This chocolate cake recipe is the very BEST I have ever come across! The sponge is beautifully light and moist, without being dry. The chocolate buttercream is rich and creamy, and perfectly sandwiches the layers of sponge together. ❤
I used 4 smaller 6″ round cake tins, opposed to the standard 8″ pans I normally use – both turn out excellent! I first discovered the recipe a few years ago and ever since it has been a staple recipe of mine. It comes from the Add a Pinch blog, which gives all of the measurements in cups (I find this a much quicker way to bake!)
I finished my chocolate cake with melted dark chocolate and some simple decorations – which you can see in my video below – yay!
P.s. I forgot to mention – this recipe is SOO easy, and requires one mixing bowl!!
(make sure to click HD when you watch the video 🙂 )
Happy Baking 🙂
Ingredients:
- 2 cups plain flour
- 2 cups caster sugar – this seems like a lot but its a big cake! 🙂
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder, I use Bournville
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. espresso powder – I substitute this with instant coffee
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegertable oil
- 2 eggs, free range
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 1/2 cups softened butter
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- decorations!
Method:
Start by pre-heating your oven to 180 degrees C. Butter two 8 or 9 inch cake pans, or 4 smaller ones.
Place all of your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl – make sure you sift in your flour! Mix together. Next, add the remaining wet ingredients except for the boiling water and whisk. Once mixed well, add your cup of boiling water – I add half a teaspoon of instant coffee granules here as a substitiution for the espresso powder!
Place the mixture in the cake tins and place in the oven to bake for 20-25mins, until springy to the touch!
Whilst the cakes are cooling, make your butter cream. Place the softened butter into a free standing mixer and beat. In 3 or 4 stages, sift your icicng sugar and cocoa into the mixer, beating on high speed in between. Finally, add te vanilla extract and milk.
Sandwich your buttercream in between layers of your delicious chocolate sponge! You can do this in any style you want! Its a good idea to trim the tops of you sponges to make them flat – this looks so professional when the cake it cut!
I also like to spread buttercream around the edges of the cake too! Using an off-set palette knife, gentle spread buttercream all around the cake, filling in any cracks. I like to use a cake scrapper (which is basically a piece of plastic) to finish the cake and make it perfectly smooth! There are some really good videos on youtube of how to finish a cake with buttercream – I will be posting one soon on a blog post with other decorating tips 🙂
I hope this recipe becomes a regular for you 🙂 ❤
Love, Sofia! xxxxxx
sofiabakes.com 