Easy Chocolate Cake

If you don’t have a lot of time, and need to make a cake for a birthday or a potluck, this is the recipe for you. Including the filling, frosting, and decorating instructions, this chocolate cake recipe was designed to make the the most impressive cake with the least amount of specialized equipment. You can get beautiful results without a piping bag or tips, or any specialized cake decorating tools.

You can make this cake with a stand mixer, a hand mixer, or even a hand whisk. If you are really in a hurry or have very limited cake pans and other tools, you can bake the cake in a rectangular pan and just frost the top. I have baked this cake in a dutch oven on a campfire, near the Arctic Circle, and it was one of the best chocolate cakes I ever made!

If you have time, and want to try making a multi-layer cake like the one shown up top, you need the equipment in this picture at a minimum:

There are few things worth mentioning about the equipment I use when making cakes. First of all, note the scale in the lower left. I weigh most of my ingredients, especially compressible dry ingredients such as flour and cocoa. And frothy liquids, like buttermilk, should be weighed, because otherwise you are measuring air in the cup instead of the ingredient. Every baker needs a scale, so order one on line right away if you don’t have one!

There is nothing special about the bowls I use, but note the cake pans. I get the best success from straight- and high-sided pans. The ones I used for this cake are eight inches in diameter and three inches high. Also note the cloth strips in the pan. If you wet them thoroughly and wrap them around the outside of the pan, your cake won’t have a high dome on top that has to be cut off later when stacking layers. I use them all the time for layer cakes. Older-style home-baker cake pans have fluted sides; the top is wider than the bottom. I suppose this was thought to release the cake more easily, but fluted sides are not necessary if you prepare the pan properly. You really want straight-sided pans so you don’t have huge gaps that must be filled if you want to give your cake professional-looking smooth sides.

Note, also, the roll of parchment paper on the left. I don’t know how I baked before parchment paper. You can butter and flour cake pans as much as you want, but sometimes the bottom sticks and you can’t get the cake out. I cut a circle of parchment to match the bottom and stick it down with a dab of oil or butter. The sides are just buttered, and running a plastic knife along the inside of the pan is enough for the cake to pop out easily.

Using a combination of the proper pans and pan-strips will give you high, flat cake disks that are easily filled and frosted.

You can simply stack the two layers on top of another with some kind of filling, but the cake will be much more impressive if you slice each layer to make four layers in total. There is a tool that will do this for you accurately, but you can also use a serrated knife, such as a bread knife.

I give two recipes for fillings and frostings. Buttercreams make good frosting, but I find American buttercream, which is based on butter and a very large amount of icing sugar (powdered sugar), too sweet. Chocolate Swiss or German buttercreams are much better, and great for piping, but are too much work for this simple cake. In my opinion, the simplest and tastiest filling and/or frosting for a chocolate cake is a ganache, which is just dark chocolate and cream, or sour cream. For a two-layer cake, I would use a sour cream ganache inside and out. For a four-layer cake, I suggest filling with a whipped ganache and, optionally, frosting with a sour cream ganache. Both recipes are given.

One step used in fancier cakes that I would not leave out is soaking the layers in cake syrup. Just mix water and sugar together, bring to a boil, cool, and add some flavoured liquor, or not. Brushing the cooled syrup on each layer will increase the moistness, and add extra flavour if you used liquor.

If you are filling a four-layer cake, you have the option to stop after the final layer and just wipe the exterior with a palette knife to smooth it. That gives the cake the “naked” look, and if you are fine with it, you’re done. You can sprinkle the top with icing sugar, or top with fruit and go minimalist. In my version of this cake, I coated the top and sides with a sour cream ganache, which is probably the easiest and fastest frosting in existence.

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For the final decoration, my intent was to avoid piping. If nature is the best decorator, get some fruit, slice, and arrange on top. Now you are really done.

Ingredient Notes

I suggest using cake flour for a soft texture. Bleached all-purpose is the next best thing, then unbleached. I haven’t tested this cake with spelt or whole-grain wheat flours, nor with gluten-free flours. The amounts of baking power and baking soda are specified for Dutch-process cocoa. If you have natural cocoa (like Hershey’s; read the fine print) switch the amounts to 2 teaspoons baking soda and 1 teaspoon baking powder. You can double the salt in this recipe if you like, as salt enhances the flavour of chocolate. Any oil will work. Cakes are usually made with an unflavoured oil like canola or grape seed, but olive or nut oils will add an interesting flavour note. I specify the buttermilk by weight, because if you shake it (recommended on the carton), it is highly aerated and therefore can’t be measured accurately in a cup. For the fillings and frostings, use the best quality dark chocolate (minimum 55% cocoa). Extra-dark chocolate (higher than 75% cocoa) is too bitter, as there is no added sweetening.

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