Do you love the deep and intense flavor of dark chocolate? You’ll love this triple layer dark chocolate cake for your next celebration.
Dark Chocolate Cake
Are you a fan of dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, or milk chocolate? I guess I’m a fan of all three. Each one has its own unique flavor and characteristic.
Dark Chocolate is a bold flavor and needs to be paired with other bold flavors. Semi-sweet we all know and love in our chocolate chip cookies. And milk chocolate is much sweeter and lighter in flavor. If I had to choose one for a candy bar, I’m a milk chocolate fan. However, if I’m baking a cake, this dark chocolate one was a winner!
I used Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa in the mix. Along with the unsweetened chocolate and a touch of coffee, this cake came out nearly black. Sweetened with brown sugar instead of white sugar, it stayed moist without being overly sweet. This was a great cake base and very straight forward to make.
As I said with the dark chocolate flavors, pair this cake with a bold frosting.
This cake is part two in a three part series including a Candy Cane Tray and Candy Cane Cake.
Dark Chocolate Cake
This cake is for Dark Chocolate lovers! It’s decadent and sinful and will make you feel amazing!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 C flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 C boiling water
- 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped up
- 1/2 C Dutch-processed cocoa
- 1 tsp instant coffee granules
- 10 Tbsp butter, softened
- 1 1/2 C packed light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 C sour cream (or heavy cream)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare three 8 inch round cake pans with some Crisco or butter and a dusting of cocoa powder.
- Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, place the chopped chocolate, cocoa powder, and coffee granules and pour over the boiling water. Whisk until smooth.
- Place your butter into a stand mixer with the sugar and beat for 5 minutes. Scrape off the side and mix in 1 egg at a time. Add the sour cream (or heavy cream) and vanilla.
- Turn the mixer to lowest setting and add in 1/3 of the flour followed by half of the chocolate mixture. Repeat with half the flour and remaining chocolate and finally add in the remaining flour and just mix until combined.
- Divide the batter into the three prepared pans and bake for 15 – 20 minutes. Give them a toothpick test to make sure they are cooked all the way though. Rotate them half way though to make sure they all get baked equally.
- Cool in the pans for 10 minutes then flip over on to a wire rack and cool completely.
- Wrap in plastic wrap to and refrigerate to keep from drying out if you are not going to frost right away.
Notes
Recipe from Cook’s Country Chocolate Dessert
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Milk Chocolate fan. 🙂
Mmmm, looks amazing! Thanks for sharing this recipe 😀
Thanks so much!
This cake looks great. I only have one cake pan and I want to make a 3 layer cake. What would you recommend on storing the batter while I cook each layer? Do you think leaving it sit would alter the quality of the cake because it would active the baking soda? Thanks!
I’ve saved the batter in the bowl for the 30 minutes while the others are baking and have never had any problems. I would suggest just buying disposable pans and baking them all at the same time. The cost isn’t that crazy and should all fit in your oven. To get them all equal, I’d also take it a step farther and weigh the batter in each cake pan to get them all equal. Hope that helps. Enjoy!
I was wondering if you had a recipe for your frosting used with this cake? It looks so dark and delicious! Thank you
I used a white chocolate candy cane frosting on the cake. What sort of frosting are you looking for? Use the “search” tool in the side bar to look for FROSTING. Hope that helps.