Mom's Chocolate Cake

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We have a new chocolate cake for you! Mom's Chocolate Cake is a delicious, perfectly moist recipe with chocolate whipped cream filling and chocolate buttercream frosting!

If you love chocolate cake, put this recipe on your list! We've made several chocolate cakes over the years- and we love them all. Each is just a bit different and special in its own way.

Today's recipe isn't quite as rich as our Chocolate Sour Cream Cake or Chocolate Cake from Scratch as it uses a bit less cocoa powder, but the flavor is heavenly!

We've paired it with a light and luscious chocolate whipped cream, and an easy, decadent chocolate buttercream.

How to Make Mom's Chocolate Cake

You can find the full, printable cake recipe further down in this post. Here is a rundown of our steps!

  • Prepare Pans & Preheat: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, grease (with vegetable shortening) and flour three 8x2 inch round pans. We also like to line our pans with circles of parchment paper. 
  • Flour Mixture: In a medium bowl, whisk the all purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside
Bowl of dry ingredients for Chocolate Cake.
  • Buttermilk Mixture: In another bowl, add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla.  Set aside.
Wet Ingredients in a measuring cup.
  • Butter and Sugar: In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened unsalted butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the granulated sugar and continue to mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.  
Mixing bowl and paddle attachment with creamed butter and sugar.
  • Eggs: Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing after each one until the yellow of the yolk is blended.
  • Flour & Buttermilk Mixtures: With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet). Be careful not to over-mix. Mix just until blended.
  • Adding the Coffee: Continuing at low speed, slowly add the ¾ cup of very hot coffee, mixing 30 seconds to blend.
Pouring coffee into the chocolate cake batter while mixing.
  • Time to Bake! Divide the cake batter between the three 8 inch cake pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. 
  • Cool: Let cool 5 to 10 minutes in their pans on a wire rack before turning out.
Three Chocolate Cake Layers resting on foil-wrapped cardboard cake circles

For the Chocolate Whipped Cream Filling

There are a number of fillings that would be great with this chocolate cake, including our easy chocolate mousse filling as used in our Chocolate Mousse Cake, our chocolate buttercream recipe (which we are using as our frosting), peanut butter buttercream, and more.

However, today we decided to go with a light and delicious Chocolate Whipped Cream Filling!

Bowl of Chocolate Whipped Cream

This is a spin on our sweetened whipped cream recipe, but with the addition of cocoa powder. It complements our cake perfectly! We used it as both a cake filling and topping.

Chocolate Buttercream

This chocolate buttercream recipe is one of our favorites- we've used it on countless cake recipes over the years as both a filling and a frosting!

It is more rich than the chocolate whipped cream, and so if you are looking for a super chocolatey filling, it is a great option.

Bowl of Chocolate Buttercream

This chocolate frosting comes together in no time. It is a simple combination of butter, powdered sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, a splash of milk, and a bit of vanilla extract.

It pipes perfectly and makes a wonderful filling and frosting for cakes and cupcakes. You cannot go wrong with this recipe!

Assembling the Cake

Once your chocolate cake layers have completely cooled, it is time to assemble the cake!

  • Place the first cake layer on cake plate or pedestal.
  • Next, pipe a dam of chocolate buttercream around the top edge of the cake, about ½-1/4 inch from the edge. (I do this using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away. You could also use a ziplock bag with the corner snipped away.)
  • Fill inside of the dam with chocolate whipped cream filling.
Spreading top of cake layer with chocolate whipped cream, within a buttercream dam
  • Fill in any remaining gaps between cake layers with buttercream.
  • Frost the cake. I like to frost a thin (crumb coat) layer first and freeze the cake for 15 minutes before adding the second layer of frosting.

Decorating the Cake

  • Decorate the cake however you like! I combed the second layer of chocolate buttercream around the sides of the cake with a metal cake comb. It's helpful to heat the metal comb under hot water just before combing for an extra smooth finish.
Combing frosting with metal comb
  • Then, I piped the remaining chocolate whipped cream using a star french tip (Wilton 8B or similar)
Piping Chocolate Whipped Cream onto top of frosted cake with a french piping tip (star tip)

I piped a small buttercream bead border around the base of the cake using a round piping tip 4.

You can learn more about bead borders in our Piping Basics with a Round Piping Tip

I love the look of the contrasting shades of chocolate.

Piping a chocolate bead border around the base of the cake
Photo of chocolate cake with combed chocolate buttercream around the sides and chocolate whipped cream star piping on top.
Chocolate Cake with slices removed, revealing the chocolate cream filling.

Recipe FAQs

Yes, because of the chocolate whipped cream filling, this cake should be stored in an airtight container or cake dome in the refrigerator.

It is best to remove the cake from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving. This will give the cake and frosting time to warm and soften.

Yes, just as with most of our cake recipes (from our carrot cake recipe to lemon cake , orange cake, strawberry cake and more), these layers freeze beautifully. After the cake has cooled to room temperature (or slightly warm), wrap each layer tightly in plastic wrap followed by foil. Into the freezer it goes! It will stay fresh for up to three months!

To thaw, move the wrapped cake layers to the kitchen counter and allow to sit for 30-45 minutes before unwrapping. Thaw to desired amount for assembling the cake. (Some bakers like to assemble the cake when the layers are still partially frozen as they are less fragile.)

This chocolate cake has a really nice chocolate flavor, but like our Chocolate Velvet Cake and Chocolate Buttermilk Cake, it is on the milder side.

If you are looking for a chocolate cake that is more rich, try out our Chocolate Cake from Scratch, Chocolate Sour Cream Cake, or Fudge Cake!

We love cake recipes with buttermilk! Buttermilk's acidity softens the strands of gluten in the cake batter, making for a softer, more tender cake.

Some of our popular buttermilk cake recipes are Vanilla Buttermilk Cake, Lemon Pound Cake, Almond Cake, and Homemade White Cake - but we have so many!

More Chocolate Cakes

Keep this moist chocolate cake in mind for the chocolate lovers in your life! And while you're at it, don't miss our other delicious chocolate cakes. We have made so many over the years!

We'll list a few favorite chocolate cakes below, but make sure to check out our full collection in this post: 50+ of the Best Chocolate Cake Recipes!

Some of our most popular are German Chocolate Cake, Black Forest Cake, and Chocolate Mousse Cake (from cake mix)!

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this recipe for Mom's Chocolate Cake.

Make sure to check out our other Cake Recipes as well! We have tons of recipes to share with you, including cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes!

Also, if you are interested in learning more about cake decorating, make sure to check out our Cake Decorating section as well for hundreds of free tutorials.

Mom's Chocolate Cake

This moist chocolate layer cake has a light-to-medium chocolate flavor. It is fantastic with chocolate whipped cream filling, and a decadent chocolate buttercream frosting.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Course: Dessert
Servings: 15
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Ingredients

  • ¾ cup (70g) Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
  • 2 Sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened
  • ¼ cup (50g) vegetable oil
  • 2 cups (400g) sugar
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
  • 3 cups (375g) All Purpose Flour
  • 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon (1g baking soda)
  • ¼ teaspoon (1g) salt
  • 1 ¼ cup (280g) buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
  • ¾ cup (168g) Very Hot Coffee

For the Chocolate Whipping Cream

  • 2 cups (480g) whipping cream (or heavy cream)
  • ¼ cup (25g) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
  • ¼ cup (29g) powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Buttercream

  • 2 sticks (226g total) unsalted butter, softened (Do not microwave)
  • 6 cups (690g) powdered sugar
  • ¾ cup (70g) unsweetened cocoa (measure then sift)
  • ⅓ -½ cup (72g) milk (adjust amount for desired consistency)
  • 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract 8 grams
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt

Instructions

For the Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, grease (with vegetable shortening) and flour three 8x2 inch round pans. We also like to line the bottom of pans with circles of parchment paper. 
  • In a medium bowl, add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Whisk to blend and set aside
  • In another bowl, add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla.  Set aside
  • In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.  
  • Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each one until the yellow of the yolk is blended.
  • With the mixer on low speed, alternately, add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet). Mix just until blended.
  • Continuing at low speed, slowly add the ¾ cup of very hot coffee, mixing until batter is blended and smooth.
  • Divide the cake batter between the three 8 inch cake pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.  Let cool 5 to 10 minutes and turn out of pan.

For the Chocolate Whipped Cream

  • Chill the mixing bowl and beaters/ whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes.
  • Pour the whipping cream, powdered sugar, cocoa, and vanilla into the chilled mixing bowl. Using a whisk attachment on a stand mixer, or using a handheld electric mixer, begin beating on low speed, gradually increasing to medium high speed.  
  • Mix until stiff peaks form (meaning that when you remove the mixer, the whipped cream peak holds its shape.)

For the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

  • Add butter and mix on low to medium speed until smooth. Add vanilla and blend into the butter.
  • Add powdered sugar, salt, and cocoa powder.
  • Add most of the milk and mix on low speed, increasing to medium as the ingredients become incorporated.
  • Continue to mix adding remaining milk as needed. It may take 3-5 minutes to reach the smoothness and consistency you like. It will take longer if using a hand mixer. As you mix, the frosting will become very smooth. You can add additional milk (1 Tablespoon at a time) if the frosting is too thick or additional powdered sugar if too soft.

Assembling the Cake

  • Place the first cake layer on cake plate or pedestal. Pipe a dam of chocolate buttercream around the top edge of the cake, about ½-1/4 inch from the edge. I do this using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away. You could also use a ziplock bag with the corner snipped away.
  • Fill inside of the dam with chocolate whipped cream filling.
  • Fill in any remaining gaps between cake layers with buttercream. Frost the cake. I like to frost a thin (crumb coat) layer first and freeze the cake for 15 minutes before adding the second layer of frosting. I combed my cake with a cake comb and then piped the remaining chocolate whipped cream using a star french tip (Wilton 8B or similar)

Notes

Chocolate Buttercream:
We used a scaled down version of our usual chocolate buttercream recipe because we were not using it as a filling. If you plan to use more chocolate buttercream than we did, either in the filling or as decoration, you can use our usual version of Chocolate Buttercream which makes a bit more.

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3 Comments

  1. Hi Melissa,

    Thanks for sharing another recipe. I tried quite a few of your recipes and they are always winners and keepers. I tried the sour cream version of your chocolate cake and that one is definitely a keeper and my go-go recipe for a chocolate cake.

    I wanna try your Mom's Chocolate Cake recipe and would like to know whether I can use Cake Flour instead of the AP flour? Please let me know whether I can do it.

    1. Hi Maureen, Thank you for your nice comment on the recipes. Yes, you can substitute cake flour for the AP flour. I hope you will enjoy the cake.