Dark Chocolate Cake

If you love dark chocolate, you're going to love our latest recipe for dark chocolate cake!

The dark chocolate cake layers are moist and decadent, and guaranteed to please any chocolate lover!

This dark chocolate layer cake joins a long list of go-to chocolate cake recipes in our Cake Recipes section!

In some recipes, as with our Chocolate Cake from Scratch, we use unsweetened cocoa powder to achieve the chocolate flavor. In others, as with our Milk Chocolate Cake and White Chocolate Cake, we use melted chocolate. Today, we are using both!

 How to Make Dark Chocolate Cake

**Make sure to check out the recipe card at the bottom of this post for the full, printable recipe! Here is a quick rundown of our steps:

• Preheat the oven (350F) and prepare your pans as usual. I like to grease, flour, and line with parchment paper to be on the safe side! We're using the conventional mixing method (rather than reverse creaming method) for this cake recipe. 

• In a microwave-safe bowl, combine dark chocolate chips and milk. Melt in small increments in the microwave until the chocolate has softened. Be careful not to overheat! Gently stir the melted chips until there are no remaining unmelted pieces. Let the chocolate mixture cool down slightly before using.

• Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and set aside.

• In another bowl, combine the melted chocolate/milk mixture and sour cream and set aside.

• In the bowl of your mixer, mix the butter until smooth. Then, add the sugar slowly and mix until fluffy (about 4-5 minutes).  Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.

• Add the dry ingredients alternately with the liquid chocolate/sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (3 additions of dry and 2 additions of wet ingredients), mixing until blended. 

• With mixer on low, slowly add the hot coffee and mix until well combined. (about 30 seconds). Coffee helps to bring out the flavor of the chocolate even more! The hot temperature also helps the cocoa to bloom.

• Divide the dark chocolate batter between your cake pans and bake for about 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream

Today's chocolate cream cheese buttercream is actually a new recipe for us! It is a cross between American chocolate buttercream and our classic chocolate cream cheese frosting, and it provides a wonderful contrast to the dark, rich cake layers.

What we love about this chocolate cream cheese recipe is that it is very easy to pipe with and isn't quite so soft due to the higher proportion of butter and powdered sugar.

While this frosting recipe doesn't call for as much cream cheese as our other chocolate cream cheese recipe, the delicious tanginess is still there and it gives the frosting a nice, creamy consistency. It also gives us plenty of frosting to fill, frost, and add decorative piping to our three layer cake!

This frosting comes together effortlessly as you first mix the softened butter, then add in the cream cheese, cocoa, powdered sugar, milk and salt. It is creamy, dreamy, and delicious (and makes just over 5 cups of frosting)!

Decorating the Dark Chocolate Cake

There are so many decorating options with this cake as the frosting is very easy to work with. We used a simple cake comb and star tip for a classic look.

Combing the cake and piped details

After frosting the cake, I smoothed around the sides with a bench scraper to even out the frosting before using a cake comb to add details.

If the frosting is too soft, or if you are combing away too much frosting, simply pop the cake in the freezer to firm it up a bit (15 minutes or so), and then continue- it will make the process much easier!

I smoothed over the top of the chilled, frosted cake with a warm spatula before adding small rosettes, shells, and stars with my star tip 21. (You can find more about star tip piping here: Basics of Piping with a Star Tip)

I kept things very simple with this cake design but I still love the look!

More Chocolate Cakes and Frostings

We've made so many chocolate cake recipes over the years!! You can see our full collection in our Roundup of Favorite Chocolate Cake and Frostings.

Some of our favorites are Classic Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Mousse Cake from mix, German Chocolate Cake, and Black Forest Cake.

Recipe FAQs

Dark Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

BY Melissa and Bebe

Moist homemade dark chocolate cake layers are sure to please the chocolate lovers in your life! This cake would taste amazing with so many frostings and fillings- today we've paired it with a delicious Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 25 minutes mins

Servings: 15 servings

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Ingredients

For the Dark Chocolate Cake Layers

• ▢ 1 stick + 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (185g)
• ▢ 1 ½ cups granulated/white sugar (300g)
• ▢ 4 eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
• ▢ 2 ¾ cups All Purpose Flour (322g)
• ▢ ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa (measure then sift) (55g)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons Baking Soda (10g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Baking Powder (2g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Salt (2g)
• ▢ 1 ¼ cups Dark Chocolate (We used Ghirardelli Chips, 72% cacao) (177g)
• ▢ 1 cup milk (220g)
• ▢ 1 cup sour cream (242g)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (4g)
• ▢ ½ cup Hot Coffee (110g)

For the Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream

• ▢ 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (339g)
• ▢ 8 oz package cream cheese, softened (do not used reduced fat or cream cheese from a tub or your frosting will be too soft)
• ▢ ¼ cup milk- adjust as needed in small amounts to reach desired consistency (57g)
• ▢ 7 ½ cups powdered sugar (measure then sift) (863g)
• ▢ ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon (22g)unsweetened cocoa- lightly spoon into cup, level off, then sift to break up any clumps.
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (2g)

Instructions

For the Dark Chocolate Cake Layers

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8x2 inch round cake pans- I like to line my pans with parchment circles also. (You could also use two 9x2 inch pans.)
• In a medium size bowl or large glass measuring cup, combine milk and dark chocolate chips. Microwave for 20 seconds, stir. Microwave another 10 seconds letting it sit a minute to soften further, stir. Microwave another 5-10 seconds as needed. The chocolate chips should look softened but hold their shape at this point. Stir or whisk until completely melted. It will take a minute or so of stirring.
• Let the chocolate cool down slightly before using.
• In a medium sized bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, and salt. Whisk for 30 seconds to blend and aerate then set aside.
• In a separate bowl, combine the melted chocolate/milk mixture and sour cream and set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix until smooth. Slowly add the sugar and mix on medium speed 4-5 minutes until the mixture has lightened in color, fluffy and has increased in volume. Add vanilla.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
• Add the dry ingredients alternately with the liquid chocolate/sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (3 additions of dry and 2 additions of wet ingredients), mixing until blended. Stop mixer and scrape down the sides of bowl with your spatula.
• With mixer on low, slowly add the hot coffee and mix until well combined. (about 30 seconds). Look over the recipe and make sure all ingredients have been added.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes. The layers will be done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
• Cool in the pans 5 to 10 minutes then turn out

For the Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream

• Add the slightly softened butter in the bowl of your mixer and mix on medium speed until smooth.
• Add pieces of cream cheese to the mixing bowl. The cream cheese should be soft enough that it combines easily into the butter mixture.
• Lower the mixing speed and add the sugar and cocoa slowly, along with the milk. Return to medium speed until well combined-Do not over mix. The longer it is mixed, the softer it becomes. If the frosting becomes too soft, refrigerate for 10 minutes or so to firm up.
• Makes about 5 ½ cups of frosting. Cakes frosted with cream cheese frosting should be refrigerated until closer to the time of decorating.

Decorating the Cake

• Decorate the cake however you like, this frosting is very easy to work with. If it becomes too soft, just pop it in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes. I filled and frosted the cake, smoothed around the sides with a bench scraper to remove excess frosting, and then used a cake comb to decorate around the sides. I used a piping tip 21 to decorate the top of the cake with small rosettes, shells, and stars.

Notes

1. The recipes works well for cupcakes. For standard size cupcakes, Bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick into the center of the cupcake.

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