- Today we're making one of my favorite cakes.
It's my Ultimate Chocolate Cake.
And I call it Ultimate because it's the best I've ever had.
Super, like just so fluffy.
It's almost not real.
But it's not dry.
It's really moist and chocolatey.
And to balance it all off,
there's this fudgey, slightly salted chocolate buttercream
that will blow your mind.
And if you're thinking, "Oh, soft, airy, like just fudgey.
"Where's the contrast?"
It comes in the form of these cacao nibs.
Pure chocolate in it's natural form.
And it's not sweet, but it is pure chocolate.
It's like all antioxidants, so it's healthy now.
And it's a good contrast for the rest of the cake.
Okay, let's get started.
Three cups of all purpose flour.
Two and 2/3 cups of granulated sugar.
1/2 a cup of cocoa powder.
One and a 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder.
A tablespoon of baking soda.
3/4 of a teaspoon of Kosher salt.
Give this a whisk to distribute all those ingredients,
especially the leavening agents and cocoa powder
and then we'll set aside and work on our wet ingredients.
3/4 cup of vegetable oil.
One and a 1/2 cups of strong, hot coffee.
1/2 a cup of sour cream.
Three large eggs at room temperature.
One cup of buttermilk.
One tablespoon of vanilla extract.
And let's whisk it up.
(splashing)
Okay, we're gonna combine the wet and the dry
in the standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment
and make sure to scrape the bottom down.
This batter is really liquidy.
You can take a look and see.
It's not really thick.
It makes the moistest chocolate cake I've ever had.
Don't be frightened if it looks like it's a liquid puddle
and magically turns into cake.
I buttered my cake pans.
And now I'm just tapping flour around
to make them release really nicely.
You don't want your cake to stick in the pan.
That's a disaster.
I'm using a kitchen scale to make sure
that each layer weighs exactly the same.
I'm gonna pop on some cake strips.
These are just wet fabric strips
and what they do is they slow the baking down
on the outside so the cake is nice and flat
and has nice moist edges that aren't burnt.
These are gonna go into the oven at 350
for about half an hour
or until the centers are set.
A little bit springy,
and you'll probably see the edges pulling away
from the pan.
About 35 minutes later and they're out of the oven.
Smells so good.
And watch this.
(clanking)
Perfect release.
Also, that is a very nice flat layer.
Perfect for decorating.
Great for stacking.
While my cake is baking,
it's time to whip up a really easy
but delicious buttercream.
We're starting off with three sticks of unsalted butter
at room temperature into our standing mixer
fitted with a paddle attachment.
And mix on low for a few minutes until it's nice
and really creamy.
(mixer whirring)
Take the standing mixing bowl out.
Sift my sugar in, which is a pound.
And then mix it.
Cover with a tea towel,
so we don't get a crazy toxic sugar cloud.
(mixer whirring)
Add a drizzle of cream.
A teaspoon or two of vanilla, just a little drizzle.
(mixer whirring)
I've only made a marginal mess
and my buttercream is done.
You can see the consistency is nice.
For the chocolate buttercream I'm adding in
about two tablespoons of high quality cocoa powder.
And a quarter of a cup of melted and cooled dark chocolate.
Give it a mix, just so the chocolate's incorporated.
And it's beautiful and creamy.
Then you give it a generous pinch of salt.
And mix again.
(mixer whirring)
Good, and
(lip smacking)
taste's great.
Right now I'm gonna fill my piping bag up
with that delicious chocolate buttercream.
Twist the end, and then just snip the tip off of it.
So just FYI, I've made this cake like many many times before
and I've filmed bits and pieces of it.
So you might have noticed a couple of inconsistencies
if you're eagle eye watching it.
But here's the deal, for the cake, it's an eight inch,
three layer cake.
It's huge.
On camera, for part of it I made a six inch cake
because I wanted to have a ton of cupcakes as well.
One of my favorite things to do is take a big recipe
and then just scale it down,
use a smaller cake and then have cupcakes
or little mini Bundt cakes that I can serve along with it.
That's kind of fun
and it makes decorating easier for some reason.
But anyways (laughing), on the video, you're gonna see
for the decoration, it's an eight inch, three layer cake.
And we're starting off by piping some buttercream
onto the first layer.
I'm using a cake turntable, but it's totally optional.
I just love it.
It's so easy to smooth everything out with a turntable.
It makes your life a lot easier.
Pipe your buttercream onto the first layer of the cake.
If you don't wanna use a ton of piping bags,
or you just wanna save a little bit of time,
go ahead and just, you know, smear it on with a spatula.
Add your second layer on.
More buttercream now.
And if you want to do something that I highly recommend,
add some cacao nibs on that buttercream.
I didn't do it on camera,
but I've had it before and the more of those you can add,
they add so much crunch and texture, I just love it.
Okay, add the third layer on and now we're gonna pipe more
buttercream onto the top and onto the sides.
I'm using a bench scraper for the sides
and I'm just gonna give it a few swipes to start out with.
I might need to fill in some of the gaps
with the piping bag, or just a little knife.
Keep smoothing it along.
And then it's good.
Now you can use an offset spatula to smooth the top.
Sometimes I'll go back and smooth the side again
to get that little corner edge right.
And then I'll use an offset spatula and pull in
as I turn the cake.
For a really easy decorative flourish,
I'm adding a skirt of cacao nibs to the bottom of the cake.
Just take some of the cacao nibs in your hand
and press them up against the cake gently
and then move along, move along, move along.
And you're done.
Here's a little trick.
I wanted to have more contrast,
so I took some of the extra fudge that I had
and I smeared it on the inside of the piping bag
with a knife.
That fudge will be forced out of the piping bag
just a little bit and give the dollops some more definition.
And they'll also be a little bit sharper too.
Sometimes butter cream can be a bit raggedy.
All right, that was really fun to make.
I love that this cake just kind of came together
and had a basic skirt
of those delicious antioxidant-filled cacao nibs
and a couple of dollops and then called it a day.
Didn't need extra fancy stuff,
just a basic amazing chocolate cake.
All right, I'm gonna take a bite just for you,
not because I've been waiting for this
like the whole day,
and I'll report back.
(soft music)
Oh my God.
It's so good.
If you make this cake, and you can't get cacao nibs,
go ahead and put like some bittersweet
or semisweet chocolate chips,
and just sprinkle them around,
because the crunch is amazing.
Oh my God.
I can see why people are like so into chocolate.
It's just transformative when it's really good.
All right, thank you so much for watching.
I really hope you get to make this recipe
and you know, hit Like the button.
Subscribe.