Matilda Chocolate Cake
- Serves
- 1 2-tiered 8-inch cake
- Prep Time
- 2 hours (not including cooling)
- Cook Time
- 30 minutes
When it comes to chocolate cake, I want it to be incredibly chocolaty, moist, and full of flavor. I prefer using a black cocoa powder for a deeper, intense chocolate flavor. You can easily cut the cake layers in half, or just keep it as a 2-tiered cake instead.
Ingredients
For the cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup black cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup neutral oil (canola, vegetable, or melted coconut oil) cup neutral oil (canola or vegetable)
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup hot coffee or boiling water
For the cream cheese frosting
- 1 cup (8 ounces; 226 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/4 cup (57g) salted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (43 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 cups (340g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
To make the cake
- Step 1
Preheat your oven to 350 F and oil and line 2 8-inch cake pans.
- Step 2
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, black cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Step 3
In a large bowl using a whisk, hand mixer, or a stand mixer, combine the sugar, neutral oil, and eggs. Combine until the mixture is pale and glossy, about 5 minutes.
- Step 4
Add in the buttermilk and vanilla extract and stir to combine.
- Step 5
Pour in the dry ingredients and using a spatula, fold the ingredients together ensuring you've stopped once the flour has disappeared.
- Step 6
Using either hot coffee or boiling water, add to the combined cake batter and stir. The mixture will be very loose. That's ok!
- Step 7
Pour into your prepared cake pans and bake in the oven for about 30 - 35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. It's important to keep an eye on the cakes as they get close to 30 minutes since every oven is different.
- Step 8
Remove from the oven and let cool fully on a cooling rack.
To make the cream cheese frosting
- Step 1
In a medium bowl, cream the cream cheese until you get a mayonnaise-like consistency.
- Step 2
Add the butter and continue creaming until both the cream cheese and butter are fully combined.
- Step 3
Add in the remaining ingredients and mix together using a whisk or stand mixer on low, gradually increasing the speed as the powdered sugar begins incorporating more and more.
To decorate your cake
- Step 1
With the cooled cakes, place on layer on your cake stand/cake plate. Add a layer of the frosting on top.
- Step 2
Place the second cake layer on top of the frosting and repeat the process. You'll then want to add a thin layer of frosting all over the cake -- this is a crumb coat.
- Step 3
With the crumb coat now on the cake, place the cake in the fridge for about 30 minutes or the freezer for 15. By doing this, you'll be able to add additional frosting throughout the cake without crumbs coming through your frosting.
- Step 4
Once the frosting has hardened on the crumb coat, add remaining frosting and decorate the cake. For this, I went with a classic look and just added the frosting on top and used an offset spatula to spread the cake throughout the entire body.
- Step 5
Once the cake has been fully decorated, you can enjoy!