Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Do you know what you’ll love about this post? It features cake. And, chocolate. And, chocolate cake. That is actually three things. Oh wait, it also features chocolate buttercream frosting. So that would be four things you’ll love about this post.
I wanted to share this recipe back when I was doing my week of chocolate recipes in June, but for whatever reason I never got around to baking the cake. I’m not sure why. The important thing is that I decided to make one last cake before I pack all my baking dishes and supplies. I chose this cake because I promised it, and also because this cake is so rich and dense, very moist, very chocolatey and truly perfect.
About 3 years ago I asked friends and family for a tried and true from scratch chocolate cake recipe. I was tired of wasting good chocolate on sub par cake recipes that I found online. My step-sister, Lori told me that she’s always liked the cake recipe on the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa Powder container. So I gave it a try–this was back before we went GMO-Free and Organic, so using another cocoa powder didn’t cross my mind. I’ve since tried a few more recipes, but always come back to this one. It’s just that good. It tastes like what I believe chocolate cake should taste like.
I’ve used Trader Joe’s Cocoa Powder and E.Guittard’s Cocoa Powder and I’ve used Droste Cocoa Powder. Because I’m unable to find info on whether or not Droste is a non-GMO chocolate, I’d use either the Trader Joe’s or the E. Guittard brand. Of course feel free to use your favorite brand of organic or non-GMO cocoa powder, mine are merely suggestions. Just make sure it’s Natural Cocoa vs. Dutch Processed. For some great info on the differences between Dutch Processed and Natural cocoa powder read this article on Cocoa Powder FAQs.
Let’s eat some cake!
- 2 cups organic cane sugar
- 1-3/4 cups organic all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, such as Trader Joe's or E. Guittard
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1-1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 organic eggs
- 1 cup organic whole milk
- 1/2 cup organic safflower or sunflower oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
- Heat oven to 350°F. Cut parchment to fit each pan, then grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
- Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Carefully stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3-1/2 cup milk
- 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Melt butter. Stir in the cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Beat for about 60 seconds once all the milk and sugar are added.
- Stir in vanilla. Makes about 2 cups of frosting.
PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.
Kristine Cocchiarella
Classically trained Cordon Bleu chef turned anti-GMO, pro-organic, food hippie blogger with a passion for REAL food.
12 Comments
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Craig
Am I utterly oblivious? I can’t find the recipe on this page anywhere! Please let me know what I’m doing wrong!
Real Food Girl
Craig, no you are not oblivious. I’m so sorry. I have people working on and updating my website and the plugin that features the recipe got deleted somehow. I am working on getting it fixed right now!! 🙂 I apologize!!
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AthenaK
Is sucanat the same thing as cane sugar, or is cane sugar the white stuff? I ask because I’d love to make this cake but I only have sucanat at hand. Thanks!
Real Food Girl
Sucanat stands for SUgar CAne NATural. It’s the rawest, unrefined form of sugar cane. It is pure dried/evaporated sugar cane juice. Because it is unrefined it contains quite a bit of molasses minerals so dark brown sugar would be the closest substitute for sucanat, not white-granulated sugar. I use organic unrefined cane sugar, so it’s not bleach-white like GMO sugar from sugar beets is. It’s like a super light brown sugar in color.
Because the sucanat is a coarse granular “sugar”, I would pulse it a few times in a food processor to break down the size of the grains. I would also take into account that it will add a molasses flavor to this cake. The chocolate might mask it, it might not. You could also cut the amount of sucanat in this recipe a little. The recipe calls for 2 cups, I would try 1-2/3 cup of the sucanat. It’s sweater than regular granulated sugar and has a stronger taste, so you should be able to get favorable results by cutting a bit out.
Hope this helps. I can’t promise the cake will turn out perfectly as I’ve not tried it with sucanat, but I don’t see any reason why you can’t substitute the sucanat for regular organic cane sugar knowing what I know about sucanat.
Good luck. Let me know how it turns out and I’ll update the post stating that you can use sucanat if desired.
AthenaK
That was super helpful! thanks a lot!!!
Bee Charmer
Yum. And yum. Do you think it would work with GF flour?
Real Food Girl
If you use the “cup for cup” type of GF flour it should work. It won’t have the same taste or texture, but it’s worth a try.
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Olga's Flavor Factory
That’s a lovely touch to classic chocolate cake! Would want to give it a try and share it to my blog some time.
Real Food Girl
Thanks, Olga. I have no problem with fellow bloggers giving my recipes a try and posting them on their blogs. Please make sure you change the title of the cake recipe and change up the words in the instructions and maybe an ingredient or two so that Google doesn’t ding us for having duplicate content on the web. 🙂 And of course, take all your own pictures. Your readers will enjoy those much more than mine! 🙂 Make sure to link back to my post here so I can come and check it out, too! Have a great day!