Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
A Chocolate Cake with a moist crumb, lightly fudgy, melt-in-your-mouth texture, frosted with chocolate buttercream, garnished with more chocolate.
Servings: 12 large pieces
Calories: 446.01kcal
Equipment
- 2 8-inch round cake pan
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients - Large Bowl
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder Hershey's
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons instant coffee
- 1 teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients - Medium bowl
- ½ cup sunflower oil or any neutral cooking oil
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup buttermilk room temp (see notes)
- ¾ cup full-fat labneh room temp (see notes)
- ½ cup hot water
For the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 145 grams unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 180 to 200 grams icing sugar 1½ cups
- 30 grams unsweetened cocoa powder (6 tablespoons)
- 2 tablespoons full-fat milk or whipping cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
Instructions
Prep
- Preheat the oven to 180°C with the rack in the middle.
- Grease and line two 8-inch cake pans with baking paper.
Prepare the batter
- Take a large bowl and add all the dry ingredients through a sieve and whisk to combine.1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 ½ cups sugar, ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 teaspoons instant coffee, 1 teaspoon salt
- Take a smaller bowl and whisk the oil, eggs, and vanilla together until combined. Add the laban and labneh and whisk until combined.½ cup sunflower oil, 2 large eggs, 2 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ cup buttermilk, ¾ cup full-fat labneh
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the hot water, and whisk until the batter is completely combined. The batter will be thin. Divide the batter evenly between the two 8-inch pans.½ cup hot water
- Bake on the middle rack for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and set it on a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan itself. Once cooled, cling wrap the cakes and keep it aside or refrigerate for up to 2 days.
Prepare the chocolate buttercream frosting
- Add the room-temperature softened butter into a large bowl. Beat the butter with an electric handheld mixer on medium speed until creamy, for about 2 minutes.145 grams unsalted butter
- Add the icing sugar, cocoa powder, whipping cream (or milk), salt, and vanilla extract. Beat this on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high speed and beat for one minute.180 to 200 grams icing sugar, 30 grams unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons full-fat milk, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, a pinch of salt
- Adjust the consistency. If the frosting is too thin then add more icing sugar or cocoa powder. If the frosting is too thick, then add another tablespoon of cream.
- You may use it immediately to frost the cooled cake or refrigerate it for up to 2 days. To use, bring to room temperature.
Assemble and frost the chocolate cake
- If your cooled cakes are domed on top then use a serrated knife aka bread knife to slice off a thin layer to create a flat surface.
- Place a knob of buttercream in the centre of your serving plate - this will help the cake to adhere to the plate. Place one cake layer, flat side facing down.
- Spread some buttercream to cover the top of this cake evenly - use the blunt side of the bread knife or an offset spatula to level the frosting.
- Now, place the 2nd cake with the flat side facing the top - this will make frosting easy and neat.
- Spread the remaining frosting all over the top and sides of the cake. Use an offset spatula to level the top and push the excess towards the edge. Use the blunt side of a bread knife or rubber spatula to spread the frosting on the sides. You may watch this video for visual help.
- Garnish the cake as you like - unleash your creativity!
- Refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes before slicing to firm up the frosting which will help make a neat cut while slicing.
- Store any leftover cake covered tightly in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
Laban or buttermilk: You can use diluted curd – ¼ cup curd with ¼ cup water
Labneh (hung curd) or sour cream: You may strain yoghurt to make hung curd at home.
All measurements are made using measuring cups where 1 cup = 250ml and used the fluff, scoop and sweep method.
For garnishing the cake I used:
- Little Hearts biscuits
- Lotus Biscoff Rolls Belgian chocolate
- Loacker chocolate wafers
- Diary milk chocolate
Nutrition
Serving: 1piece | Calories: 446.01kcal | Carbohydrates: 58.74g | Protein: 6.26g | Fat: 23.09g
