A rich, moist, classic buttermilk chocolate cake. Simple to whip together completely from scratch and frosted with a light, silky chocolate buttercream frosting, this is an easy, moist chocolate cake recipe to keep on hand.
Not to start off this post with a complaint (she said, proceeding to start the post off with a complaint), but man, cakes are exhausting.
I started developing this chocolate cake recipe in October, perfected it in January, and just this month finally got around to re-making it and photographing it. I have about 8 heavily annotated drafts of this recipe in my documents, lots of fails.
That’s a lot of butter, cocoa powder, and sugar destined for the trashcan (I usually am able to find people willing to eat my recipe fails, but pawning off an un-iced chocolate cake fail is much harder than a batch of brownies that turned out slightly too chewy).
I don’t particularly love photographing cakes, either. If you have a cookie that’s not perfectly round or just slightly overbaked, you have several more batches to get things right for their photo op, but a cake like this chocolate cake gives you just one shot. In fact, it’s nothing but a series of one-shot opportunities to screw up. One shot to get the baking time right. One shot to invert the pans and pray to every deity that nothing sticks to the sides or bottom. One shot to stack it and frost it in a way that looks edible.
Whoever coined the term “piece of cake” was clearly not a food blogger.
Alright, food blogger rant over.
Cakes are exhausting, but the payoff is always worth it.
This chocolate cake from scratch is no exception, and despite my afore-mentioned grievances about the process of developing cake recipes, once the recipe is perfected it’s actually pretty darn easy to make and assemble.
This perfected chocolate cake recipe from scratch actually only takes several minutes to prepare.
After all 8+ trails, it’s carefully crafted for perfected taste and ease –made with both butter and oil for maximum flavor without being too dry, moistened with buttermilk, flavor-enhanced with piping hot coffee, and enriched with an extra egg yolk.
I’m typically a cream cheese frosting kind of person, but I wanted something a little different for this chocolate cake (plus, a lot of you have been e-mailing me asking for buttercream recipes — please keep that up, I want to know what kind of recipes you like so that I can make more of them!).
I decided to go with a simple chocolate buttercream, made with real melted chocolate (rather than cocoa powder), not too sweet and well-whipped. It was the perfect complement to this perfect chocolate cake.
While this is an easy frosting, it’s important to follow the instructions — stir the chocolate frequently in-between microwaving so it doesn’t seize, allow it to cool so that it doesn’t completely melt your butter and sugar (that would be a mess!) and make sure your butter is at room temperature, otherwise if it is too cold it can cause the chocolate to harden and you’ll have pieces of chocolate in your frosting instead of a silky smooth icing. I usually set my butter out to soften the night before.
Buttercream can sometimes be too sweet for me (to the point where I scrape it off my cake because I just can’t handle another bite) so I didn’t want that to be the case here. The amount of sugar is reduced and whipping cream is beaten into the frosting so it’s silky smooth and melts in your mouth, just like chocolate.
It also lends itself to being slapped and swirled on the cake in a way that looks intentionally messy (free-spirited, if you will) rather than sloppy. It takes a lot of the pressure off of trying to attain that perfectly smooth fondant-style look.
Alright, well since there’s coffee and chocolate (caffeine!) in this cake I’m off to have a slice for breakfast.
Can you think of a better way to ease into Monday morning than with a slice of moist chocolate cake?
Easy Chocolate Cake
A moist, fluffy chocolate cake recipe made with buttermilk. A classic cake recipe that you're going to want to save forever!
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (205g)
- 1 cup brown sugar packed (200g)
- 1 cup sugar (200g)
- 3/4 cup natural cocoa powder (75g)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted (113g)
- 1/2 cup canola oil (may substitute vegetable oil) (118ml)
- 2 large eggs + 1 egg yolk room temperature preferred
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup hot coffee (or 1 teaspoon instant coffee dissolved into 1/2 cup hot water) (118ml)
Silky Chocolate Buttercream
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (170g)
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (226g)
- 2 cups powdered sugar (320g)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons heavy cream (30ml)
- 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips optional
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350F (177C) and prepare two deep 8" round cake pans by lining the bottoms with parchment paper and lightly greasing the sides. Set aside.
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In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whisk together flour, sugars, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
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Add melted butter and oil, stir well.
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Add eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Pause occasionally to scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.
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Stir in vanilla extract. Gradually add buttermilk and stir well.
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Add hot coffee, stirring until ingredients are well-combined (be sure to scrape sides and bottom of bowl again).
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Evenly divide batter between prepared pans. Bake on 350F (177C) for 35-40 minutes (toothpick inserted in center should come out with moist crumbs).
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Allow to cool for 15 minutes before inverting onto cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
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In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate chips at 15 second intervals, stirring between intervals, until chips are completely melted. Set aside and allow to cool slightly (about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally).
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Cream room temperature butter with an electric mixer. Stir in slightly cooled chocolate and beat well.
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Gradually add sugar, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl occasionally.
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Sprinkle in salt and vanilla extract, stir well.
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Gradually add heavy cream, increase speed to high and beat for 1 minute.
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Spread a thick layer of frosting over the top of one cake round and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips. Top with second cake round and evenly frost cake. Slice and serve.
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Mikaru86 says
This cake looks amazing. Had this post been a week earlier, I might have used it for my father’s birthday cake. But the adaptation of your Hot Chocolate Cake I used also ended up quite nice: http://i.imgur.com/OYYzONh.jpg
Sam says
Thank you! The cake you made looks absolutely amazing (I like the Happy Birthday buttons!)!
Emma @ Lights, Camera, BAKE! says
I agree that cakes are exhusting! I tend to not bake cakes for the same reasons and photographing is always an issue for me. You did a lovely job with these photos and after all tgose tests I bet that cake will be a winner!
Sam says
Thank you, Emma! 🙂
Joanne says
Such a moist looking cake and I like the silky frosting! Can I bake this cake in a 13×9 pan?
Sam says
Thank you Joanne! YES, you can bake it in a 13×9 pan, in fact I’ve done it a few times that way, but it looks like I didn’t write down in my notes exactly how long it needed to bake that way. Start checking sooner than listed in this recipe, I hope you love it!
Lori Schrank says
This cake was the best I ever ate. A lot of compliments. How many cupcakes would this recipe make?
Lori Schrank
Sam says
Hi Lori! I’m sorry, I’m just now seeing this comment. I’m so glad that you liked the cake! I haven’t made this particular recipe into cupcakes yet but I think you should be able to get 24 cupcakes out of the batter. I’d love to hear how the cupcakes turn out, if you try them! 🙂
Andrea says
Can I substitute anything else for the coffee…like hot chocolate or some high% cacoa?
Sam says
Hi Andrea! YES, you can actually just use really hot water and it will still be delicious! The important thing is that you’re using the hot water, which “blooms” your cocoa powder and gives your cake a rich chocolate flavor. I recommend coffee because the coffee flavor accents the chocolate really nicely and deepens it, but hot water instead would be totally fine. I’ll add that note to the recipe now that you asked, thank you!
Gerald says
Hi Sam!
How high was your cake pan? I don’t have a round cake pan with me so I’ll be computing the volume based on the dimensions of the cake pan and how high the batter was on the pan and use whatever resource I have here with me (square and rectangle pans). Hope to hear from you!
Sam says
Hi! Mine were 2″ high, I hope that helps!!
Alyssa says
I loved this cake! The flavor and texture were spot on 🙂 Would this recipe Work for 3 6inch cake pans?
Sam says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I haven’t made it in 6″ pans but I don’t think that would be a problem at all, though the cook time will likely vary so just keep an eye on the layers while they’re baking 🙂
Alyssa says
Thanks! I will give it a try tomorrow 🙂
Amelia says
Just wondering how your 6inch pans turned out? I am wanting to use 2x 6inch round pans. Not changing the measurements but do we change the baking time? 🙂
Rebecca says
How would I adjust this recipe if I wanted to make two 10” cakes?
Linda says
Thank you so very much for this recipe! I made my son’s and daughter-in-law’s wedding cake. They wanted carrot cake and chocolate cake. I have a favorite carrot cake recipe, but although chocolate is pretty much my middle name, none of my go to cake recipes was exactly what I wanted. I auditioned more cake recipes than I can remember, but wasn’t satisfied with any. Then I found your recipe. It was perfect! I filled the cake with chocolate mousse, and frosted it with chocolate ganache. I’m still getting compliments, a year later.
Thank you!
Sam says
I am SO Happy to hear this, Linda!! Thank you for commenting and letting me know how the cake turned out for you!! <3
Belle says
Great recipe. But I was wondering if I could substitute Caster sugar for the brown sugar
Sam says
Sure that would still work