Chocolate Cake
Simple, easy to make and moistchocolate cake with chocolate flavored American buttercreamfrosting.
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups (350 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 1/4 cups (450 g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 g) cocoa powder
- 1 tsp (1 tsp) bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp (1 tsp) fine salt
- 1 1/2 cups (350 g) unsalted butter
- 4 large (4 large) eggs
- 1 1/2 cups (350 ml) whole milk
Frosting
- 3 batches hocolate-flavored American or Swiss meringue buttercream frosting
Instructions
Frosting
- 3 batches chocolate-flavored American or Swiss meringue buttercreamfrosting.
Cake
- Please note: To make the 6 layered cake you see pictured; you’ll
need to double the cake recipe only. All other measurements are
enough to fill, crumb coat and finish decorating the cake. - Preheat a fan-forced oven to 140°C / 275°F or a conventional oven to 160°C / 320°F. Spray three 20 cm (8 inch) cake tins with oilspray and line the bottoms with baking paper. Set aside.
- Add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt to a
large mixing bowl and mix with a hand mixer until well combined. - Next, add the softened butter and mix on low speed until the batterreaches a crumbly, sand-like texture. Next, add the softened butter and mix on low speed until the batterreaches a crumbly, sand-like texture.
- Add the eggs and milk and mix again on low speed until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Scrape down the side of the bowl andmix for another 20 seconds. It’s at this point that you can add anyadditional flavourings or food-gel colourings to the batter.
- Divide the cake mixture between the three tins. I find that using an ice-cream scoop makes it easy to distribute the batter evenly, ensuring that all three cakes will bake at the same rate.
- Bake for 50–60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middleof the cake comes out clean. If the toothpick is coated with wet batter, continue baking, for 10 minutes at a time until fully baked.
- Allow the cakes to cool to room temperature in the tins, then chill them in the fridge overnight. Chilling your cakes overnight makes them easier to trim and decorate, so I always bake my cakes the day before I decorate them.
- To trim your chilled cakes, use a cake leveller or large serrated knife to carefully trim the crust off the top of each cake. Then trim eachcake in half. You’ll end up with 6 layers.
- To crumb coat your cake, add a dab of frosting onto a 10” cakeboard or flat serving plate. Use a small offset spatula to spread thefrosting around before adding the first cake layer. Gently press downthe centre of the cake layer to make sure it’s stuck to thefrosting underneath.
- Add frosting to a piping bag and frost a ring around the top of thecake. Fill the centre with more frosting. Use your small offsetspatula to smoothen out the frosting before you add the next layer ofcake. Repeat with the remaining layers.
- Add more frosting around the sides and top of the cake. Use the smallspatula to smoothen out the top and sides of the cake, taking care tofill in any gaps in between each layer of cake.
- Use a cake scraper (otherwise known as a bench scraper) to smoothenout the frosting on the sides and top. Get it as neat as you can.This should just be a neat, thin layer of frosting which is aimed attrapping any cake crumbs so that random bits of cake crumbs don’t show up on the final layer of frosting. Chill for 2 hours orovernight.
- Your cake is now crumb coated and ready to be decorated any way you like!
Notes
Cake Conversions
Cake x.5 (1 layer, 8” cake OR 2 Layer, 6” Cake)
175g (1 1/3 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
225g (1 ¼ cups) caster (superfine) sugar
50g (¼ cup) cocoa powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
½ tsp fine salt
175g (¾ cups) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs, at room temperature
175 ml (¾ cups) full-cream (whole) milk
1 batch buttercream frosting
Cake x1 (2 layer, 8” cake OR 6 layer, 6” Cake)
350g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
450g (2 ¼ cups) caster (superfine) sugar
100g (½ cup) cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 tsp fine salt
350g (1 ½ cups) unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs, at room temperature
350 ml (1 ½ cups) full-cream (whole) milk
1 batch buttercream frosting
Cake x1.5 (3 layer, 7” Cake)
525g (3 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
675g (3 1/3 cups) caster (superfine) sugar
150g (¾ cup) cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 ½ tsp fine salt
525g (2 ¼ cups) unsalted butter, softened
6 large eggs, at room temperature
525 ml (2 ¼ cups) full-cream (whole) milk
1 ½ batches buttercream frosting
Cake x2 (6 layer, 8” cake)
700g (4 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
900g (4 ½ cups) caster (superfine) sugar
200g (1 cup) cocoa powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 tsp fine salt
700g (3 cups) unsalted butter, softened
8 large eggs, at room temperature
700 ml (2 ¾ cups) full-cream (whole) milk
3 batches buttercream frosting
Nutrition
Serving:20g | Calories:313kcal | Carbohydrates:40g | Protein:5g | Fat:17g | Saturated Fat:10g | Polyunsaturated Fat:1g | Monounsaturated Fat:1g | Cholesterol:77mg | Sodium:196mg | Potassium:136mg | Fiber:2g | Sugar:24g | Vitamin A:520IU | Vitamin C:1mg | Calcium:39mg | Iron:2mg
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