Posted on by Lia Fireheart

Chocolate Cake

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Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) very hot brewed coffee

  • 3 ounces (85 grams) semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

  • 3 cups (600 grams) granulated sugar

  • 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea or table salt

  • 3/4 cup (175 ml) vegetable or another neutral oil

  • 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) well-shaken buttermilk (I used 1 1/2 cups soy milk + 1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar)

  • 3/4 teaspoon vanilla

  • 3 large eggs

  • 2 1/2 cups (315 grams) all-purpose flour

  • 1 1/2 cups (aprox. 130 grams; weights vary between brands) unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)

  • 2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking soda

  • 3/4 teaspoon (4 grams) baking powder

Directions

  • Make cake layers: Preheat oven to 300°F (yes, 300!). and grease two 10×2-inch (but mine is 3 inches deep, and this is fine too; just no fewer than 2 inches) round cake pans. Line bottoms with rounds of parchment paper and grease paper.
  • Place chopped chocolate in large bowl and pour hot coffee over it. Let sit together for 4 to 5 minutes, then whisk until chocolate is smooth. Whisk in sugar, salt, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla until combined. Whisk in eggs, one at a time.
  • Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder into a second large bowl, or, if you can pull it off, right onto the top of your batter. Whisk until smooth. It always looks like the lumps will remain, but I always find that they smooth out, so don’t fret.
  • Bake cake layers: Divide batter between two pans. (Batter for one cake layer weights about 1008 grams.) Bake cake layers for in middle of oven until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.
  • [Oh wait, you only have one 10-inch cake pan? Of course you do. It’s fine. Just pour half the batter in, bake the cake layer, flip it out onto a cooling rack as soon as you can, wipe out the pan and re-grease it for the second cake layer. I’ve done this every time I make it and the batter has been forgiving of sitting around for 80 minutes.]
  • The original instructions for this recipe has you cool layers completely in pans on racks. This is fine if you have two matching pans, but since I don’t, I hurry it along, removing the cakes from the pans after only 5 to 10 minutes cooling.
  • Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove paper and cool layers completely.

Notes