Recipe: Super Moist Fudgy Two Layer Chocolate Cake

That rogue crumb is bothering me.

But this is real life.

And there are crumbs.

And delicious, fudgy, chocolate-y crumbs are probably the very best kind of crumbs there are.

For the past few years, I have volunteered to make dessert for my Dad’s birthday. Mostly because I like making desserts, and it gives me a chance to try out a new recipe. Or three.

Last years’ recipe was also a double layer chocolate cake with a buttercream filling and a chocolate ganache on the top. It was pretty amazing, but the combination of winging it and combining several recipes together. Which means it will likely never happen again.

The recipe for this one is equally delicious, but this time, it’s going to be documented. You know, so maybe we CAN make it again.

Because between my parents’ and Madeline’s affinity for ALL THINGS CHOCOLATE and ALL THE TIME, there are probably never enough occasions for chocolate.

I swear that little five-and-a-half-year-old has chocolate dreams.

Because the kids and I had spent some time down the shore on the weekend we were celebrating my Dad’s birthday, I needed the recipe to be super simple. But no less delicious. The first place I looked was my Pinterest cake board (I have found that organizing Pinterest boards in pretty specific categories makes it a whole lot easier when looking for recipes).

After reading through a handful of recipes, directions, and ingredient lists, I settled on this cake from Foodess, since, from start to finish, it would be under an hour, and the only ingredient I needed to pick up was buttermilk.

As promised, the recipe was very simple to make. And as moist as promised. Just make sure to lightly flour your pan, because my cake layers stuck to the bottom something awful, and made for a slightly lopsided cake that was fixed by applying copious amounts of chocolate frosting.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but also explains why that beautiful shot above is of only half the cake.

Flour the pans.

I made a chocolate version of my buttercream frosting, and spread a thin layer in between the two cake layers, and then frosted the whole cake with more of the same. I added mini chocolate chips around the perimeter of the cake, and all the resident chocoholics were happy.

And Madeline loved it enough that we had to bring home an extra piece. I’m also not sure that she has ever met something chocolate-y that she didn’t like.

So if you’re looking for a celebratory chocolate cake to make out of basic pantry ingredients, or need a cake just to celebrate the fact that you made it through a busy weekday … you could be eating this cake in just over an hour.

Go.

Super Moist Fudgy Two Layer Chocolate Cake
Recipe courtesy of Foodess

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch baking pans (or line with parchment paper circles) and set aside.
2. In the large bowl of a standing mixer, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract and beat until smooth (about 3 minutes). Remove bowl from mixer and stir in hot coffee with a rubber spatula. Batter will be very runny.
3. Pour batter evenly between the two pans and bake on middle rack of oven for about 35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs attached.
4. Allow to cool 15 minutes in pans, then run a butter knife around the edges of each cake. Place a wire cooling rack over top of each pan. Wearing oven mitts, use both hands to hold the racks in place while flipping the cakes over onto the racks. Set the racks down and gently thump on the bottom of the pans until the cakes release. Cool completely before handling or frosting.