Ingredients
Cake
1 and 3/4 cups (219g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
3/4 cup (62g) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1 and 3/4 cups (350g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons espresso powder (optional)
1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil (or canola oil or melted coconut oil)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup (240ml) buttermilk, at room temperature
1 cup (240ml) freshly brewed strong hot coffee (regular or decaf)
Chocolate Buttercream
1 and 1/4 cups (282g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3 and 1/2 cups (420g) confectioners’ sugar
3/4 cup (65g) unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or dutch process)
3–5 Tablespoons (45-75ml) heavy cream (or half-and-half or milk), at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
optional for decoration: semi-sweet chocolate chips
This is, without a doubt, the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had. And judging by your feedback in the reviews, I’m confident you’d say the same thing!
This Chocolate Cake Is:
Extra moist
2 layers, but can be made as 3 layers or as a sheet cake
Soft with a velvety crumb
Deeply flavorful
Unapologetically rich, just like my flourless chocolate cake
Covered with creamy chocolate buttercream
All-Purpose Flour: The structure of the cake.
Unlike confetti cake where you can use either, do not use cake flour here—when combined with ultra-light cocoa powder, cake flour is too fine for this cake.
Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder: Do not use dutch-process cocoa powder. If you’re interested, see dutch-process vs natural cocoa powder for an in-depth explanation.
Baking Soda & Baking Powder: Remember the differences in baking soda vs baking powder? We use both here for lift.
Salt: Salt balances the flavor.
Espresso Powder: Espresso powder is optional, but I recommend its addition because it enhances the chocolate flavor. The chocolate cake will not taste like coffee, I promise.
Oil: Don’t use butter in this cake batter. Cocoa powder is a particularly drying ingredient, so this cake needs oil for suitable moisture.
Eggs: Use 2 room temperature eggs. To speed up the gently warming, place refrigerated eggs in a cup of warm water for 10 minutes. Did you know what the temperature of your ingredients has a direct correlation to the success of your recipes? Unless otherwise noted, use room temperature ingredients.
Buttermilk: This chocolate cake requires the moisture and acidity from buttermilk. Lately I’ve been using a mix of sour cream and buttermilk, as well as reducing the hot liquid. You can read more about this next and see my dark chocolate mousse cake, tuxedo cake, black forest cake, German chocolate cake, and chocolate peanut butter cake recipes.
Vanilla Extract: Vanilla extract adds flavor.
Hot Coffee or Hot Water: Hot liquid enhances the cocoa powder’s flavor. It also encourages it to bloom and dissolve appropriately. You’ll notice I don’t use hot liquid in my chocolate cupcakes recipe. That’s because there isn’t the same volume of dry ingredients. With this amount of cake batter, we need a hot liquid to break up the cocoa powder lumps resting in all that flour. If you don’t drink coffee, you can use hot water. For deeper and darker flavor, though, use coffee. (Decaf coffee works!)
dark cake batter in glass bowl with whisk.
What an Easy Cake!
No mixer required for the batter, simply whisk the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients (or vice versa, it doesn’t make any difference), add the hot coffee, then whisk everything together. The cake batter is thin. Divide between 2 9-inch cake pans. You can easily stretch it to 3 or 4 8-inch or 9-inch cakes if needed. Or make a quarter sheet cake using a 9×13-inch cake pan. See my recipe notes for details.
Need a 1 layer cake? Use this mint chocolate cake recipe for 1 9-inch round cake.
Need cupcakes? Use either my super moist chocolate cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting, or cream-filled chocolate cupcakes recipe.
Lately I’ve Been Using Sour Cream
As mentioned above and in the video tutorial, there are two ways to prepare this cake batter and the slight difference involves the wet ingredients. You can follow the recipe as written using buttermilk and hot coffee/water. Or you can add sour cream. Whichever way you make it, the process is the same. (Just reduce the liquids and add sour cream!)
Unsalted Butter
Confectioners’ Sugar
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
Heavy Cream or Milk
Vanilla Extract
Salt
Because there is no leavening occurring, you can use either dutch-process or natural cocoa powder in the buttercream. Heavy cream provides an extra creamy frosting, but milk can be substituted if needed.
While I love chocolate frosting here the most, this cake is also wonderful with vanilla buttercream or strawberry buttercream frosting instead!
chocolate frosting in glass bowl.
slice of chocolate layer cake on a plate
So, why do I call it triple chocolate layer cake when it only has 2 layers? Well, chocolate is used three times: chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, chocolate chips. Press a handful on top like we do with warm chocolate chip cookies, or go with “the more the better” motto like we did. Let’s eat!