Credit goes to my favorite food blog: smitten kitchen!
So, out of all my desserts for my husband’s grand shabbos birthday community dinner, this one took the cake!!!
The cake is not too sweet, and the frosting is amazing! (I found several of my kids walking around carefully holding their spoon of pure chocolate fudge frosting, licking it slowly, leaving cute little fudge faces to show!) (The frosting is even Gluten Free!)
Enjoy!
Note: The volume of batter below (for a 2-layer sheet cake) could be used to make a tall 3-layer 9-inch cake. You could also use the batter to make 32 cupcakes.
Cake layers
1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces or 230 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature ( I used Earth Balance)
2 cups (380 grams) firmly packed dark brown sugar
2/3 cup (135 grams) granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups (475 ml) buttermilk ( I used almond milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups (345 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups (115 grams, approximately) Dutch-process cocoa ( I used Hershey Cocoa Powder)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon table salt
Fudge buttercream filling
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled ( I used Scharffen Berger 99%)
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar (no need to sift)
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used Earth Balance)
2 tablespoons half-and-half or whole milk ( I used almond milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Make cake layers: Heat oven to 325°F. Line the bottom of two 9×13 rectangular (i.e. quarter-sheet) (I used three 9″ round cake pans) cake pans with parchment paper. Grease parchment and sides of pan. Using an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at time, beating each in until just incorporated and scraping down sides of bowl. Add vanilla, then buttermilk. (Don’t worry if the batter looks a uneven and grainy; it will all be fine in a minute.)
Place flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a sifter over the mixing bowl and sift ingredients in. Beat or stir dry ingredients into batter until just combined; scrape down bowl again. Divide batter between two pans. Bake each layer for 30 to 40 minutes, rotating them once top-to-bottom and back-to-front halfway through. (I baked mine in middleo f oven and they were fine). Cakes are ready when a toothpick inserted into the center of each layer comes out batter-free. Cool in the pan 10 minutes, then remove cakes from pans and let cool completely on racks. I often put those racks right into the freezer, to firm up this very soft and tender cake before leveling and frosting it; it makes the process much easier.
Make fudge buttercream filling: (I doubled this as I wasn’t using a buttercream frosting as well as in her original recipe) Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse to incorporate, then process until the frosting is smooth. If you don’t have a food processor, you can beat the butter until light and fluffy with an electric mixture, then add the sugar and melted chocolate, followed by the milk or cream and vanilla. With an electric mixer, it helps to sift the powdered sugar first.
Layer cakes with frosting and then frost all over!
3 Responses
hi Chana,
i noticed that you used Almond Milk instead of Buttermilk. Is this something you do often in cakes? Do you see a difference ? I cant get cholov yisroel Buttermilk where i live, so i’ll often put vinegar (or lemon juice) with pareve milk to have a similar desired effect. But not having to do that would be a lot easier.
What are your thoughts / experiences with this ?
I have found that almond milk is a good substitute for basic cake recipes…I do use it often and the results seem fine:)
Truly divine!