Love at First Sight Chocolate Cake
User Reviews
5
Love at First Sight Chocolate Cake
Description
The Love at First Sight Chocolate Cake is built on a foundation of carefully combined dry ingredients—flour, sugar, cocoa, leavening agents, and salt—sifted for smoothness. Wet ingredients include oil, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla, which are blended and combined with the dry mix, then enriched with hot water to produce a thin, pourable batter encouraging moistness. The batter bakes into layers with a tender crumb and chocolate flavor enhanced by high-quality cocoa powder.
The chocolate buttercream frosting balances sweetness and richness, combining softened butter, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and cream to achieve a light and fluffy texture perfect for layering and icing the cooled cake. Adjusting the cream amount helps control thickness, and adding a little corn syrup can provide a glossy surface.
This cake works nicely as a celebration dessert, presenting well in multiple layers, and slices can be served with coffee or a simple vanilla accompaniment. It benefits from being made ahead and improves a day after baking when flavors meld. The recipe's flexibility in pan size accommodates different layer thickness preferences.
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake:
- 1 3/4 cup flour
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder high quality
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup neutral cooking oil canola or coconut oil, generic cooking oil
- 2 egg
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup water hot
Chocolate Buttercream:
- 1 1/2 cups butter softened
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup cream Half n Half or Milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. If you have a flour sifter, sift all dry ingredients.
- In mixing bowl, beat oil, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla for 1 minute. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until combined. Pour in hot water and mix together. The batter will be liquidy but that's a good thing -- it will create a moist cake.
- Spray two 9-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. You can also use three 8-inch cake pans for this recipe. Pour batter evenly into each pan. Bake at 22-27 minutes. Place toothpick or cake tester in the center of the cake to check if it comes out clean.
- Let cool before frosting.
To make Chocolate Buttercream:
- In mixing bowl, cream together Butter, Cocoa, Powdered Sugar, and Cream until light and fluffy. You may want to add more cream or milk depending on consistency. Once the cake has cooled and has been removed from pans, frost each layer with frosting.
- Top with chocolate shavings, chocolate chips, sprinkles, M & M's or whatever your heart desires.
Notes
- This recipe makes two 9-inch thick layers or three 8-inch thin layers; for a thick triple layer, increase ingredients by 1.5 times and use three 9-inch pans.
- The cake tastes even better the day after baking when covered to retain moisture.
- Adding 1-2 tablespoons of corn syrup to the frosting can create a shinier finish on the chocolate buttercream.
User Reviews
Overall Rating
5
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