Extreme chocolate cake

I've been toying around with baking ideas, mostly after my wife watched the latest Great British Baking Show (or GBBO) series. First there was a recipe for Pain au Chocolat, then one for Croissants, before a realization either was probably a bridge too far for me right now. (Next time?) With our eldest repeatedly asking for a chocolate cake, that's where I settled. After some Googling, I picked a recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction. Apparently my wife had been intrigued by this one before but hadn't yet attempted it. Nothing in it looked overly difficult, so I decided to give it a go and challenge myself.

The recipe linked above was helpful because of some useful tips at the bottom of the page. Buttermilk is required but she explains how you can easily make your own with whole milk and either vinegar or lemon juice. Everything else in the recipe we already had (too), including espresso powder, something I wanted to try in a cake.

I'd never made chocolate cake or buttercream frosting from scratch before, and I was somewhat in shock as to the ingredients needed. There's a ridiculous amount of cocoa powder, butter and powdered sugar involved. Of course that's what makes it taste good.

Alright, that's enough backstory. Everyone just scrolls past the text before the ingredient list and steps in a food blog recipe, right?

What you need:

--Cake--

(dry)

1+3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1+3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp espresso powder

(wet)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk -> made with 2 tsp vinegar and whole milk

1 cup (8 oz) hot brewed coffee

--Buttercream frosting--

2.5 sticks (1+1/4 cup) butter, room temperature

3 unleveled cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

4 tbsp whole milk (heavy cream/half and half if you have it)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Quick version:

1. Preheat oven to 350, insert parchment paper and grease two circular (8-9") cake pans

2. Whisk dry cake ingredients in mixing bowl

3. Combine wet cake ingredients (except the coffee) with stand mixer, medium speed

4. Add dry to wet, add coffee and mix at low speed until thin batter completely combined

5. Divide batter evenly into prepared cake pans, bake 20-25 minutes, want clean toothpick

6. Remove from oven and place pans on cooling rack until room temp (takes some time)

7. When cakes cool, beat butter for frosting in stand mixer until creamy

8. Add remaining frosting ingredients, low speed for 30 seconds then high for one minute

9. Pop cakes out of pans, remove parchment paper, place one cake on stand or plate

10. Apply frosting covering top, then put second cake over it, cover entirely with frosting

Start the oven with enough time for it to preheat. I never actually start the oven immediately because I go kind of slowly when I'm making or baking something. Cutting circles of parchment paper for the bottom of the pans worked wonderfully when it was time to remove the cooled cakes, so I highly suggest it. 9" cake pans probably would've been better than 8" but I used what I had. Grease the inside of the papered pans, I used olive oil spray.

As with any baking recipe, you have dry and wet ingredients. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. It's more cocoa powder and less flour than you may expect. According to 'Sally' the espresso powder is optional though I always wanted to use it. Beat the wet ingredients, except the coffee, with the stand mixer until combined. Then slowly add the dry ingredients and the coffee to the mixer bowl on low speed. We have a Keurig and I made a medium sized (7.5 oz is close enough) cup for the coffee. When everything is mixed, the batter is runny and thin. And dark.

Distribute the batter equally into the two cake pans. I went back and forth pouring so everything was even. When all the batter is used, put the cake pans in the preheated oven. Bake 20-25 minutes. It actually took 26 minutes for one and 27 minutes for the other for me, this time. Since it'd be more ideal to use wider (9") pans, I'm putting what that would probably take in that case. As with anything, stick a toothpick in the center when checking. If it comes out clean, it's done. Pull out and place on a cooling rack for a while. They may be collapsing somewhat in the middle and that's okay. You're done for a bit.

Later, when the cakes have cooled, you can start on the buttercream frosting. You'll probably want to have a clean mixer bowl and paddle for re-use. Beat the (hopefully) room temperature butter until creamy. There's plenty of it. Add the rest of the frosting ingredients. Mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, the amount of time it takes to start combining. If I do this again I'd feed in the third cup of powdered sugar while mixing. It was just too much for our stand mixer to handle at once and some dry stuff came out of the bowl. Once the frosting starts to come together then kick the mixer up to high for one minute, no longer. I used a timer. It's recommended to taste and check the consistency of the frosting at this point. You may want a bit more powdered sugar for thickening or milk for thinning. I thought it was fine so moved on.

Now you just have to assemble. Pop the cakes out of the pans and remove the parchment paper stuck to the bottom. You may want to use a serrated knife to trim the cakes and flatten them. I didn't this time. Place one of the cakes wherever you're going to build this thing. Using a knife, apply a layer of frosting to the top of the first cake, then place the second cake on top. Then spread frosting to cover the entire surface. I went around the side and filled in the gap between the two cakes first, before doing the top and finishing the sides. It's a bit tough to cover the entire cake without getting a ton of crumbs in the frosting, but I think it went pretty well. Feel free to decorate it further. I sprinkled some chocolate chips on top. Voila, it was done and really tall (maybe should've cut them down a little). Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before slicing and eating. We did it overnight.

The results? It was denser than I expected, and oh so ridiculously chocolatey and rich. Overall it's really good and have to say I'm pretty proud. We may have missed out on the the best version of it by not having any the night it was made, however. If I were to attempt this again, in construction I'd trim the cakes a little and put a thicker and more even layer of frosting in between. But really, I'm not going to complain.

Now I don't know what to do with the rest of this. My wife isn't concerned.