Rich & Dark Chocolate Cake

By mitzzy

This chocolate cake recipe is such a simple and delicious one. I call this cake ”rich & ruffled” because not only does the cake and Swiss buttercream taste rich, but it’s also a premium cake in its ingredients, although worth every single penny. As far as the cake goes, using a premium dark cocoa powder is paramount. I always use Cacao Barry Extra Brute (Extra Dark) for this cake, and any other recipe that calls for cocoa powder. It’s a sure way to bring your chocolate baked goods to a new level of quality and decadence.

The ruffling technique itself is quite straight-forward. Once I tinted the Swiss Meringue Buttercream (I went with a retro coral colour using a combination of Sugarflair “Peach” and Spectrum “Electric Pink” gel colours) and applied a thin layer on the filled and stacked cake, to ensure that the ruffles had something to adhere to. Placing the cake on a rotating cake stand, and with a large piping bag (I used 18″) filled will buttercream and fitted with a large petal tip (I used Wilton #123), I started at the bottom, holding the piping bag straight with tip pointing at cake board and the smaller part of the tip facing outward, and just did a back and forth motion until I reached the top of the cake then started again beside that row, and so on. Once the cake was ruffled all around the outside, I did a circular ruffling around the top. If you’re a visual person, you may enjoy, and benefit from, watching a quick and helpful ruffling tutorial on YouTube, done by the fabulous Melody from Sweet & Saucy Shop in California. You can also read more about this technique from Martha Stewart here. My ruffled cake wasn’t perfect, but it’s pretty forgiving. Ruffles are always lovely (especially fluffy buttercream ones!).

Ingredients

• Ingredients:
• 1 3/4 1 3/4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 2 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 3/4 3/4 cup Cacao Barry Cocoa Powder – Extra Dark
• 2 2 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 2 2 eggs
• 1 1 1 cup strong black coffee (can be hot)
• 1 1 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1/2 1/2 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream {click here for printable recipe}
• 3 to 3, that you will need approximately 3 times the Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe for this Rich & Ruffly cake. Because it does take some time to make, I always make in batches of 3, because it freezes so well and saves time.
• Ingredients:
• 5 5 150g) large egg whites (30g each–total 150g)
• 1 1 2 cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine granulated sugar
• 1 1 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes
• 2 2 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• Pinch Pinch of salt
• Method:
• to 5 airtight container in refrigerator for up to one week, leaving out at room temperature when needed, rewhipping in mixer for 5 minutes.
• to 6-8 freeze for up to 6-8 weeks.
• 5 approximately 5 cups of buttercream.
• 1 1 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Preparation

Step 1

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare 2 x 9″ (or 3 x 8″ for slightly shorter layers) cake pans with butter and flour or parchment paper. In bowl of electric mixer, sift all dry ingredients. Add all remaning ingredients to bowl with the dry ingredients and with paddle attachment on mixer, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed (you may need the plastic splashguard that comes with mixer) and pour into prepared pans. Batter will be liquidy.

Bake for 20 minutes and rotate pans in oven. Cakes are done when toothpick or skewer comes clean–approximately 35 minutes. Try not to overbake. Cool on wire racks for 20 minutes then gently invert onto racks until completely cool.

*If doing the ruffly cake, you will likely want to increase the cake recipe to add a third 9″ layer.

*This cake is sturdy enough to be used under fondant, stacked, etc. but also moist and tasty enough too go on its own with almost any type of frosting, glaze, etc.

*Just note that I had originally put that the coffee should be cooled, but I have used boiling hot, moderately hot, and cool, and they all work well.