Who doesn’t love chocolate? Chocolate is one of my go to desert whenever I crave for something sweet. This chocolate cake is my favourite go to recipe. Its super moist, rich in chocolate and deeply flavourful. I always end up baking this chocolate cake for birthdays, anniversaries and sometimes just for the sake of having chocolate! My son always asks me to bake this chocolate cake for his birthday. We just celebrated his birthday last week and I thought why not post it on my blog.

This chocolate cake can be paired with any frosting of your choice. I have paired this with salted caramel buttercream and it tastes heavenly! We just couldn’t stop eating it. It was so good!

The frosting for this cake is very simple. I have made this buttercream using the russian method. Hence its also called the Russian buttercream. Unlike the American buttercream which is too sweet for my liking. The russian buttercream uses condensed milk instead of powdered sugar and can be prepared quickly. The frosting is light which I absolutely love. For the caramel, I have used the store-bought one. You can also make caramel at home if you cannot find one in the shop. Make sure that the condensed milk and the caramel is chilled before you start making the buttercream.

Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

• All purpose flour- 2 cups
• cocoa powder- 3/4th cup
• salt- 1 tsp
• Baking Soda- 1 and 1/2 tsp
• Baking Powder- 2 tsp
• sugar- 2 cups
• vegetable oil- 1/2 cup
• vanilla extract- 2 tsp
• eggs at room temp- 2
• milk at room temp- 1 cup
• hot water- 1 cup

Salted Caramel Buttercream

• Unsalted Butter at room temp- 500g
• Sweetened Condensed milk, chilled- 1 tin plus 1/4 cup
• Caramel, chilled- 1/2 cup
• Vanilla Extract- 1 tsp
• Salt- 1/2 tsp

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree celsius. Grease a 9 inch cake pans, line with parchment paper and grease the parchment paper.
2. For the cake– In a bowl, sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the sugar and whisk till all the mixture is uniformly mixed. In another bowl, whisk vegetable oil, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract. Pour the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Whisk till everything is well combined. Add hot water and whisk till the batter is completely combined. The batter will look thin and runny at this stage. It’s completely normal.
3. Pour the batter to the prepared cake pan. Bake for 45-50 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The baking time varies in different ovens, so a keep an eye on yours.
4. Remove the cake from the oven and place them on a wire rack. Allow the cake to be cooled down completely.
5. For the buttercream– In a bowl, add softened butter (it should still be cool to the touch) beat the butter with your handheld beater or a stand beater until it becomes pale and fluffy. Add vanilla extract, sweetened condensed milk (chilled). Beat on low speed until its fully combined. Add the caramel and salt, beat on low speed till everything is just combined. Do not over beat the buttercream.
6. Assemble and frost– Cut the cooled cake into 3 layers with a help of a cake leveller. All the layers have to be equal. If your cake has a dome on top, first level it off with a help of a serrated knife. Place one layer of the cake on a cake board, apply a thin layer of buttercream with a help of a spatula. Repeat the same process for the rest of the layers. Apply the buttercream on the sides of your cake and smoothen out the frosting with a help of a cake scraper.
7. Refrigerate the cake for 60 min before slicing. This helps the cake to hold its shape while cutting.