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5 from 4 votes

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 Time20 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Additional Time45 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 15
Author: Melissa and Bebe

Equipment

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.