Moist, rich, chocolaty perfection, something that every chocolate fan should taste, this is one of those must-have recipes.
Hiya, Welcome to the CC, the place where chocolate dreams are made and come true.
My best friend Ted’s birthday is coming. For his 40th birthday, and after more than 30 years of friendship, I’ve decided to make him a special gift. Knowing how much he likes sweets and even more the Star Wars movies, I’ve come up with an idea to create a special atmosphere and ambience that he will remember! I bought the tickets for the premiere of “Star Wars Rogue 1”.
That’s how we first met. Our fathers took us to the movies to watch “Return of the Jedi” in 1983, which seems to be ages ago. We sat next to each other and commented on the movie. After that we all went to the patisserie to eat some cake. I remember it like it was yesterday – a dark chocolate cake, and Ted commented: “It looks like Darth Vader’s favorite cake!”
And today I made exactly this kind of cake – Dark Chocolate Cake. As soon as the movie ends, I know Ted will expect that we go and eat cake just like every time and I’ll invite him over our house to try Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Cake.
It’s going to be Dar(th)k cake which amazes with its uniqueness and strength.
Do you know what Ted said after the first bite? – May the force be with you !
- CAKE
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup cocoa powder or Hershey’s Special Dark powder
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water (I used hot, strong coffee)
- FROSTING
- 8 Tbsp butter or margarine, softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ⅔ cup cocoa powder or Hershey’s Special Dark powder
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour three 8-inch baking pans.
- Stir together all dry ingredients to a large bowl.
- Add eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla and beat on medium speed about 2 minutes.
- Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in centre comes out clean.
- Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans to a wire racks and let to cool completely.
- FROSTING
- Beat butter in medium bowl until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and cocoa alternately with milk, beating to spreading consistency. If necessary, add a bit of milk to reach desired consistency.
- Stir in vanilla. You will get about 2 cups of frosting.
- ASSEMBLY
- Place first layer of cake on cake plate. Spread about ½ cup of frosting on top in an even layer.
- Add second layer of cake and add frosting on top in an even layer.
- Add final layer of cake on top and frost the outside of the cake.
- Finish off with chocolate curls or other decoration, and set in a fridge for a few hours before serving.
Heaven is this cake!!!!
Made this for my sister’s birthday, and they couldn’t even guess it’s made by me, a beginner baker. I swapped 1/3 oil for unsalted butter, some unmeasured espresso and added some jam between layers. No crumbs left off two cakes!
This was really delicious. I did end up doubling the frosting and just had enough. How did you get that cake frosted like the photo with the recipe as is?! Never too much frosting in my opinion! Thank you for the recipe.
Hello,
This sounds wonderful, however, why the boiling water? Does it make the cake moister?
Thank you so much,!
Toni~
cicina1959@gmail.com. It makes the chocolate darker& yes, moister. I have made this. I love the fact that there were no crumbs left!
Perfect chocolate cake – super rich, chocolate/moist – beautiful cake !
Very nice cake!!
I made this cake for the first time two months ago and since then it has become my family’s favorite cake! I pair it with a mocha frosting and it’s their favorite!
Made this yesterday for Valentines Day. Very good. I too barely had enough frosting but I made it to cover most of it. It came out smaller than I expected, but it looked big enough when put together. Not for a large crowd, but perfect otherwise. Good chocolaty flavor. I loved the oil vs. butter for a change. I used Avocado oil. Can’t wait to have my second piece tonight!
Can you make cup cakes with this
I made the best cupcakes with this recipe
This recipe is a solid gold chocolate cake AND icing recipe. Its very moist and chocolatey and the icing is the best chocolate icing I’ve ever tasted. I was pleasantly surprised! The only change I made was I put white chocolate mousse for the filling layers and iced the outside with the dark chocolate icing.
I have been making this recipe for years and its always a hit for taste, but it always seems to rise beautifully and then sink when cooling. I had this happen again today, and so I researched it a bit and found things like too much baking soda or too much baking powder. Well Im not a professional baker by no means but I love to bake and do it a lot. One thing that stood out in my research was that they mentioned bubbles in the batter and the more there are could cause this problem. This is caused by over mixing in my kitchen Aide mixer. Im going to try another one tomorrow and mix it less and see what happens. I will reply back.
If you have any suggestions / expertise on this please get back to me. . Thanks
Feb 14, 2020