The Only Chocolate Cake Recipe You Will Ever Need
Ingredients
Cake
- 210 grams all-purpose flour 1¾ cups
- 396 grams sugar 2 cups
- 70 grams cocoa powder ¾ cup
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup buttermilk To make buttermilk just add one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to a measuring cup and fill to the 1 cup measurement mark with milk. Give it a stir to combine and let sit for 5 min.
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs (room temperature)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup freshly brewed coffee (hot) Whatever strong coffee you have will do, if using instant granules mix 2 teaspoons with 1 cup of hot water.
Frosting
- 182 grams unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 6.5 grams salt 1 tsp
- 25 grams cocoa powder 3 tbsp leveled
- 25 grams Ovaltine (chocolate malt powder) 3 tbsp leveled
- 374 grams powdered sugar 2¼ cups
- ¼ cup whole milk
Instructions
For the Chocolate Cake
- Preheat oven to 175°C. Line the bottom of 2 20cm (8 inch) cake pans with a minimum of a 5cm height (2 inch) with parchment paper. Spray the interior of the pan with cooking spray.
- Into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment sift in all your dry ingredients; sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix together on low just to combine. (If doing this manually sift all ingredients into a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl whisk together buttermilk, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- With the mixer still on low slowly streams in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Increase the speed of the mixer just until everything is properly combined. Scrape down the bowl (you can totally do this by hand as well just make sure to spend a good 2 min whisking the ingredients together to ensure a proper rise in the oven).
- With the mixer on low add in your hot cup of coffee, and mix just to combine. The batter will have a very liquidy consistency.
- Pour the batter evenly between the two prepared pans. To make sure your cakes bake with a flat top, cut up an old kitchen towel into thin strips the same height as your pan. Dip your towel strip into cold water and wrap the sides of your cake pans then secure with a pin (this reduces the temperature of the sides allowing the side and center of the cake to cook simultaneously and rise together).
- Place in oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool in the pans for 30 minutes. The edges of the cake should retract. Flip them out onto a cooling rack and allow them to continue to cool fully. Peel off the parchment paper.
For the Frosting
- Into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment add all your ingredients except for the milk. Cream the ingredients on medium-high speed for about 7 minutes. Scrape down the bowl midway through.
- Turn down the mixer to the lowest setting and slowly stream in the milk. When the milk has all been added increase the mixer to medium-high for 3 minutes. The frosting now should be fluffy and shiny. Scrape down the bowl halfway through mixing.
Frosting your cake
- Your cakes need to be completely cool before frosting or all the frosting will melt. Place one layer of your cake onto your serving dish. Using an off-set spatula add a little less than half of your frosting to the top of the cake. Spread to the edges in an even layer. Place your second cake layer on top. Add the rest of the frosting to the top of the cake spreading to the edges. Use the back of the spoon to make swoosh marks on the cake for decorations.
- Refrigerate the cake until ready to eat. Allow it to come to room temperature before serving.