Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream
Servings: 12 slices
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1 ¼ cups (6.75 ounces) 61% bittersweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
- 2 sticks unsalted butter cut into chunks
- ½ cup strong coffee at room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups (175 grams/6.25 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1 ⅓ cups (220 grams/7.75 ounces) light brown sugar not packed
- scant ⅔ cup (130 grams/4.7 ounces) granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup plus 1 teaspoon (37 grams/1.3 ounces) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 3 tablespoons (45 grams) sour cream
- 3 tablespoons (25 grams) heavy cream
Chocolate Buttercream (makes about 4-5 cups)
- 4 sticks unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup (130 grams/4.5 ounces) confectioner's sugar sifted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean extract or paste
- 3 tablespoons (2 ounces) light corn syrup
- 2 cups (11 ounces) 61% bittersweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate melted and cooled
- ¾ teaspoon Kosher salt
Toppings (optional)
- 2 cups (10.8 ounces) Valrhone Crunchy Dark Chocolate Pearls
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Position your oven racks just above and just below the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Coat the bottom and sides of three 9-by-2 or 8-by-2 inch round cake pans with butter (or nonstick baking spray), then line with parchment paper.
- In a double boiler or heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove from the heat, stir in the room temperature strong coffee, and set aside to cool (about 10 minutes).
- Sift* together the flour, sugars, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs together with the sour cream and heavy cream until combined. Whisk while you stream in the cooled chocolate mixture. Next, slowly pour then gently fold the chocolate-egg mixture into the dry ingredients.
- You should have about 1285 grams of cake batter. Divide this between your 3 cake pans for about 429 grams of batter to each. Bake for 17-27 minutes, rotating after 10 minutes. When done, the cakes will appear firm on top, the sides will begin to pull away from the pan, and a toothpick inserted into the middle will come out clean. My 8-inch cakes took only 20 minutes.
- Place the cake pans on a cooling rack and let them cool completely before removing the cake from the pan. Invert the fully cooled cakes onto cooling racks and remove the parchment paper from the bottom. If you aren't using the cakes right away, wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate (or freeze) until ready.
Chocolate Buttercream
- Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or a hand mixer and large bowl), beat the butter at medium speed until fluffy and lighter in color, about 2 minutes. Add the sifted confectioners' sugar, pulse a few times to avoid spraying the sugar everywhere, then continue beating until frosting is smooth. Add the vanilla and the corn syrup, then beat on medium for 1 minute.
- Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Turn the mixer on low speed and slowly stream in the cooled melted bittersweet chocolate. Mix until the color is uniform. Add the salt and beat on medium-high speed for 30 seconds. The buttercream can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 4 weeks or in the freezer for 3 months.
Assembly
- Transfer a cooled layer of cake to your serving plate. Spread about ¾ cup of buttercream over the top of the layer. Place the second layer top side down, and evenly spread another ¾ cup of buttercream over the layer. Place the third and final layer on top, and frost the top (and sides, if desired) with the remaining buttercream.
- If using the optional chocolate pearls (toasted puffed cereal coated in bittersweet chocolate), press a handful of pearls at a time into the frosted sides of the cake until the sides are fully covered. Chill the cake until the frosting is firm and the pearls are set.
- This cake can be stored, with a light cover, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Notes
*Don't be lazy and skip this step, otherwise you will wind up with chunks of brown sugar and/or flour and cocoa in the cake batter as well as the final baked cake, which is both unsightly and a little off-putting.