Chocolate Butter Cake

There are probably just as many favorite chocolate cakes as there are chocolate cake lovers out there.  My go to recipe is Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake from The Cake Bible.  Since I prefer my chocolate cake to rise high and hold up to some serious frosting, I use The Creaming Method to put this cake together as opposed to Rose’s Two-Stage Method.  If you like a very tender cake, use the Two-Stage Method.

 Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake

Ingredients

• ½ cup plus 3 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder (2.25 ounces)
• 1 cup warm water (8 ounces)
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at cool room temperature (8 ounces)
• 1 ½ cups sugar (10.5 ounces)
• ¾ teaspoons salt
• 3 large eggs
• 2 ¼ teaspoons vanilla
• 2 ¼ cups plus two tablespoons sifted cake flour (8.25 ounces)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder

Whisk together the cocoa powder and water until smooth.
Whisk the cake flour and baking powder together very well.  Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter until smooth.  Add the sugar and salt and cream until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium speed.  Scrape bowl often to make sure all the butter is incorporated.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for about 20 seconds between additions and scraping bowl frequently.  Beat in the vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients alternately with the water/cocoa powder mixture in this order:

1. ½ of the dry ingredients
2. ½ of the cocoa mixture
3. ½ of the remaining dry ingredients
4. the rest of the cocoa mixture
5. the rest of the dry ingredients

After each addition, beat on low speed just until combined, scraping the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are incorporated.
Divide mixture evenly into two greased and floured 9” baking pans.  Bake at 350F until the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the center, about 25-35 minutes, depending on your oven.
Easy Chocolate Frosting

• 1 1-pound box or bag of confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• ¾ cup cocoa powder, sifted (2.5 ounces)
• 1 ¼ stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• Heavy pinch of salt
• 7-8 tablespoons milk, cream or coffee

Cream the butter and salt together until smooth and creamy.
Slowly beat in the confectioners’ sugar and cocoa powder.
Add 5 tablespoons milk, cream or coffee and beat in.  Slowly add more if necessary to reach spreading consistency.
To Assemble
You can assemble this cake in one of two ways.  You can stack the two layers on top of each other with some frosting in between, or you can slice each cake layer in half horizontally. This will give you a total of four layers and three layers of filling.  Either way is acceptable.

1. Using a serrated knife, cut the dome off the cake layers, leaving you with flat layers.  This is an optional step but will leave you with a nice, flat, professional-looking cake.
2. Place a tablespoon of frosting in the center of your serving platter.  This will act as glue to keep your cake from sliding.
3. Position one cake layer, top side up, in the center of your platter.  Press down gently so the icing sticks.
4. Fill the cake with about ½ - 3/4 cup of frosting, spreading to within ¼ inch of the edge.  Use 1/3 - 1/2 cup per layer if you choose to make a four-layer cake.
5. Position the second layer, bottom side up, on top of the frosted layer, making sure the edges are even all the way around.  Placing the layer bottom side up gives you a flat top surface that is relatively free of crumbs.
6. Using a pastry brush, brush off any loose crumbs.
7. Ice the sides and top of the cake with a very thin layer of frosting. This is the crumb coat which will allow you to add a second layer of frosting without worrying about crumbs marring the finish.
8. Refrigerate the cake for about 15 minutes to let the crumb coat set up.
9. Ice the sides and top of the cake with the finish coat. This coat can be thicker. Aim for about ¼ inch of frosting.
10. Decorate as desired.