Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Have you got a celebration coming up? If not, consider this afternoon a good enough occasion for a celebration. Forget Norman Vincent Peale. If you want to win friends and influence people, chocolate is where you want to be and this is the route to take. This cake has great flavor and texture, and is the second best chocolate cake around. THE best chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten is a chocolate truffle cake from a local shop here in town (Olive’s) and the hubs is getting it for me for my birthday this week. (Yea!) Only fitting, since I made this cake for his birthday earlier this year.

Most of you don’t live within a quick drive to my town and that shop, so I’ve giving you the next best thing. It’s almost the same recipe as Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate Cake” but since I had buttermilk in the house from another recipe, I decided to use that instead of regular milk. Buttermilk adds a bit of a tang, and makes a big difference in the tenderness of cakes. Even if you don’t have buttermilk in your refrigerator, you can create it by squeezing a little lemon juice into regular milk and letting it sit for five to ten minutes.

This ratio of chocolate frosting to cake is crucial, in my humble opinion, but then again, I’m a pushover for chocolate frosting (well, any kind of buttercream frosting, actually).

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Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Author: Ciao Chow Linda

printable recipe here

Ingredients

• CAKE:
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot coffee, cooled (I use espresso, and add more water to bring to one cup)
• CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:
• 1 cup butter softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions

1. MAKE THE CAKE:
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Grease and flour two 8″ cake pans, and line the bottoms with parchment paper for easy removal later.
4. Whisk together in a large bowl of a standing mixer (or use a hand mixer) the sugar, flour. cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla, and whisk to combine.
6. Beat at a low speed, then and slowly pour in the wet ingredients until just combined, scraping sides of the mixing bowl if necessary.
7. Keeping the mixer at a slow speed, carefully pour in the coffee. Mix until just combined, scraping the sides of bowl as needed.
8. Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Remove cakes from oven.
10. Let cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then flip gently onto cooling racks to continue cooling.
11. Remove the parchment paper and cool completely before frosting.
12. MAKE THE FROSTING:
13. Beat the butter, vanilla and salt together until smooth and creamy.
14. Whisk together the cocoa powder and powdered sugar, then add the mix and the whipping cream to the butter mixture, a little at a time until mixed together.
15. Continue beating for 3 or 4 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.
16. Frost the cake, using about 1/3 for the inside of the cake and the rest for the tops and sides.
17. If you want to decorate as I did, shave some chocolate using a vegetable peeler and press on the sides (It can be messy)
18. For the top, microwave an ounce or two of dark chocolate with a 3-4 tablespoons of cream.
19. You may need to add more cream to get to a pourable consistency.
20. Stir until it is liquid enough to pour, then drizzle in lines across the top.
21. Using a toothpick or butterknife, swipe across the opposite directions of the chocolate lines, first in one direction, then the other, to get the wave pattern.

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