Chocolate Whiskey Cake with Homemade Dulce de Leche Buttercream and smothered in a decadent Chocolate Whiskey Ganache.
Chocolate Whiskey Cake and Dulce de Leche Buttercream
I was in Asheville, NC last week having a great time with 150 bloggers! It was a wonderful time sharing ideas, learning new things, and eating new food. The Food Blog Forum was hosted by Foodtopia, the Asheville tourism board, and they totally impressed me. Everything about the area was amazing – the mountains, the friendly people, the farms, the restaurants, and the desserts!
One little chocolatier totally caught my attention – Jael from French Broad Chocolate.
They have a cocoa farm in Costa Rica and they bring it back to Asheville where they roast them and make the chocolate. It’s a lovely place and it smells divine!
My husband has been bugging me to make a “man’s cake” for the past month. He bought me a bottle of Dewar’s and it took me so long to get to it that he had enjoyed 99% of the bottle himself. I was determined to make this cake before I left for North Carolina, and I had a large bundt cake made… but then life happened and that bundt cake was sacrificed to make cake pops for FBF. C’est la vie!
Also, while driving through the mountains, touring the farms, and looking out over the Biltmore Estate, I got a total sense of “Outlander”. Not in Scotland, but when they move to North Carolina. I’m in book 6 of the series and loving every moment with the Fraser Clan. So while I was there talking with a Foodtopian, I mentioned that with the Highland Brewery and the majestic mountains, they should really look into a full experience with Jamie and Claire. Yeah, I’d get into that… while stuffing my face with this cake.
Yes, I really think that all the Highland boys would enjoy this cake. At least my red-headed husband did 😉
Chocolate Whiskey Cake
Whiskey infused Chocolate Cake and Dulce de Leche buttercream will bring all the Scottish highlanders to your yard!
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 5 ounces dark chocolate (I used 66% dark)
- 1/4 cup instant espresso (or instant coffee) granules
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- Boiling water
- 1 cup whiskey
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For the Frosting
- 1 pound (4 sticks) butter (salted is good)
- apx 10 - 12 oz Dulce de Leche made from 1 14 oz can
- 2 pounds powdered sugar (As needed to thicken)
- 2 - 3 tablespoons whiskey
Instructions
For the Cake
- Melt the chocolate pieces and set aside to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and grease two 9 inch round pans. Line with parchment or flour.
- In a 2 cup measuring cup, place the coffee granules and the cocoa powder and add boiling water up to the 1 cup line. Stir. When all is dissolved, add in the whiskey. Set aside to cool.
- Whip the butter until smooth then add in the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, stir together the baking soda, salt, and flour.
- Add the cooled chocolate to the butter mixture. Alternate mixing in the coffee whiskey mixture and the flour.
- Transfer to the prepared pans and bake for 35 minutes.
- Cool for 10 minutes in the pan before turning them out. Allow to cool completely and refrigerate.
For the Frosting
- Whip the softened butter and add in the Dulce de Leche. Slowly add in the powdered sugar and the whiskey. You'll need a lot of sugar for a thick frosting. Keep adding the sugar until the peaks are stiff yet it's still pliable.
- Tort the Cake and layer the frosting. You can leave the sides open if desired or cover it completely.
Notes
Cake recipe adapted from Simply Recipes
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Oh man! This looks SOOO good! And now that French Broad Chocolates is selling the chef’s tablets of baking chocolate on their website, I can totally make this! YUM.
I’m loving the French Broad Chocolates! And… I totally think an Asheville Outlander tour would be awesome to think about.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see the recipe here anymore, all that’s left is the tag [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:147].
I’m halfway through making this cake for a party tonight (I made the cake part yesterday and was going to make the frosting today) and I’m kind of freaking out because I need the other half of this recipe! If this is actually a problem with the page and not with my computer AND phone, please fix it and I will totally make this cake for everyone I know until they are all slaves to your blog. Thank you!
It’s back up. I’m sorry for your frustration. I was updating recipe plug-ins and they were all down for a few hours. It’s back up now. Thanks and ENJOY!
How big is this cake?
It was made in two 9″round cake pans. I cut each cake in half creating four layers. I’d guess it was at least 8 – 10 inches tall with the frosting.
Is this recipe sweet enough? I’ve used unsweetened cocoa powder before in a cake recipe and the cake came out tasting bitter. Can I use sweetened cocoa powder instead?
It’s not an overly sweet cake, but I found that that cake with the frosting was more than sweet enough for me. Even though I used dark chocolate and cocoa powder, the added 1.5 cups of sugar prevented it from being bitter. I hope you give it a try.
I made this cake for my fiancé on his Birthday and it’s delicious!!! Thanks for sharing
I want to make it again but for someone that doesn’t drink alcohol what is a good substitute for Whiskey it’s recipe? When I made it the first time in the cake part I did half cup whiskey and half cup milk because I ran out of whiskey it turned out perfect.
Just omit it and use water for the replacement. Milk will add more protein to it and might make it more dense. There’s a lot of fat (butter) and sugar to give it a moist crumb. If you want more light and fluffy, use water. If you want more like a pound cake consistency, use milk. Hope that helps. Glad you enjoyed the cake!
I made it for my sons birthday and everyone loved it
That’s GREAT to hear! Happy Birthday to your son!
Hi. What type of flour is it you use?
All of my recipes us all purpose flour unless otherwise stated.
I see a half teaspoon of salt for the ingredients for the cake but in the instructions to Mesa cake it does not say anything about salt.
Sorry about that. Just add in the salt with the sugar. I’ve corrected the instructions to reflect that. Thanks for pointing that out.
@Karyn Granrud, I’m getting ready to make this cake soon. It looks amazing! I think my friends are going to love it! Also, just a heads up that I don’t think you fixed the instructions to say where you add the salt. 🙂
It’s fixed. I promise it’s fixed now. 🙂 I also made a few other changes in the wording of the directions. Enjoy!
This looks so tasty! I’d love to make one of my own. Do you have the ingredients list in grams rather than cups?
Sorry, I don’t. You can use google to convert the cups to grams.
Flavor is absolutely great, but my cake is completey falling apart! definitely not over baked because it’s super moist but I touch it and it falls apart. Still eating it, just looks like a hot mess
Interesting. I don’t know why it would fall apart. Do you mean it’s crumbing? Do you mean it’s too soft? Is it ripping when you were frosting it? I wrap my cakes with plastic and freeze them overnight before frosting them. This keeps them firm and easier to frost.
Can you tell me why I didn’t get enough rise to make 2 layers out of each cake? Followed the recipe exactly as written and used a brand new box of baking soda.
The cake and frosting were absolutely delicious though! TEN stars!!
So sorry, there are so many reasons why a cake won’t rise. Maybe the oven temperature is off? Maybe it was over stirred before going into the oven? I really don’t know what could have thrown it off, but I’m glad that they were delicious!
If you were to use this recipe for cupcakes instead how would you adjust the cook time/ temperature?
Temperature will stay the same, time will be cut to 18 – 22 minutes.
Hi, thank you sharing this wonderful recipe. I need to make this into 2 trays of 6 inches size.
How can I reduce the recipe? Many thanks
I don’t understand what size you are trying to make. I would just make the recipe as is, fill your pans accordingly and watch your bake times. If there is leftover batter, consider making some cupcakes or additional cakes to freeze.
Hi Karen! Looking forward to making your cake for Father’s Day!
Just so I have this right, the frosting calls for 2 pounds of powdered sugar? That’s about 8 cups I think. Is this correct?
Thank you!
and yes… 8 CUPS of powdered sugar. It’s insane how much sugar American Buttercream uses. However, if you get to a good consistency before adding all the sugar, then stop. Don’t make it too thick. You’ll run into playing with the liquid to soften it and then sugar to thicken it.
i doubt you will publish this comment but wanted to let you know thatthis cake flopped big time which is a dissapointment as the ingredients were expensive. we ate it as a brownie and it was ok. it rose in the oven but when i took it out it sunk to a brownie. i used natural cocoa powder which is the correct cocoa to use if your only leavening agent is baking soda. i put the baking soda in the dry ingredients even though your recipe calls for it to be added to the eggs and also to the flour. maybe that’s the problem, i used 1 tsp.
Cakes can sink for many reasons. The oven temperature wasn’t correct, under baking, the cake pan was too small, opening the oven in the middle of baking… There are many reasons for your cake sinking in the middle and not just the fault of the recipe. I know it sucks when it happens to me. Better luck next time.