Triple Chocolate Cake

Cake Layers

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C) and line the bottoms of three 9” (23cm) round pans with parchment paper and grease and flour the sides (or spray with baking spray). Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk well to break up any clumps from the brown sugar.
3. Add oil and melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are moistened.
4. Add eggs and vanilla extract and stir well until you have a uniform batter.
5. Gradually stir in buttermilk until batter is completely combined.
6. Finally, slowly (carefully) pour hot water or coffee into the batter, stirring until uniform. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
7. Divide batter evenly into prepared cake pans and transfer to center rack of 350F (175C) oven. Bake for 22-25 minutes or a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs (if your oven is uneven you may need to rotate cakes during baking).
8. Allow cakes to cool for 15 minutes before running a knife around the edge to loosen from the pan and then carefully inverting onto a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
9. While cakes cool, prepare frosting and then ganache.

Frosting (see note)

1. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl by heating in 20-second intervals and stirring in between until smooth and completely melted. Set aside and allow to cool until no longer warm to the touch.
2. Place the butter in a separate, large bowl and use an electric mixer to beat until creamy and smooth.
3. Once chocolate has cooled, give it a stir (make sure it hasn’t re-solidified) and then drizzle into the butter. Stir until well-combined with the butter.
4. With mixer on low-speed, gradually stir in sugar.
5. Add vanilla extract and salt and stir well.
6. If the frosting is too thick, add cream or milk, a tablespoon at a time, until a smooth and spreadable consistency is reached. Set aside while you prepare your ganache.

Ganache

1. Place chocolate in a small heatproof bowl.
2. Place cream in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until steaming. Remove from heat and pour evenly over chocolate. Cover with foil and let sit undisturbed for 5 minutes.
3. Remove foil and whisk until smooth. Allow ganache to cool 15 minutes before proceeding (I like to pour mine into a small squeeze bottle to make application easier).

Assemble the cake

1. Note that if cakes are uneven you may wish to level them before assembling. Place frosting in a large piping bag fitted with a large open tip.
2. Place one cake layer on serving tray. Do a large dam around the edge of the cake and a smaller ring in the center followed by a circle of frosting in the very center (like you are making a bullseye – photo included as a visual in the post). Squeeze ganache inside the two rings, using about ⅓ of the ganache. Top with second layer of cake and repeat. Top with last layer of cake and frost entire cake with frosting. I usually do a crumb coating and then refrigerate the cake for 15 minutes before doing the final layer of frosting. If ganache becomes too cold/firm, heat it in the microwave in 5 second intervals until proper consistency is reached.
3. Use remaining ganache to decorate the top of the cake (see my detailed tutorial on how to do a ganache drip if you’d like) and refrigerate for 15 minutes for ganache to begin to set before adding more frosting.
4. Once ganache has set, fit a piping bag with remaining frosting with a large open-star tip (I like Ateco 846 or 848) and do final decorative piping on top of cake.