The Best Chocolate Cake

This past weekend, I made a chocolate cake from a recipe I found on Epicurious. This turned out to be the best chocolate cake I have ever baked and eaten. It was right at the cusp of becoming a brownie, but still crumbly enough to be a cake. It was chocolaty and delicious, I just had to share this recipe find.

Chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream

As a request, I layered and frosted with a whipped cream filling, but I am excited to try this cake out with a ganache filling and Swiss meringue buttercream frosting as well.

Double Chocolate Layer Cake (Adapted by Epicurious)

This recipe yields two 10 inch layers, or three 8 inch layers
Printable Recipe

Chocolate Cake

• 5 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli dark chocolate morsels)
• 1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee (this can be made with 1.5 cups water and a teaspoon of instant coffee)
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut or vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Let's Bake!

1. Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease pans.
2. Line bottoms with rounds of wax or parchment paper.
3. Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
4. Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer).
5. Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.
6. Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Bake between 1 hour - 1 hour and 10 minutes. I checked at 45 minutes, and then again at the 1 hour mark. I allowed my cakes to bake the full 70 minutes.
8. Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove paper  lining.
9. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.
10. Layer cake with filling and frost with buttercream or icing

If using whipped cream, keep refrigerated and allow to sit at room temp for an hour before serving. If using buttercreams or icing, the cake can sit at room temperature without refridgerating.