I caution you that this is really rich. The richness, I feel, surpasses even the most fudgey brownie. The cake would be great just as a pure chocoholic thing, served as one layer and dusted with powdered sugar. However, I wanted an additional taste of some fruit, so the icing was created.
I will need to work on getting cleaner when icing a two layer cake without icing the sides, especially due to the color of this cake. A stark black cake with a pink icing is eye catching, but only if you are able to not get a smear of any icing on the sides.
Black Casino Cake
by flourtader
Ingredients
8 oz of strawberries
1/3 cup water
1 tsp of granulated sugar (for strawberry juice)
1 cup or 2 sticks of butter (room temp)
5 eggs
1 cup chopped toasted pecans
3/4 cup milk
2 cups granulated sugar
3 cups Oreo cookie crumbs
1 lb of powdered sugar
1 tbs milk or more ( for frosting)
1 stick or 1/2 cup of butter (for frosting)
Prepare your strawberries the night before. Core and chop the strawberries into pieces and place in a small bowl. Add the water and 1 tsp of sugar. Blend with a spoon and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Place in fridge to chill overnight.
The next day, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Butter the inside of 2 round 9 inch cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment paper and butter the face up side of the paper.
Take out an electric mixer and a large bowl. Cream together 1 cup of butter and 2 cups sugar, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl with a spatula. This process should take about 2 minutes on medium speed, depending on how soft your butter is.
Once the batter reaches a fluffy consistency, add one egg and beat for 30 seconds. Continue with this process for each of the remaining eggs. Then mix in the cookie crumbs, nuts and 3/4 cup milk until evenly distributed into the batter.
Pour half of the batter into one cake pan and smooth the top. Repeat with remaining batter and other cake pan. Place both pans in oven and bake for about 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and place pans on cooling rack. After cooling for 5 minutes, take a knife and run between the inside of the pan and cake. Let cool for an additional 20 minutes in pan and then release to rack to finish cooling.
As it cools, you can prepare the frosting. Take the strawberries out of the fridge and strain juice into a small bowl. Set the separate bowl of juice and bowl of strawberries aside.
In a medium size bowl, cream the butter. Then continue to beat and slowly add 1/2 of the confectioners sugar. Once blended, add the rest of the confectioners sugar, strawberries and milk. Beat again for about 1-2 minutes. Frosting should turn pink and be thick enough to hold its shape on a knife. You can add milk or more sugar, depending on the consistency you desire.
To assemble, place one (completely cooled) cake layer on a cake board or plate. Brush with half of the reserved strawberry juice. Let soak in for 10-15 minutes. Then ice the top of the cake layer with half of the frosting and place the other cake layer on top. Brush this layer with the rest of the juice and again wait 10-15 minutes for it to soak into the cake. Lastly, use the remaining frosting and ice the ice the top of the cake. Bon appetit!
