Best Chocolate Cake Ever. For Real. I mean it.

Okay, so this is not my recipe. I found it about 10 years ago watching Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa but, to be fair, It's not Ina Garten's recipe either. It's her friend's recipe, Beatty Something-Or-Other and it's fabulous and easy. It has become a staple in my family for birthdays and gatherings, but be prepared...Your nephew will like it so much that he will ask you to make it for his birthday party each year and your sister will be over-joyed because she hates to bake and doesn't want to buy a cake. Your mom will ask if she can take a slice home and maybe another piece to keep in the freezer for later and because it keeps very nicely in the freezer.

Best Chocolate Cake Ever. For Real. I Mean It.

A light, but rich chocolate cake. Tender from the buttermilk, the chocolate flavor enhanced by a strong cup of Joe. It's surprisingly easy to make, which is good, because your family will ask you to bake it again and again.

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Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 8

Equipment

• 2, 8-inch cake pans

Ingredients

  

For the Cake

• Butter for greasing the pans
• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour plus more for pans
• 2 cups sugar
• ¾ cup good cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk shaken
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 extra-large eggs at room temperature
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Chocolate Frosting

• 6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (recommended Callebaut)
• ½ lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 extra-large egg yolk at room temperature
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cups sifted confectioner's sugar
• 1 TBSP instant coffee powder

Instructions

 

To Make the Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350° F.. Butter two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.
• Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With the mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. At low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

For the Frosting

• Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

Notes

Regular cocoa powder is good but dark cocoa powder is great, and I substitute it in all of my chocolate recipes. It gives a deeper chocolate flavor. I know there are very expensive, high-quality cocoa powders out there and I'm sure they are amazing, but I have had delicious results with Hershey's Cocoa Powder Dark and you can grab it at most local supermarkets.

 I'm not a fan of the instant-coffee-flavor in this otherwise perfect chocolate icing and the kids don't seem to like it either so I just omit it.

 

I rarely use a double boiler. It's so fancy and sophisticated and who am I trying to impress anyway? Instead, let me impress you with my sexy practicality. I don't chop chocolate. I put chocolate-chip morsels in a microwave-safe bowl and heat the chips in 30-second increments, stirring in between. It typically takes me a total of 90 seconds to melt the chocolate silky smooth. (Now that's hot.)

 

Also, I almost always need more icing so, just to be safe, I double-batch it. You will have leftover-icing but it's better than coming up short, although half-iced cakes are all the rage these days. Whose idea was that?

Keyword Cake, dessert