Delicious And Chocolatey Cake

This is a really easy and crazy delicious chocolate cake. It is so super soft and this cake bursts with flavors, it’s definitely a must-try. Putting this cake together is so simple, into a mixing bowl combining milk butter, instant coffee, chocolate, and sugar.

Give that a little whisk with a spoon just everything is nicely coated with milk then place it in a microwave for 20 seconds giving it a mix in between to make sure it does not burn.

Because there are so many kinds of chocolate cake (layer cakes, sheet cakes, chocolate cakes with flavored frostings), I decided to stick to classic two-layer cakes coated in just chocolate frosting. I avoided recipes with additional flavors like fruits or spices.

From there, I took a look at the most searched-for recipes. Ina Garten’s topped the list, followed by Hershey’s, and Martha Stewart’s. Though Pioneer Woman’s recipe also proved extremely popular, I skipped it because it’s a sheet cake, not a layer cake. 

Smitten Kitchen’s cake, which is baked in a single layer in a square pan, met a similar fate. I then did a quick Google search for “chocolate cake,” which revealed that Add a Pinch’s recipe might be the most beloved of them all. Here’s a bit more about each.

Every cake was made on the same day and exactly as written. I didn’t take any creative liberties and tried to replicate the steps as faithfully as I could. If a recipe specifically called for a certain brand of ingredient to be used, I used it. I wanted it to be a fair competition and I was diligent about keeping things consistent.

I also grabbed some of my friends to taste the cakes to see what they thought. Surprisingly there was a lot of agreement in our opinions, and we all came away with a lot of tricks for better cake-baking.

I don’t know how on earth I’ve gone six years without putting a basic chocolate cake recipe on my blog. I mean, I have these layers and this buttercream paired with SO many different cakes, but not the two of them together by themselves. Preposterous, I know! Well, the wait is finally over! I’m so excited to share with you The Most Delicious Chocolate Cake you’ll ever eat. Seriously! It’s that good that I’m making such a bold claim.

I’m making a lot of big claims today, I know. But friends, I stand by them! This is the most delicious chocolate cake and this is THE BEST chocolate buttercream. You’ll be using 10 ounces of dark chocolate, some heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar (sifted, of course), vanilla and salt. I have some tips below for making the best buttercream frosting, plus, you’ll want to click the Instagram icon below to see how I make it.

It’s important to note that this recipe uses dark chocolate for a reason. Because we’re adding cream, butter, and powdered sugar to the chocolate, the flavor gets diluted just a bit. If you use milk chocolate chips instead of dark chocolate chips, you’re going to lose a lot of the chocolate flavor. Additionally, the buttercream will simply taste overly sweet. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love all things sweet, but it’s important to have balance. 

The dark chocolate in the layers and the buttercream help provide a balance to the sweetness because dark cocoa is bittersweet. However, the cake and buttercream frosting don’t taste bittersweet because we’ve added other ingredients to them.