Birthdays only come once a year (and there’s only a select few that get to celebrate theirs with one of my desserts), but I love making cake. Not just cupcakes, but a huge, decadent and delicious cake.
That’s what this cake was. Three layers of soft, chocolatey amazingness. It’s a spongey, rich cake that’s not at all dense or heavy.
I ended up making this one for a family friend’s graduation party. We showed up towards the end of the party, when most had already left, but this cake was still able to disappear before anyone knew it. People were going back for seconds only to find a licked knife and a plate riddled with crumbs (plus a couple rogue sprinkles).
I would definitely call this a chocolate cake perfection (or, if not, it’s a tie between this one and my fudgy cookies and cream cake). Next will be my quest to find the perfect vanilla cake — or I bet a yellow cake filled with the frosting on this cake would be fantastic!
- 2 ¼ cups sugar
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup plus 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
- 1 ½ tsp. salt
- 2 ¼ tsp. baking powder
- 2 ¼ tsp. baking soda
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- ¾ cups canola oil
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- 1 ½ cups hot coffee
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- 1 ¼ cups heavy cream
- 8.5 ounces dark chocolate (you can use unsweetened chocolate)
- 14 tbsp. unsalted butter, chopped
- 1 ½ tsp. vanilla
- For the Cake: Preheat oven to 350F and prepare three 8-inch round cake pans with oil. Whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, combine all wet ingredients: eggs, vanilla, canola oil, milk, and coffee. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Bake: Divide batter between the three rounds and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool to room temperature.
- For the frosting: In a medium saucepan, combine sugar and cream and heat over the stove on high until it begins to boil. Once it boils, lower the heat and allow to simmer for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat and place butter, chocolate, and vanilla in the bowl. Allow the ingredients to sit for a couple minutes, then whisk. Repeat until the mixture is smooth. Do not return to heat because you will have to wait longer for the frosting to set.
- Cool frosting: You can place the frosting in the fridge, or simply allow to set at room temperature. Once the frosting has thickened, frost your cake!
Leave a Reply