Birthday chocolate layer cake is a tradition in our small family, it is my husbanb's favorite and always have been, so each year i make a different version of it and tweak my recipe to get that perfect texture and rich taste of dark chocolate without the cake being heavy nor overly sweet. And i think this year i got a recipe i am happy and proud to call the best birthday chocolate layer cake of them all. The recipe is quite straight forward, with easy steps and doesnt need a lot of time (beside the cooling time) so this might be also your next favorite chocolate layer cake recipe.
Chocolate layer cake
INGREDIENTS
Cake:
- 340 gr flour
- 200 gr sugar
- 16 gr baking powder
- 50 gr cacao
- 125 gr oil
- 250 gr yogurt
- 4 eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Frosting:
- 250 gr mascarpone cheese
- 250 gr soft butter
- 200 gr icing sugar
- 250 gr dark melted chocolate
INSTRUCTIONS
- Start by preparing the cake as it needs to cool down before you can cut and frost it.
- Sift all the dry ingredietns and mix them very well to avoid having dry clumps of flour in the batter.
- Mix all the wet ingredients until the sugar desolves.
- Now gradually add the wet ingredietns to the dry ones and mix but without overdoing it to get a light airy cake crumb.
- bake in a round baking pan ( 30 cm of diameter) in a 160 deg preheated conviction oven for 40-45 Min.
to check if the cake is done use a toothpic if it comes out clean it means it's done if not give it few more minutes but keep an eye on it.
- While the cake is baking its time to prepare the frosting , first we need to melt the dark chocolate and let it cool down to room temperature.
- Using a mixer start by whipping the mascarpone cheese and icing sugar (you can add a stong shot of cold espresso here if you like the chocolate and coffee flavor combination).
- now gradually add the soft butter and continue mixing on medium speed while paying attention to the frosting texture it should thicken up but stay silky.
The frosting can be overwhipped so when you think it is mixed enough to be homogenous and smooth thats probably enough and when you see your mixture staring to become grainy thats a bad sign and it means you will have to start a new batch , which happened to me many times.
9.Gradually add the room temp melted chocolate and give it a final round of mixing and that's it, now let it rest in the fridge until the frosting time.
- When your cake is baked let it cool down comlpetely before cutting it into 3 equal layers.
- Now you can get out the frosting from the fridge and if it is not soft enough to easily be spread out let it warm up for few minutes then start assembling your layer cake.
I usually use an icecream scoop to have an equal amount of frosting between the layers , if you used the same size baking pan as i did 3 to 3 1/2 medium icecream scoops are enough. Finish frosting the outside of you cake and let it cool down in the fridge for at least 3 hours and optimally overnight.
And voilà...
Amal Nasri
A full time sweet tooth foodie , foodphotographer and recipe developer who is always on the hunt of new flavor combinations and food discoveries to re-create sweet delicacies and fresh dessert recipes .