Chocolate Cake (Really, Really Rich and Delicious)

(I took the picture from the internet so don't mind that bottle of wine in the background)

Ingredients:

Cake-

3/4 cup dutch cocoa powder plus extra for dusting the pan

1/2 cup boiling water

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (for reference a regular sized Hershey's bar is 2.55 oz)

2 cups flour

2 cups confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon salt

5 eggs (at room temperature)

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

Ganache-

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup light corn syrup

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

To Make

     Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350.  Grease the bundt pan and dust with cocoa powder.  In small bowl pour boiling water over chopped chocolate and whisk until smooth.  Let cool to room temperature.  Which cocoa, flour, confectioners sugar and salt in large bowl.  Beat eggs and vanilla in separate bowl.  With an electric mixer on med-high speed, beat granulated sugar, brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).  On low speed add egg mixture until combined (about 30 seconds).  Add chocolate mixture (about 30 seconds).  Beat in flour mixture until just combined (about 30 seconds).  

     Scrape batter into prepared pan, smooth batter and bake until edges are beginning to pull away from side of pan.  This should be about 45 minutes (I wouldn't do less unless you know you have an oven that bakes things too fast).  Cool upright in pan on wire rack for 1.5 hours.  Then invert onto serving plate and cool completely (at least 2 hours).

     To make the ganache cook the cream, corn syrup and chocolate in small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until smooth.  Stir in vanilla and set aside until thickened (about 30 min).  Drizzle glaze over cake and let set for 10 min.  Then serve.  Mmmm ...

-Katie Rice