Impress all your dinner guests with this devilishly delicious chocolate layer cake! YUM!
Really Rich Chocolate Layer Cake
Recipe by: Bobbi Jo Lathan
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
PREP TIME
15 mins
COOK TIME
70 mins
TOTAL TIME
1 hour 25 mins
INGREDIENTS
FOR CAKE:
1 cup cocoa
2 cups boiling water
1 cup butter (unsalted & softened)
2 ½ cups sugar
4 eggs
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
FOR WHIPPED CREAM FILLING:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ cup powdered sugar (sifted)
For Chocolate Icing:
1 (6 ounce) package semisweet chocolate morsels
½ cup Half & Half
¾ cup butter (unsalted)
2 ½ cups powdered sugar (sifted)
INSTRUCTIONS
Let’s do the cake first. Preheat your oven to 350ᵒ.
Add the cocoa to the boiled water and stir until it’s nice and smooth.and, let that stand for 30 minutes.
Get out a big mixing bowl and your hand mixer and beat the butter and sugar at medium speed. Then, add the eggs one-at-a-time and mix until nice and creamy.
Next, on low speed, add the flour, a little at a time, until blended.
Then, add the cocoa blend, adding a little at a time until nicely blended. Lastly, add the vanilla and stir until blended.
Grease three 9-inch round baking pans with butter spray and cut out three wax paper rounds for the bottom of the baking pans. And, pour the cake batter, diving the amounts evenly into the three baking pans. Pour the cake batter into the baking pans. Be sure to evenly distribute the same amount into each pan.
Bake the cakes at 350áµ’ for 20 minutes, or until you can stick a toothpick into the center and it comes out clean. Let the cakes cool, which will take 15-20 minutes, on some wire racks while we make some filling.
Place your whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla in your mixing bowl and use your mixer on medium speed and beat until it forms peaks. Now let this whipped cream mixture chill in the fridge while we make the chocolate icing.
Get out a heavy saucepan. Cook the semisweet chocolate morsels, the half & half, and butter over a medium heat. Keep stirring until the chocolate is melted and the ingredients are combined. Then, take the pan off the stove and stir in the powdered sugar, mixing well.
Get out a bowl (bigger than your saucepan) fill it with ice and set your saucepan containing the chocolate sauce on top of the ice bath. Then, with your hand mixer, beat the mixture on low until the icing holds its shape and loses its glossiness. You can always add a few more drops of Half & Half if needed for a better spreading consistency.
Assembly: Carefully go around the edges of the cakes with a butter knife to loosen them from the pan. Now, if the cakes are too poofy on top and it doesn’t look like the layers will lay flat, just take a sharp knife and cut off the excess poof part in order to achieve flatness. (And eat it for yourself ‘cause it’s good!)
Place one layer on your cake plate and spread your beautiful whipping cream filling that you had chilling in the fridge over the first layer. Then add the 2nd layer on top, spread that cake with the whipping cream, and finally place the last layer on top. Now, spread your beautiful chocolate icing over the last layer (Dadgum! My mouth’s waterin!) and around the sides of the entire cake. Decorate with some beautiful fresh strawberries and serve! YUM!
NOTES
When you’re ready to cut your cake, you may want to run some hot tap water and dry the blade while it’s still hot. This will help it to glide down those three layers a little better. YUM!