chocolate layer cake with buttercream

Making this cake, (which happened to be my first ever layer cake) I couldn’t help but feel transported back to high school, when I worked at a bakery. I would watch the owner, an expert in Viennese-style pastry, frost a cake in seconds, roll a piece of chocolate into a rose or style a Christmas display case with festive buche de noels. She would even let us novice “counter girls” have a try in the kitchen dipping strawberries in chocolate or practicing writing out a birthday message with a makeshift pastry bag made out of wax paper. When I remembered that I knew how to do this, I was psyched to bring this cake to my mother-in-law, whose birthday was this week.

Make the cake the day before, and the buttercream the day you serve it. This will ensure that the cake is nice and moist and the buttercream is fresh. Just wrap the cakes in plastic wrap and set them on your counter to store. To make a pastry bag for the chocolate writing, check out this tutorial. I used the same concept to make the little dots on the border of the cake.

I am not equipped with tools at all over here, but to be honest, I prefer the homemade look with the ripples from my ordinary knife. Or, if you want to get fancy, there are tons of tutorials with all kinds of designs and techniques you can try.

Chocolate Layer Cake with Buttercream
(from this recipe) for the cake 1 1/2 cups cocoa (plus a bit more for dusting) 1 1/2 tsp salt 3 cups flour 3 cups sugar 1 tbs baking soda 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 3/4 cup vegetable oil 1 1/2 cups buttermilk 3 eggs, beaten lightly 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups hot water Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Butter the paper and then dust lightly with cocoa. In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients: cocoa, salt, flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder. One at a time, beat in the wet ingredients: oil, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and water. Beat on the lowest speed for two minutes. Pour into the prepared pans. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Rotate the pans once halfway through baking time. Let cool for at least ten minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely. Discard paper. Cut the top off of both cakes so they’re flat.
for the buttercream 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature 6 cups confectioners’ sugar 1/2 cup milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 cup cocoa In a bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. With mixer on low, add the sugar, milk and vanilla and cocoa. Mix until light and fluffy. To frost: Spread a layer of buttercream on top of one cake. Cover with the other cake. Starting from the top, spread another thin layer, and slowly (without scraping down with your spatula too hard, this will cause the frosting to get crumby) spread to the outer edges. Working from left to right, spread the frosting on the sides of the cake.

Refrigerate the cake, but before you serve it make sure you bring it to room temperature, it will taste better that way. (This was always our speech to customers after they bought their cakes at the bakery.)

I didn't mention it before, but you can imagine this cake is AMAZING. So moist and rich and my in-laws were obsessed. There's one little piece waiting for me in my fridge and I'm doing my best to hold out until after lunch to eat it. Let me know if you try it! Happy baking. :)