I love it when I get asked a question that stumps me!
This past weekend a dear friend txt’d me to get the chocolate version of my buttercake … I had totally forgotten about this as it was something I used to do many moons ago.
So I had to go hunting for my old notes to find the slight alternation I used to make to turn this into a chocolate buttercake. I was so inspired I had to make one just to see if it is as good as I remember … and yes it is!
The addition of coffee is optional, but you won’t taste it and it does enhance the flavour of the chocolate.
For a delicious icing I used the topping for my chocolate cupcakes (because I already had some in the freezer), so have added that onto this recipe to keep everything in the one place.
This is a large cake and a great one for birthdays and other celebrations.
Chocolate Buttercake
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Gina @ The Passionate Pantry
Serves: 12-14 slices
Ingredients
INGREDIENTS FOR THE CAKE
- 250g butter (room temperature)
- 180g plain full fat yoghurt, room temperature
- 200g full cream milk, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, or 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbls instant coffee granules
- 4 x 59g eggs, room temperature
- 420g golden caster sugar
- 350g self-raising flour
- 50g Dutch cocoa powder
- 40g custard powder
INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHOCOLATE ICING
- 250g 60-70% dark chocolate
- 100g butter, room temperature, cubed
- 250g cream cheese, room temperature, cubed
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste. or 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes, or ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 500g icing sugar
Instructions
METHOD FOR THE CAKE
- Preheat oven to 170 (fan forced)
- Arrange rack into middle of oven
- Grease and line 24 cm cake tin (base measurement)
- Place butter into TM bowl and mix 40 seconds / 50 / speed 4 (this will loosen up the butter, but not melt it completely which you don’t want to do … if it is completely melted the cake will be heavier).
- Insert butterfly, add yoghurt, milk, vanilla or coffee granules and eggs and mix 10 seconds / speed 3
- Add sugar, flour, cocoa powder and custard powder … you will see that the bowl is very full so use a spatula or spoon to stir though some of the batter to bring liquid from the bottom to the top before continuing … replace lid and mix 10 seconds / speed 3
- Lift lid, stir around the top again and mix 30 seconds / speed 3
- Pour batter into cake tin smoothing over the top
- TIP: to get all the batter out, remove butterfly scraping off the mix, sit in on the upturned lid, remove as much batter as possible from bowl into cake tin, return butterfly to bowl and spin 2 seconds / speed 5 so that the remaining batter on the butterfly will spin off onto the sides of the bowl allowing you to easily remove the last bits with a flexible spatula
- Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or when a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean (NB: the chocolate buttercake takes a little longer to cook than the vanilla one so always check ... usually it is 1 hour and 15 minutes in my oven but test before you remove)
- Cool for 15 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely before icing
METHOD FOR ICING
- Break chocolate into pieces (if it is not already in small pellets)
- Place into TM bowl and mill 5-10 seconds (depending on size of pieces) x speed 9
- Scrape around sides, then melt 6 minutes / 50 / speed 3 (pause and scrape after 3 minutes … you want it to be completely melted so keep going until it is all liquid … if after 6 minutes it still has some small lumps, scrape around bowl and melt for another minute)
- Set aside … do not clean bowl
- Add butter, cream cheese, vanilla paste or extract, and salt to TM bowl and mix 10 seconds / speed 5, scrape around sides and repeat 10 seconds / speed 5
- Return melted chocolate to TM bowl and add icing sugar, lightly mix with a spatula first to start incorporating the mix, then blend 15 seconds / speed 10, scrape around sides and repeat 10 seconds / speed 10, scrape around bowl and repeat 5 seconds / speed 10
- Use to cover cake and freeze leftovers … it will keep in the freezer for some time … just remove a couple of days before you want it and place into the fridge to defrost
Notes
The addition of coffee is optional, but you won’t taste it and it does enhance the flavour of the chocolate.
For a delicious icing I used the topping for my chocolate cupcakes (because I already had some in the freezer), so have added that onto this recipe to keep everything in the one place. The icing recipe will make more than you need so freeze the leftovers for another time.
This is a large cake and a great one for birthdays and other celebrations.
For a delicious icing I used the topping for my chocolate cupcakes (because I already had some in the freezer), so have added that onto this recipe to keep everything in the one place. The icing recipe will make more than you need so freeze the leftovers for another time.
This is a large cake and a great one for birthdays and other celebrations.
Hi I would like to make this as a 10″ round cake / 2 layers for a party. Do you think this is enough batter or will it be a little small ?
Hi Bella … a 10 inch round cake tin will be a 25cm round tin (please measure the base of the tin you are using to ensure it is the right size) … if that is the case this batter will be fine as a two layer … I know quite a few people that have already done this, and once you put in your filling (icing) and then ice around the cake it will be quite substantial. Here is a link to the recipe for the plain buttercake that Tenina has put up on her website, with a pic from her designer who used the recipe for a wedding cake and did it as two layers which she cut in half, and iced it with the “naked” icing theme … it looks lovely … and that has the same amount of batter as the chocolate buttercake, but has the cocoa powder taking place of some of the flour: https://tenina.com/recipes/buttercake
Bella … personally I would always do a tester when making a recipe for a special occasion, unless you have done it before and are happy with the result … it would be awful for you (and disappointing) if it didn’t work out the way you wished as you will need to adjust baking times, and also test the recipe for your oven temperature to make sure it is the same as mine as many ovens differ in that regard.
Good luck with it all Bella, and thanks for asking for my advice xo Gina
Thanks Gina! Yes I always do a test run. Couldn’t bear a disaster on a big day event. I’ll let you know how it goes. Best Bella
Excellent … I would really love to hear from you … thanks so much for letting me know xo
Very happy with the trial run the cake is moist and a good height when layered. Nice flavour not too rich for a birthday cake and it is large. Will bake for just 1 hour at this size but it does depend on your oven. The side was getting a little dry but that made for an easy icing.
Bella … that is wonderful … there is nothing like a little icing to help fix small issues … so happy that it has worked out for you … must admit it is a good cake batter for this sort of thing as it has a good texture and holds up well to being cut, iced, and decorated. Really appreciate you letting me know the outcome … that will help others enormously too … enjoy the party xo
Hi Gina, I have been asked to make a couple of large cakes for a Cub Scouts camp, and this one looks wonderful! I have a rectangular cake tin that measures 32 x 22 cm. Do you think this cake mixture would be large enough to go in this tin without being too thin? Or should I do one and a half times the recipe? I would normally do a test run, but I haven’t been given much notice! Thanks!