Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
This Chocolate Buttermilk Cake is amazingly moist and perfectly fluffy!
It has just the right amount of chocolate without being overly rich. In other words, it is the perfect chocolate cake!
We've filled the layers with whipped cream and frosted with a flavorful chocolate buttercream, but this chocolate buttermilk cake would be perfect with so many fillings and frostings!
Definitely put this scratch chocolate layer cake recipe on your "must bake" list as soon as possible, I promise it'll become an instant go-to recipe for family and friends!
Table of Contents
What Does Buttermilk do for Cake Recipes?
The acidity that buttermilk adds to cake batter helps to make cakes even more tender by breaking down the tough strands of gluten. It also adds a subtle tanginess. Many of our cake recipes, including our Lemon Buttermilk Cake, have either buttermilk or sour cream for this reason!
What Fillings and Frostings Pair Well with Chocolate Buttermilk Cake?
So many! Here are a few of our favorites:
Sweetened Whipped Cream Frosting
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Chocolate "Mock" Mousse Filling
How to Make Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
This moist Chocolate Buttermilk Cake makes three fluffy eight inch layers. This recipe uses the traditional creaming method (rather than Reverse Creaming) method of mixing.
Making the Cake Layers
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Set aside
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk is blended.
- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the cake flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet). After the last addition, mix just until blended.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes and turn out of pan.
Can the Cake Layers be Frozen?
Yes! Make life easier by baking in advance. After removing the cake pans from the oven, I allow them to cool on the cooling rack for about 5 minutes before flipping them out of their pans and wrapping them individually in plastic wrap, then foil.
You can use wrapped cardboard cake circles beneath the layers for more stability if you'd like. Then, I place the wrapped cake layers in the freezer. They will stay fresh for up to three months! *We find that wrapping the cake layers while still slightly warm makes them even more moist!
To thaw, remove from the freezer and allow to thaw, still wrapped, on the kitchen counter. After 30-45 minutes, you can remove the wrapping and thaw to desired amount for decorating.
Assembling the Cake
Today, we are using a homemade whipped cream filling and chocolate buttercream frosting.
When using soft cake fillings, it's a good idea to pipe a dam of frosting around the edge of the cake layer (about ¼ inch-½ inch from the edge) and then fill. This helps to keep the filling contained when it's time to stack the layers.
In the photo below, I piped a dam of buttercream using a round tip 12 (but you can also just snip the tip from a disposable piping bag.
Fill in with luscious whipped cream!
After filling the cake layers, I frosted with our chocolate buttercream recipe and then decorated using a Wilton 8B french tip. I varied the pressure to get the different sizes of stars.
I also filled in here and there small dots piped from a tip 3 and added a small bead border around the base.
Frosting The Cake with a Smooth Finish
When I'm going for a smooth look, I like to frost the cake on a turntable and then smooth the frosting with a bench scraper. This is a great place to start.
Then, I freeze the frosted cake for about 10-15 minutes or until the frosting is firm so that I can go back and fine-tune with a hot small angled spatula (heated with very hot water). We go over this technique in our tutorial for the hot knife method of smoothing buttercream.
Other Favorite Chocolate Cakes
In addition to today's delicious Chocolate Buttermilk Cake, we have many other chocolate cakes that belong on your "must-bake list"!
Devil's Food Cake from Scratch
Chocolate Sour Cream Cake from Scratch
Chocolate Cheesecake Cake (which also uses this buttermilk chocolate cake recipe)!
You can find our roundup of favorite chocolate desserts here!: A Collection of the BEST Chocolate Cakes, Frostings, and More!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
This Buttermilk Chocolate Cake is so moist, tender, and has wonderful chocolate flavor.
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
- 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened ( do not microwave)
- 2 cups (400g) sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature - putting cold eggs in a bowl of very warm water will warm them quickly
- 2 cups (228g) cake flour-- for substitution see Notes below
- ¾ cups (69g) unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed cocoa (measure then sift)
- ½ teaspoons (2g) baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon (7g) baking soda
- 1 ½ cups (355g) buttermilk ( if you do not have buttermilk, see Note below)
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) vanilla
- ½ cup (104g) vegetable oil (I use canola oil)
Whipped Cream Filling
- 1 cup (240g) heavy cream
- ¼ (29g) cup powdered sugar
- 1 (4g) teaspoon vanilla
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 3 sticks (339g) unsalted butter, softened (do not soften butter in the microwave)
- 9 cups powdered sugar (icing sugar in UK) (1034g) more if needed. ** For cupcakes, I like to use 8 c. (920g) for a softer frosting
- 1 ½ cups unsweetened cocoa (124 grams) (not Dutch processed, measure then sift
- ½ cup milk (121 grams) more if needed to reach the spreading consistency you like
- 2 teaspoons vanilla (12 grams)
Instructions
For the Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Set aside
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the cake flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet). After the last addition of dry ingredients, mix batter just until blended.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes and turn out of pan.
For the Sweetened Whipped Cream Filling
- Chill the mixing bowl and beaters/ whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Pour the whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla into the chilled mixing bowl, begin beating on low speed gradually increasing to medium high speed.
- The cream begins to thicken (approx. 1 ½ minutes) and soft peaks form....peaks that slightly bend over. Watch closely as this happens quickly. Do not over beat.
- Use immediately as the whipped cream will gradually begin to deflate over time.
For the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Add softened butter and mix for one minute on medium speed. Add vanilla and blend into the butter. Add powdered sugar and cocoa powder.
- Add most of the milk. Begin beating at low speed so you won't have a cloud of powdered sugar in your kitchen. Beat at medium speed 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and beat an additional two to three minutes, adding remaining milk as needed. (Recipe can be doubled or halved.)
This recipe makes approximately 6 cups of frosting.
Notes
1. Substitution for cake flour-- measure out 2 cups all purpose flour,
remove ¼ cup and replace with ¼ cup cornstarch. Whisk to blend
2. Buttermilk Substitution-- Use a measuring cup for liquid, add 1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons lemon juice or vinegar then fill with milk to the 1 ½ cup mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.
3. This recipe also works well for cupcakes. Bake standard size cupcakes at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from muffin tin onto a cooling rack immediately after baking.
Hi Carrie, I think this recipe makes 7 1/2 cups to 8 cups of batter. We used three 8x2 inch round pans so I put approximately 2 1/2 cups per pan.
I would love to make this cake for my mom's birthday, but would need to make it into a flat cake to feed everyone...what size pan would you suggest and bake for how long?
Thanks,
Cindy
Hi Cindy, I forgot to note the number of cups of batter this recipe makes, but I think it is 7 cups. That amount will be enough for a 9x13 sheet pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Check at 25 minutes, when a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached, it is done. If the top of the cake is getting too dark, cover loosely with a piece of aluminum foil.
Can I use cake flour if I don't have all purpose flour.
Yes, you can use cake flour, just add 4 extra tablespoons cake flour.
Thank you for your quick response.
Hello,can I bake the cakes one at a time?If so how do keep the cake batter?
Hi Kavuyi, It is always best to bake the cake layers at the same time, if possible. Cake batter can be refrigerated but when used later the cake may not rise as high as it should. I think cakes made with a box mix have a bit better result with refrigerated batter than scratch cakes.
Hi,
I would like to bake this cake, but first I would like to confirm that no additional liquid is added to the batter. So many of the chocolate cake recipes on your website call for either milk or buttermilk, and then an additional cup of hot coffee to be added. This recipe does not include any extra liquid other than the buttermilk, so I just wanted to be sure that the recipe is correct as it is written. Thanks!
Hi Marilyn, The recipe is correct as written, I hope you will enjoy it.
Hi, will this cake be suitable to use for a 2 tier cake?
Hi Nasreen, Yes, it will be fine for a 2 tier cake.