Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened or cut up into little pieces;
- 2 cups flour;
- 5 ounces unsweetened chocolate;
- 1/4 cup instant espresso (or coffee);
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa;
- 1 cup bourbon, rye, or other whiskey;
- 1/2 tsp salt;
- 2 cups sugar;
- 3 eggs;
- 1 tbsp vanilla;
- 1 tsp baking soda.
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat oven to 325, and grease and flour a big Bundt pan, two loaf pans, or a few cute little cake pans like mine.
Melt the unsweetened chocolate in a microwave or a double boiler over simmering water, and let it cool.
Put the cocoa and coffee in a 2-cup measuring cup and add enough boiling water to bring the mixture up to the 1-cup line. Mix, then add the whiskey and salt.
Now beat the butter, then beat the sugar in, being careful to not send it flying all over the kitchen, Then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla, baking soda, and melted chocolate.
Keep scraping down the stuff on the sides of the bowl with a spatula. .
Next, dump around a third of the whiskey or bourbon or rye mixture in, blend, then dump in half the flour and blend that in. Repeat, and finish with the last of the whiskey mixture.
Pour, or scrape, with that rubber spatula, into a prepared pan or pans, and bake for a little over an hour for the Bundt pan, less for smaller pans. My cute little cakes took around a half-hour. Check by sticking something skinny into the center. If it comes out clean, you’re good.
GANACHE RECIPE
Recipe for the ganache: Melt a pound of semi-sweet or dark chocolate with a stick (1/4 pound) butter. Stir in a cup heavy cream. Simple and totally awesome.
I spread some of the warm ganache between two layers of a little cake, spread some more over the top, and threw on a big dollop of cream, whipped with a teaspoon bourbon instead of vanilla.