dense semi soft fudge like topping. I've tried this cake recipe with cake flour & also all-purpose flour and I prefer the all purpose. The cake flour makes it almost too light in texture. Originally I found a similar recipe on allrecipes.com but I altered it so much that I can't claim it's theirs anymore. The 1 cup water that was originally called for, I made into a cup of hot coffee and I added cocoa powder and took away some flour - that change is shown in the recipe below. I felt the original recipe was not quite chocolately enough. It's not a dark chocolate but not milk chocolate flavor either - it's right in between. Perfect. Oh, and it's not super sweet. I know many folks who would find that appealing.

Old Fashioned chocolate fudge snack cake with fudge icing

Ingredients:

1 cup hot coffee (or hot water) 1 cup unsalted butter 4 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate , chopped 2 cups all-purpose flour (minus 2 tablespoons) 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 cups white sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup sour cream 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour pan. In small saucepan, heat butter, chocolate and water until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth, stirring constantly. Set aside to cool.
2.	Sift together into a large bowl the flour, sugar and baking soda. In a small bowl, beat egg slightly and combine with sour cream and vanilla. Stir into flour mixture. Pour in the cooled chocolate mixture. Beat at low speed for 5 minutes until completely combined and the consistency of heavy cream.
3.	Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with moist crumbs attached. Let cool in pan before spreading on the fudge icing. (recipe below) Notes: I made this recipe (doubled) in 2 square 9 inch pans and one 9 inch round pan. I tripled the fudge topcoat recipe below. Chocolate Fudge Topcoat 3 3/4 cups, plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar Pinch of salt 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled slightly 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 6 tablespoons milk at room temperature Mix the powdered sugar & salt in large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the melted butter and melted chocolate until smooth. Blend in vanilla extract. Pour the chocolate mixture over the powdered sugar, add the milk and beat for 2 minutes on low speed, using an electric hand mixer or until combined and smooth. Scrape down sides of the bowl once or twice to maintain even texture. Use the topcoat immediately. Do NOT overbeat this topcoat. Keep mixer on low speed. Overbeating will create volume and spoil the fudge like texture. LOW SPEED!