Chocolate Chip Surprise Cake

The gentle saute process caramelizes onion, making it sweet. The cake has no onion flavor, yet is rich, dense and extremely moist. Sweet onions are essential to the success of this recipe. Do not substitute standard yellow cooking (storage) onions. If you absolutely cannot bear the thought of a cake with onions, you may omit them and still have a deliciously rich and moist double chocolate cake.

  • 1 cup finely chopped sweet onion (Walla Walla, Vidalia)
  • 1 cup vegetable oil, divided
  • 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs, at room temp
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup milk, soured with 1 tablespoon white vinegar (Or try 1 cup buttermilk instead of the above)
  • 3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided use

 

1) Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with foil and grease the foil.

2) Place chopped sweet onion in a skillet with 2 Tbs oil. Gently saute onion over low heat until soft and just golden. Do not let them brown, burn, or crisp.

3) Melt unsweetened chocolate in a double-boiler (or a microwave), stirring often. Keep warm, but not hot. 4) In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

5) In a large bowl, beat remaining oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add warm chocolate and caramelized onions, mixing until combined.

6) Add 1/3 of flour mixture to chocolate mixture, beating to combine. Mix in half the milk. Add another 1/3 of the flour, mix, then the rest of the milk, mix, and finish with last 1/3 of the flour. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate chips.

7) Pour batter into pan and spread evenly. Bake 35-40 minutes or until toothpick tests clean. Do not overbake. Sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips evenly over top of cake and cover cake with foil. Wait five minutes, then spread melted chips to frost the cake. *

icon cool Chocolate Chip Surprise Cake Let cake cool at room temp at least six hours (uncovered, so the frosting sets) before cutting.

Contains: onions

Serves:

Prep Time:

Credits:
Adapted from http://homecooking.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/ blc128.htm

Notes

I am not crazy about this frosting method. I would either leave the cake unfrosted (so you’d need only the 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips that go into the cake batter), or I would make a separate chocolate frosting to apply to the cooled cake.