Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Instructions

Chocolate Cake

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius, line two 17cm cake pans with parchment paper and set them aside

1. melt the chocolate and let it cool a little
2. in the bowl of your stand mixer mix the butter with the sugar until combined
3. add the melted chocolate to the butter and sugar and mix until combined
4. add the eggs and the yolks one at a time and mix until just combined
5. mix in oil, vanilla extract and then the yoghurt (or cream) until just combined
6. in another bowl sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and the cocoa powder
7. add the dry ingredients to the mixture in 3 or 4 increments mixing until combined after each addition
8. add the coffee (or water) and mix until combined

Split your batter in two and bake in 2 cake tins for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inside the centre of the cake comes out clean.

*adapted from cupcakeproject.com’s Ultimate Chocolate Cupcake recipe.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

• 360 gr sugar
• 210 gr egg whites (whites from about 9 eggs)
• 375 gr butter (at room temperature)
• 80 gr chocolate (I used Michel Cluizel’s Mini Grammes de Chocolat Lait, but you can use any dark or milk chocolate that you prefer).

1. Cut the butter into small cubes (around 1cm in size).
2. Prepare a bain-marie by adding about 2-3cm of water in a pot and set it over heat so that the water heats until it boils, then turn the heat to low.
3. In a bowl that’s larger than the pot in which you’re heating the water, combine the sugar and egg whites. Once the water in the pot is hot and steaming, set the bowl on top of it and whisk constantly until the sugar dissolves in the whites. The egg whites will stay liquid in this stage and they don’t need to raise in volume.
4. Once the sugar is dissolved in the whites (when their temperature is around 50 degrees celsius), transfer the mixture to the stand mixer.
5. With the whisk attached, whip the whites on high speed until they form stiff peaks. Once stiff peaks are formed, stop the mixer and change to the paddle attachment
6. Add 1/3rd of the butter, beat the mixture on low speed until the butter is well incorporated (about one minute). Stop the mixer, add another third of the butter and beat it again on low speed until the butter is well incorporated.
7. Add the remaining butter, beat it on low speed for about a minute and then on high speed for about 5-10 minutes, until the buttercream is fluffy and shiny. Don’t worry if the buttercream curdles in this stage, just continue beating it until it comes together. If it stays curdled, it’s because the buttercream is too cold. Heat the bowl a bit over bain-marie (or bring the bowl with hot water underneath it while mixing) and then mix it again until it gets the good consistency (it should look airy and fluffy).
8. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or over bain-marie and let it cool down for a few minutes. Add it to the buttercream and mix it on medium speed until it’s well incorporated (you may have to scrape the bowl once so that it mixes uniformly).

Assemble the cake

1. Cut the top off the two cakes that you baked, then cut each into 2 layers, so that you have 4 equal layer cakes.
2. Assemble the cake by spreading chocolate buttercream over each cake layer. You can also add fruit pieces (raspberries or strawberries) into the buttercream or a layer of fruit jam if you want.
3. Once the cake is assembled, cover the outside with chocolate buttercream, and decorate it with fruits, chocolate shavings, macarons or however you prefer.