Chocolate Chocolate Teacake From 'Huckleberry'

Chopped dark chocolate meets a cocoa-coffee base of a dark, dense cake. [Photograph: Matt Armendariz]

A name so nice, they said it twice. In this recipe from the new Huckleberry cookbook, author Zoe Nathan layers melted and chopped dark chocolate over a foundation of cocoa powder and strong coffee to make a dark, densely delicious teatime cake. Of course, teatime can be extended to mean anytime, which is lucky for you.

Tips: Let's say you've got the chocolate and coffee all ready, but not the buttermilk. Fret not, 1 tablespoon of vinegar stirred into a cup of milk and allowed to sit approximates buttermilk closely enough that it will pass muster in this teacake. Plus, there's no need to buy a liter of the stuff and wonder where else to use it (making more cake, perhaps?)

Tweaks: If your fondness lies more toward coffee than chocolate, using a coffee-infused dark chocolate imparts delicious results. I happened to have a bar of 67% cacao chocolate that contained little crystals of Huehuetenago coffee; it melts well and blends easily with plain dark chocolate, adding a little extra coffee edge.

As always with our Bake the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Huckleberry to give away.