CHOCOLATE CUSTARD FILLING FOR CAKE RECIPES

Steps:

• In a saucepan, combine chocolate, 1/2 cup milk, brown sugar, and egg yolks. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until custard is thick and smooth. Cool.
• Stir together flour, soda, baking powder, and salt.
• In a large bowl, cream butter or margarine. Blend in white sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Mix together 3/4 cup milk and vanilla. Stir flour mixture into creamed mixture alternately with flavored milk. Make 3 dry and 2 liquid additions, combining lightly after each. Stir in cooled chocolate custard.
• Beat egg whites to form stiff but moist peaks. Fold into cake batter, and beat by hand for 1 minute. Turn batter into two greased and floured 8 inch round cake pans.
• Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool layers for 5 minutes, and then remove from pans. Cool completely.

Steps:

• Heat milk in microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl in the microwave on high until hot but not boiling, 2 to 4 minutes. Combine sugar, flour, and salt together in a separate microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl. Whisk hot milk into the sugar mixture gradually. Cook milk mixture in microwave on high in 1-minute intervals, stirring after each interval, until thickened, 4 to 5 minutes.
• Whisk eggs in a separate small bowl until pale and frothy. Whisk 1/3 cup of the milk mixture into eggs gradually, then whisk egg mixture into remaining milk mixture gradually until smooth custard forms. Heat custard in microwave on high until thickened, about 2 minutes more. Cool slightly; stir in vanilla extract. Chill custard in refrigerator until completely cooled, about 30 minutes.