Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cake is my all-time favorite cake. It’s my all-time favorite flavor. I love anything chocolate! Cakes, candies, cookies, and ice cream. It is just so good. So, I am going to share one of my favorite cake mixes with you. It is rich, decadent, fluffy, and delicious. lol.

Now, this cake mix makes one large 9×12 or 4 round cakes that you can layer with your favorite frosting. It is perfect for any Holiday, birthday, or get-together. It is easy to scale back if you want a smaller cake.

So, let’s get started.

INGREDIENTS:

3 C. All-Purpose flour
2 1/3 C. Sugar
1/2 C. Cocoa powder
1 1/2 Tsp. Baking powder
1 Tbsp. Baking soda
1/2 Tsp. Fine salt
3/4 C. Neutral oil ( I use coconut oil – melted and cooled)
1 1/4 C. Hot, strong coffee
1 1/3 C. Buttermilk – room temp
3 Eggs – room temp
1 Tbsp. Vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350* and grease either a 9×12-inch pan or 4 round cake pans. You can line the cake pans with a parchment circle for easy removal later. You can also dust the round cake pans with extra cocoa powder if you like. Set the pans aside for now.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well, making sure there are no lumps of baking powder or soda.
3. In another large bowl, whisk together the coffee, buttermilk, and oil. This will help cool the coffee down before adding the eggs.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla. Whisk together until well combined.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk together until just combined. Make sure there is no flour mixture stuck to the bottom of the bowl. So be sure to scrape the bottom and mix it well. Mix until just combined and smooth.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan or pans. If you are using round cake pans, make sure to tap the pans on the counter to release any air bubbles that may be in the batter. Pour the batter into the round cake pans just over halfway up the pan as it will rise in the pan. You don’t want to overfill your cake pans.
7. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes for round cake pans, or 50 to 60 minutes for a 9×12-inch pan. With this cake, you want to check with a toothpick. The toothpick should come out with a few moist crumbs. You do not want to overbake this cake. This cake is meant to be a slightly dense but fudgy/fluffy cake. The texture is great. So don’t overbake it.
8. Remove. Let the round cakes cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing gently to a wire rack to cool completely. If you are using a 9×12, you can leave it in the pan to cool completely on a wire rack.
9. Once it is cool, you can frost it with your favorite frosting. With this cake, if you’re making a bigger cake, you may want to double your favorite frosting recipe for the round cakes.

• If you are someone who can not have chocolate, you can substitute the cocoa powder for carob powder. It is a similar taste to chocolate and won’t mess with the texture of the cake. I love swapping out the cocoa for carob and adding a few carob chips to the batter. Just make sure to dust the carob/chocolate chips with a bit of flour or cocoa/carob powder before adding to the batter.
• If you don’t want this as sweet as the recipe calls for, you can most certainly cut down on the sugar. I would do about 1 1/4 c. of sugar and let the flavor of the chocolate pull through. This is up to you.
• If you don’t want such a large cake, then cut back on the recipe and cut it in half. It will make an 8×10-inch or 2 round cakes for layering. You can also cut this in half to make cupcakes.
• If you want to make this in 2 loaves. Cut back on the recipe and cut the liquid back by 1/4. The batter will be slightly thicker, and it will make for a wonderful loaf style dense cake.
• Add a can of cherry pie filling and only use 1 cup of buttermilk for a black cherry cake. I do this often, and it is so good.
• I typically frost this cake with either vanilla frosting or ermine frosting. This is my favorite combination, but you can use your favorite.
• Add in about 1 cup of chocolate chips/carob chips for a more fudgy texture. (see first note)