LAURA LEE ALICE
COOKS
®
This is another recipe that I have used for years. It's a classic chocolate layer cake that features layers of rich, moist chocolate cake, separated and frosted with a decadent chocolate frosting that has a buttercream texture. This cake has a balanced chocolate flavor.
Facts About this cake:
• This recipe was given to me several years ago by a professional baker. It was his most requested chocolate cake.
• I have used my recipe for Easy French Silk Chocolate Pie to frost the tops of the layers instead of regular frosting. A cake done this way must be refrigerated.
• The layers of this cake are moist and soft and have a rich, chocolate flavor. They are sturdy and support the frosting and stacking when cool.
• This recipe makes mouthwatering cupcakes too!
• I like using our Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe. The recipe for our
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting is at the bottom on the same page.
Both of these recipes are super easy, and their success depends on the
butter being whipped until it's almost white.
About the Ingredients:
• Cocoa: Provides a rich chocolate flavor; use a quality brand for the best
results.
• Boiling water: It helps to release the cocoa's full flavor and creates a
richer, more chocolatey taste.
• Flour: All-purpose flour is what I use. Fluff, scoop, level off.
• Baking soda: Leavening agent; causes the cake to rise.
• Sea salt: It enhances the overall flavor.
• Baking powder: Commonly used with baking soda when making a
chocolate cake. It's also a leavening agent which gives lightness to the
cake.
• Butter: Use a good quality with a high butterfat content.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar; sweetens and helps with browning.
• Eggs: Use large or extra-large; gives structure, moisture, and richness.
• Vanilla: Use a good quality. I also like to use Amaretto to flavor a
chocolate cake.
Ingredients
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, not sifted
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2¾ cups all-purpose flour (sift before measuring, then scoop and level off)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2½ cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 (8 0r 9-inch) cake pans
2. In medium heatproof bowl, combine cocoa with boiling water, mixing with whisk until smooth; cool completely.
3. Sift flour with baking soda, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
4. In large bowl of electric mixer combine butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Gradually turn it up to high speed and beat until light and fluffy, scraping bowl occasionally. At low speed, beat in the flour mixture alternating with the cocoa mixture, starting and ending with flour. Do not overbeat.
5. Divide evenly into pans smoothing tops with spatula. Tap pans twice on the counter then bake 25 to 30 minutes until surface springs back when lightly pressed with fingertips. Cool in pans 10 minutes; make sure sides are loose then remove from pans. Cool on racks.
Tips
• If I am not going to use the cake layers right away, I remove each layer and place on a cooling rack, lay a large piece of plastic wrap over the cake pan (you don't have to wash the pan) then place a cake layer, right side up, back in the pan and fold over the plastic wrap. Do this with each layer, then place them in the fridge for up to 2 days. This step makes it so much easier to fill and frost too!
Recipes are like stories; they can change from person to person. Everyone has their idea of how a recipe should be, even
though it may have changed from the original. We will never know the true author of the original recipe, regardless of
what some may say. That's why I go back and look through the oldest cookbooks that I can find. Sometimes it's not the
recipe in the books that I find, but the tiny pieces of handwritten recipes and newspaper articles that are stuck within
the pages. That's where the real story is, finding those simple Southern recipes. -Mac