My Favorite Chocolate Cake

Beatty’s Chocolate Cake – My Way

Ingredients

Butter, for greasing the pans
1¾ cp all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cp sugar
¾ cp good cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 cp buttermilk, shaken
½ cp vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cp freshly brewed hot coffee OR 1 cp hot water with 1/2 tsp espresso powder

Cooking Directions

Yield : two 8-inch x 2-inch round or 24 cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans. For cupcakes place cupcake papers in baking tins. (If cooking for cupcakes in a jar without paper, spray baking tins with cooking spray. They came out nicely.)

Sift all the dry ingredients except the espresso powder into the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk together or mix on low speed until combined. Combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. This is a very runny batter.

Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

To cook cupcakes. 18 minutes at 350 degrees F. works in my oven. Test with a toothpick to make sure.

Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

Make ahead idea: I usually measure all the dry ingredients up a few days ahead and keep in a zip up bag so all I have to do when ready to make is add the liquid ingredients (sort of like a box mix) and bake.

The original recipe for this can be found here at the Food Network. I have not tried the Chocolate Buttercream recipe yet. Let me know if you have.

Printable Recipe PDF

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes