My whole life I have been living a lie. Thinking I was not a cake person, when really, I maybe just wasn’t eating the right cake.
And THIS. This is the cake that is making me a cake person.
The texture never fails to achieve that perfect midpoint between dense and fluffy; not even the leftovers turn into dry, crumbly cake; and it is so, SO chocolatey.
And CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM. It is probably a good thing I didn’t discover my love for homemade buttercream until now, because I have a serious weakness for it. I aim to avoid unnecessarily knocking store-bought items, because I think they actually are often pretty good and are definite time-savers. But WOW homemade buttercream is in a league of its own.
I think what has left me feeling underwhelmed about cake for most of my life all stems from the frosting. Most frosting tastes sort of fake and overly sweet to me. I’ve just never had a strong desire to eat it. At events with regular sheet cake, I have my go-to people who I know love frosting and I will scoop the frosting off my piece to give to them. The issue with this is that cake can be really dry and boring without frosting.
But here, there is really good, flavorful, not-at-all dry cake, covered in a homemade chocolate buttercream that has totally ruined all other frosting for me.
There is coffee in this cake, which is a wild kitchen hack that makes chocolate taste more chocolate-y. (It’s also used in these brownies.) I like this because I love both coffee and chocolate and the one intensifying the other makes me feel like they are food BFF’s. But if you don’t like coffee, fear not! You can’t even detect its presence in the finished product. It just takes the chocolate flavor to an ultra-decadent level.
Classic Chocolate Cake with Homemade Chocolate Buttercream
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus additional for pans
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup brewed coffee, at room temperature
- 1 cup plain, whole milk yogurt
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Chocolate Buttercream
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter two 9-inch round cake pans and dust with cocoa powder.Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the eggs, coffee, yogurt, oil, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute – until combined. Divide between prepared cake pans.Bake on the center rack for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothipick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Invert pans to release cake and cool completely.
Chocolate Buttercream
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed for 2 minutes, until fluffy. Add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, milk, vanilla, and salt and mix on low until incorporated. Increase to high speed and continue to beat for 1 minute. To assemble cake, spread a layer of buttercream on one cake round. Top with the other round and frost with remaining buttercream.
Cake adapted from Allrecipes.
