Easiest Chocolate Cake

It’s bakemas 2020!

If it’s your first bakemas here, welcome. It is my annual mini-series in which I show you how to make a various Christmas themed baked goods – perfect if you want to impress your family and/or friends or if you’re hosting a festive get together.

I’m sharing the easiest chocolate cake recipe, like ever. Seriously, this is my go-to recipe whenever I’m making a chocolate cake.

Whenever I get the chance to make a chocolate cake, this is my go to recipe. It’s a simple and straightforward recipe, that only requires very simple ingredients and is the very recipe I have been using for the past 8 years – so I know it works well!

When it comes to making a basic cake, using the best quality products make the cake even better… That’s a fact! That’s why I’m using Cocoa Runners cocoa powder (it is now my favourite cocoa powder).

Anyway, lets get started, shall we?

 

Ingredients:

Cake:

250g butter, room temp.

250g granulated sugar.

4 eggs.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

220g plain flour.

30g cocoa powder.

1 tsp baking pwoder.

up to 50ml milk.

 

Buttercream:

225g butter, room temp.

450g icing sugar.

30g cocoa powder.

boiling water.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

 

Simple syrup:

100ml water.

100g granulated sugar.

1/2 – 1 tsp vanilla extract.

 

Filling (optional):

caramel.

 

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, lining your 6 inch cake tins with parchment paper, preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and grab any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and spatulas.

To start, I like making the cake (as this takes the longest). Grab a large mixing bowl and place in the butter and sugar, beating the two together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency – I find around 7-10 minutes on a high speed works well.

Give the bowl a good scraping down and then add in your eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each addition. You will notice the mixture change in consistency – this is normal.

Take the bowl and give it another good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Into a sift, add the plain flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Then sift directly into the bowl and mix on a low speed until the ingredients start to incorporate, then you can add in some milk – this is just to help achieve the perfect consistency. Try your best just to mix all of the ingredients in without over mixing the cake batter.

Give the bowl a final scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Then transfer into your line 6 inch cake tins, split it equally (or as equally as possible) and level it out. This is to ensure even baking while in the oven – place into your preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes to until tester when inserted into the centre.

While the cakes are in the oven baking, its the perfect time to make make the buttercream and simple syrup.

The simple syrup is super simple to make. Into a pan, place the water, sugar and vanilla extract and whisk together. Then you can place on the hob, over a high heat and allow to come to a boil and then remove from the heat and transfer into a smaller jar/container and allow to cool fully before using.

To make the buttercream, start on the chocolate mixture. Place cocoa powder and and boiling water into a bowl and whisk until a liquid mixture forms, then leave to cool while you continue with the next stage.

Grab a mixing bowl and place in the butter. Then beat the butter on its own until it reaches a lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency – this is usually achieved in around 7-10 minutes (depending on the speed and softness of the butter).

Once you’ve achieved the right consistency, you can go ahead and add in half of the icing sugar and mix on a low speed to start, working your way up to a medium-high speed until the sugar has been fully incorporated – then give the bowl a good scraping down and repeat the process with the remaining icing sugar.

Then go ahead over a low speed, you can continue to add the cocoa mixture you made at the start. Mix until everything has been incorporated and the mixture looks fantastically chocolatey.

Give the bowl one final scrape down and then set aside until you need it later on.

Whenever you want to assemble, take the cakes and remove them from the tins and level them off using a knife or a cake leveller (keep the scraps, we’ll need them later on).

For this cake, I halved my cake layers so I had 4 layers in total.

With the cake layers, you’ll want to generously brush them over with the simple syrup.

Take your board/stand/plate and smear a small amount of buttercream into the centre and place down your first layer of cake (pressing down to secure) and add a small amount of buttercream and spread it out until you have a consistent level – don’t forget, as an optional filling, you can add and spread a small amount of caramel into the centre. Repeat this with the remaining layers of cake.

Then apply a crumb coat of buttercream, this is just a thin layer of buttercream to lock in those pesky crumbs. Smooth it out as best you can, then place in the fridge for 30-45 minutes or until the buttercream is firm to the touch.

Whenever you’re ready, apply the final layer of icing and smooth out the sides as best you can, leaving it a little more untidy on top. Using a small cranked palette knife, you can go ahead and make the swirl on top. To do this, slightly dig the palette knife into the buttercream on the outer edge, swirling the cake around on the turntable, taking the swirl into the centre.

Then to finish, simply take some chocolate sprinkles and apply them around the bottom edge, to add a flair of colour and to hide any imperfections. Then to the out edge on top of the cake, you can sprinkle some of the cake crumbs (which have been crumbled into a fine consistency) – use as much or as little as you’d like.

Then place back into the fridge until the buttercream has firmed up.

Whenever you need the cake, you can slice it up and enjoy!

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.