American
Chocolate Layer Cake
A two-layer cocoa cake mixed with hot coffee, then filled and covered with chocolate buttercream. The coffee does not make it taste like coffee. It makes the chocolate louder.
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 35 min
- Total
- 1 hr
- Servings
- 12
- Difficulty
- Medium
Why you’ll love it
- Hot coffee blooms the cocoa. The cake should not taste like a latte.
- The batter is thin. That is correct.
- Cool the layers completely or the frosting slides off.
- A toothpick should come out clean, not with wet batter.
Ingredients
Ingredient amounts scale. Oven temperature and cook time do not. Salt, spices, and leaveners are a starting point after you scale. Taste and adjust.
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Instructions
- 1
Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease and line two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans.
- 2
Whisk the flour, sugar, 3/4 cup cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- 3
Whisk the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and 2 tsp vanilla. Stir that into the dry ingredients. Stir in the hot coffee. The batter will be thin.
- 4
Divide it between the pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick in the center comes out clean and the top springs back.
- 5
Cool 10 minutes in the pans, then turn the cakes out and cool completely.
- 6
Beat the butter until creamy. Beat in 1/2 cup cocoa, the powdered sugar, milk, and 1 tsp vanilla until spreadable. Frost the cooled cakes.
Pro tips
- If you do not drink coffee, hot water works. The cake will taste a little less deep.
- Do not frost warm cake.
- A crumb coat, chilled 15 minutes, keeps the dark crumbs out of the frosting.
Easy substitutions
- buttermilk
- 1 cup milk mixed with 1 tbsp lemon juice, rested 5 minutes
- coffee
- hot water
Storage and reheating
Storage
Cover and keep at room temperature up to 2 days, or refrigerate up to 5 days. Let chilled cake sit out before serving.
Reheating
Serve at room temperature. Do not reheat frosted cake.
Nutrition
Estimates per serving, using standard ingredient averages and rounded to the nearest gram. This is not a lab analysis, and it shifts if you change brands or add sides.
- Calories
- 430
- Protein
- 5 g
- Carbs
- 62 g
- Fat
- 20 g
- Fiber
- 3 g
Budget friendly · Oven
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An air fryer with a real basket
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A half-sheet pan
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