Chocolate Cake

This chocolate cake is super moist and rich. And with that simple but extremely delicious chocolate buttercream it's just heavenly! It's not very complicated to make so let's talk about the ingredients first :

• Oil : You can use any flavorless oil like sunflower oil or vegetable oil.

• Buttermilk : If you don't have buttermilk on hand you can use regular whole milk mixed with a teaspoon of vinegar.

• Sour cream : It adds a lot of moisture to the cake. But if you don't have sour cream on hand you can use plain yoghurt instead.

• Coffee : Coffee just deepens the chocolate flavor. You cannot taste the coffee at all. But if you still don't want to use it just use some hot water instead.

• Vanilla : Please don't use artificial vanilla or vanilla essence. I would highly recommend using a good quality vanilla extract. It makes a difference trust me.

• Butter : I prefer using unsalted butter because it allows you to adjust the amount of salt however you like. But if you only have salted butter on hand it's completely fine just skip the 1/4 tsp of salt.

• Dark chocolate : Use a good quality dark chocolate. Around 50-70%. It's going to give you a deep and intense chocolate flavor.

Servings : 10-12

Ingredients :

For chocolate cake :

• Oil - 210ml

• Granulated sugar - 270g

• Eggs - 210g

• Buttermilk - 240ml

• Sour cream - 90ml

• Coffee - 180ml

• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

• Cocoa powder - 60g

• Flour - 420g

• Baking powder - 1+1/2 tsp

• Baking soda - 3 tsp

• Salt - 1 tsp

For chocolate buttercream :

• Butter - 200g

• Icing sugar - 300g

• Cocoa powder - 15g

• Milk - 1+1/2 tbsp

• Salt - 1/4 tsp

• Dark chocolate - 50g

Instructions :

For chocolate cake :

1. To a large bowl, add in the oil along with the sugar and whisk using a hand whisk till it's well combined.

2. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition.

3. Now to a separate bowl, add in the buttermilk, sour cream, coffee, vanilla and cocoa powder. Whisk everything together until it's well combined and smooth.

4. Add this mixture to the oil, sugar and eggs and whisk well.

5. Now, sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

6. Whisk everything together gently until it's just combined and smooth. But be careful not to overmix the batter.

7. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.

8. Butter and flour three 6 inch cake tins. You can also use parchment paper.

9. Divide and pour the batter evenly between the tins. I would recommend using a kitchen scale because it's more precise.

10. Place the tins in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

11. Once the cakes are done, take them out of the oven and let them cool in the tins for 15 minutes. Then run a knife along the sides of the cakes to release them from their tins. Carefully remove the cakes from the tins and place them on a cooling rack to cool completely while we make our chocolate buttercream.

For chocolate buttercream :

1. Make sure that your butter is at room temperature and is nice and soft before making the buttercream. If the butter is not soft, it won't whip up properly.

2. Add the softened butter to a large bowl and using a hand mixer or a stand mixer whip it for about 5-7 minutes or until it's super fluffy and almost white in color.

3. Sift in half of the icing sugar and mix on a low speed at first then gradually increase the speed and whip for about 2 minutes.

4. Now, sift in rest of the icing sugar along with the cocoa powder and mix again on a low speed then gradually increase the speed and whip until it's well combined.

5. Add in the milk and salt and mix again.

6. Melt the dark chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave and allow it to cool completely.

7. Once it's fully cooled, add it into the buttercream and mix well.

8. At this stage, if your buttercream is too stiff just add in a bit more milk and if it's too loose add in some more icing sugar.

9. Our buttercream is ready so let's start assembling the cake.

For assembly :

1. Using a serrated knife, trim off the tops of the cakes to make the tops flat which makes it easier to stack them.

2. Place a cake board or a plate on a turntable and apply a little bit of buttercream in the middle so that the first cake layer sticks to it and stays in place. If you do not a have a turntable it's fine. It just makes frosting the cake a lot easier.

3. Place your first cake layer and add buttercream on top and spread it out evenly using an offset spatula.

4. Place the next cake layer on top and repeat the process.

5. Now, place the final cake layer on top and apply a crumb coat on the entire cake.

6. Place the cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes so that the crumb coat sets.

7. Once it's set, apply a thick coat of buttercream on the entire cake and smooth it out using a bench scraper or an offset spatula.

8. You can decorate the cake however you like. I used some chocolate shavings to decorate the top.

9. The cake is ready to enjoy!

10. Store it in the refrigerator.