Recipe: Ultimate Chocolate & Nutella Birthday Cake
Wow, we’re getting through the recipes at quite a speed recently, I believe this is the fourth one in the past week! But, that can never be a bad thing, as that just means I’m whipping up lots of delicious things that I want to share. This one was created for my guy’s birthday, which was on Monday, and is a mixture of a few different recipes out there. It’s actually a really simple two tier chocolate cake and is delicious for a birthday, when the recipient is a fan of nutella (just like my guy) and you want to bake up something that doesn’t require spending all of the occasion in the kitchen. The basic cake recipe is from Ina Garten and the chocolate buttercream is adapted from here.
Chocolate Cake
- Butter, for greasing the pans
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
- 2 cups white sugar
- 3/4 cups cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C. Butter two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.
In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
Chocolate Buttercream
- 3/4 cups butter (3 sticks), softened
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sift the cocoa into a large bowl or the bowl of stand mixer.
Add the butter to the bowl and cream together until well-combined.
Add sugar and milk to cocoa mixture by adding some sugar followed by about some of the milk. After each addition has been combined, turn mixer onto a high speed for about a minute. Repeat until all sugar and milk have been added.
Add vanilla extract and combine well.
If frosting appears too dry, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency. If it appears to wet and does not hold its form, add more icing sugar, a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency.
To Assemble
- Half a small jar of nutella
Place 1 layer of cake, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal, pipe some of the chocolate frosting on top, around the edge of the layer (this is to stop the nutella from oozing out from between the layers when pressed togather). Place the second layer on top, rounded side up and with a knife or offset spatula, spread the rest of the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.
Photo Credit: Lucy
