Sue B.'s Chocolate Cake
Scratch Chocolate Cake
Servings 12
Cost 5
Ingredients
- ¾ cup boiling water
- ¾ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups granulated sugar (400 grams)
- 2 cups all purpose flour (270 grams)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting
- 1 ½ oz unsweetened chocolate
- 1 ½ oz semisweet chocolate
- 12 tablespoons butter unsalted or salted
- 3 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¾ pound powdered sugar about 3 cups
- 4-5 T. buttermilk or regular milk plus more if needed — room temperature NOT cold
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Pinch or two of salt — if using salted butter omit
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 9 inch round cake pans.
- Mix cocoa and boiling water together in a small bowl or large measuring cup; set aside.
- Mix buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl
- Mix sugar, flour, salt and baking soda together in a second mixing bowl.
- Mix dry ingredients into buttermilk/oil mixture and stir well with a heavy duty rubber scraper. Mix in cocoa mixture – ours was still very warm when we stirred it in. Stir until well mixed (though batter might have a few lumps). Don’t overbeat the flour.
- Pour batter into pans and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn from pans and cool.
- Frosting: Melt both chocolates in microwave, double boiler or bowl set over barely simmering water; set aside to cool. Beat the butter until creamy. Make sure it’s not too cold or it might cause the chocolate to re-solidify. Stir in the cocoa power, about a cup of the powdered sugar, and the cooled melted chocolate. Scrape sides of bowl and beat well; add remaining powdered sugar, then add room temperature milk, vanilla and salt, beating and scraping until you get the consistency you like.