This is The Perfect Chocolate Cake Recipe

I have been working on this recipe for years.

This is its best version.

Today, we are going to make my perfect chocolate cake.

I'm not going to lie to you, this is a project bake.

There are so many little tricks in this recipe, many layers.

It's got Swiss meringue buttercream,

multiple kinds of chocolate.

It's an oil-based cake, so it's going to stay super moist.

It's a real showstopper.

I'm going to start by making the cake batter.

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So, I'm using cake flour.

Cake flour is really fine.

It has really low gluten content.

That's important.

It's going to give us a really delicate, beautiful cake.

If I'm being honest, most of the time,

I don't even bother with sifting.

However, when you are working with cake flour,

you have to, because those lumps are really hard to get out.

Okay, so now we're going to add

baking powder, kosher salt, baking soda.

Baking powder is both acid and base.

Baking soda is just a base, but this is not chemistry class.

Basically, these are leaveners.

It's going to make our cake rise: fluffy, beautiful.

Now we are going to start working with the wet ingredients.

You will notice here that I have quite a bit of oil.

You will also notice there is no butter.

That is by design.

An oil-based cake stays extra moist, soft, and supple.

Do not worry.

Stay with me.

There's going to be a ton of butter

in the buttercream, many, many sticks of butter.

You're going to get your butter.

So, we're going to start with cocoa powder.

I am whisking the cocoa powder with boiling water.

This activates it, hydrates it, makes it super smooth,

so you don't have to sift it.

And it's going to combine

really beautifully with all the other ingredients.

We're going to add the sugar.

We want it super sweet.

A lot of recipes will call for room temperature eggs.

I have done this recipe a million times.

I've used room temperature eggs.

I've used eggs right out of the fridge, and it's all fine.

You're fine.

Next, we're going to add the oil,

and if you add it just sort of gradually,

it's much easier to emulsify in.

We're going to add the dry to the wet.

We're going to be really delicate and gentle,

so we don't get any gluten development.

What is gluten development?

As you work the flour, the gluten develops,

and it gets kind of tough.

We're going to add sour cream.

This is going to make the cake even more tender.

It's got a lot of acid in it

and adds a little tanginess, which I like,

and kind of balances all that sweetness and sugar.

We're also going to add some vanilla.

We're going to add one more ingredient.

This is also kind of like a little secret baker's trick:

white distilled vinegar.

This is acid.

In here, you have the baking soda, which is a base.

If you ever did a science fair growing up,

and you did that volcano

where you pour the vinegar on top of the baking soda,

and you get this, like, eruption,

that is kind of what we want to do here in the oven.

It's going to react together

and make a really light, fluffy cake.

So, my oven is preheated to 325.

We're going to prep our pans, divide the batter evenly.

I strongly advise you to get a scale.

It's so easy, and it makes a really precise baked good.

These are going to go in the oven

with a rack set in the middle for about 50-55 minutes.

And while they are baking,

we're going to make the Swiss meringue buttercream.

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Swiss meringue buttercream.

What is it?

It is buttercream that's made with cooked meringue,

so egg whites and sugar,

and then we add a whole bunch of butter.

I prefer it to an American buttercream

because it's not as sweet.

It is silky, silky, silky smooth,

and the meringue actually stabilizes it a bit.

So, if you were making this cake on a hot day

for an outside festivity,

the buttercream is going to be much more stable.

Double boiler:

I am vigorously whisking the egg whites and the sugar

to turn them into a meringue.

While this happens, they are also going to cook.

Once all of the sugar is dissolved, you know it's ready.

And the best way to test it

is to just get a little between your fingers.

If it feels grainy,

the sugar's not dissolved.

You got to keep going.

And you want to keep it moving.

If you stop whisking for any significant amount of time,

it's going to start to scramble, and that's gross.

So, we are just about there.

This is looking really good.

It's nice: opaque, smooth.

So, this is all set.

We're going to bring it back over to the mixer.

Let's have a look and see if our meringue is ready.

We're looking for stiff peaks.

Go like that.

Oh my God.

She's gorgeous.

Holding its shape: beautiful, glossy.

I'm going to turn down the speed just a little bit,

and we'll start adding our butter.

This is like five sticks of butter.

I told you there would be butter; there's butter.

There's plenty of butter.

Just add it a few tablespoons at a time.

This is salted butter.

That salty-sweet combination is just so mouthwatering,

especially with all that milk chocolate

that we're going to add to it.

Now I'm going to add a little vanilla.

Let that incorporate.

If you wanted vanilla buttercream

for something else, that's it.

You got vanilla buttercream,

but I don't want vanilla buttercream.

I want chocolate.

This is milk chocolate.

I love combining milk chocolate and dark chocolate.

You've got, like, that intense bitterness

from the dark chocolate.

You've got that creamy, sweet maltiness

from the milk chocolate.

You can totally make this buttercream ahead of time.

It can be left at room temperature for a day,

and you actually don't want to refrigerate it

because when you refrigerate it,

that butter is going to solidify,

and then you're not going to be able

to spread it onto your cake.

This is the beautiful consistency that you're looking for.

It's just, like, spreadable, smooth,

velvety, absolutely gorgeous.

Our buttercream is ready.

You can just set it aside,

and we are going to move on to the glossy chocolate sauce.

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This is just a delicious, classic chocolate sauce.

I keep it in my fridge.

It lasts for weeks.

I drizzle it on anything and everything,

but today we're going to use it to soak the cake layers.

So, it's going to add even more chocolate to the cake

and keep those layers really moist and delicious.

Water in the pot.

Corn syrup: this is what makes it glossy.

Sugar.

Don't worry about the lumps in the cocoa powder.

As we heat it and whisk it, it's going to smooth out.

Vanilla, a little salt.

Let's bring this over to the stove.

So, high heat, because we want to bring this up to a boil

and start to reduce it, get it nice and thick.

You just want to whisk it,

breaking up all of those lumps of cocoa powder.

You'll know it's done when it's reduced by about a quarter,

and it'll coat the back of a spoon really nicely.

Let's check our cakes.

Cake tester.

These look gorgeous, and that comes out clean.

You're done.

They smell incredible.

So, our cakes have cooled to room temperature.

Because we did parchment and grease,

they just popped right out.

So easy.

These look gorgeous, nice and bouncy.

Now we're going to chill them a little further

before we assemble.

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My cakes were wrapped up and chilled.

We do that because they're a lot easier to slice and frost

when they're a little cool.

This cake is celebratory.

It's four cake layers.

So, we have to split each of these in two.

You want to get down on the level of the cake.

This is going to give us the flattest, most even cut.

And I'm really just taking off that very top bump.

This is your snacking cake.

So, you want to have a bowl handy,

so you can put all your cake scraps in here,

and then you can snack on them as you build your cake.

It's very important.

So, I'm going to saw into it,

but also rotate it as I go.

That way, I'm basically

getting the most even cut as possible.

Pick out a cake stand that you love or a serving platter.

To keep it neat and tidy,

I'm just going to line it

with some strips of parchment paper.

I like doing three pieces and a triangle.

It covers all the sides,

and then once we're done frosting and everything,

you just pull them away,

and you have, like, a beautiful, neat, clean cake stand.

It's assembly time,

so we're going to do cake, glossy chocolate sauce,

soak, buttercream, rinse and repeat.

Soaking our cake layers

in this beautiful glossy chocolate sauce

is just going to make them even more indulgent

because the cake has all these beautiful air bubbles in it,

thanks to the reaction

between the vinegar and the leaveners.

It's really going to just, like, soak through.

The cake is going to drink it up.

The perfect tool to spread your buttercream

is an offset spatula.

It's got this little angle here.

That means you can frost the cake in a super even layer.

I am actually going to soak the top layer as well

in the glossy chocolate sauce.

The other layers have it,

and I don't want the top layer to feel left out.

Now we're going to crumb coat it.

So, crumb coating essentially means

we're doing just very thin layer of buttercream,

and then we're going to chill it.

That first layer of buttercream catches all the crumbs,

so that way, when you put the final layer on,

you don't get any crumbs in it.

Our cake has been chilling.

It's beautifully crumb coated,

so we have the rest of our buttercream,

and we're just going to go for it.

Ugh. So satisfying.

I love just, like, some swushy tufts.

I think it looks really whimsical and pretty.

Finishing touches: even more chocolate, more cocoa powder.

Just going to gently dust it over the top,

and of course, some flaky sea salt.

Want a little pop of savory with your sweet,

and it's just going to enhance all those flavors.

Look at this statuesque beauty.

Like, imagine if this was your birthday cake,

you'd be so happy.

Secret to a clean slice: you want hot water.

We're going to dip our knife into it.

It's going to heat up the blade a little bit,

dry it off, and quickly slice.

You get a nice clean slice every time.

Look at her.

She's gorgeous.

This is the appropriate portion size

for a slice of chocolate cake.

You can see where the glossy chocolate sauce

really soaked in, that beautiful smooth buttercream.

I am ready for a bite.

Going in.

Oh yeah.

Oh my God.

It's like eating a chocolate cloud.

Like, this is insane.

It's the perfect balance of salty-sweet.

There's a lightness to it, and yet it's, like, so rich.

The cake itself is, like, not too sweet

because of that dark cocoa powder, the sour cream,

and then the milk chocolate and the buttercream

just has that, like, creamy sweetness.

It's so balanced.

This is so worth putting the time in.

Set aside a day for an occasion or just because,

and make this cake, share it with the people you love.

This is love on a plate.

This cake, my favorite chocolate cake, is from my book,

Daily Dessert: Treats on Repeat,

with so many other sweet things,

you're going to want to make everything.

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