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Recipe

Three-Layer Chocolate Cake

can we talk about this situation!?

Three layers, not two. It is the same amount of cake and it looks twice as serious, and there is more filling per slice, which is the only reason anybody eats layer cake.

The smooth sides come from one unglamorous step: a crumb coat. A thin scraped-on layer of frosting, chilled for twenty minutes, traps every loose crumb. The real coat then goes on over clean ground and stays the colour it is supposed to be.

Hot coffee in the batter. It will not taste of coffee — it blooms the cocoa and makes the whole thing taste more like chocolate.

Feeds
12
Hands-on
1 hour
Bake
28 minutes
Crumb coat
Not optional

Three hours with the cooling. The layers can be baked a day ahead and wrapped.

A slice of three-layer chocolate cake with milkA slice of chocolate cake and black coffee at the desk
Shot the night it was made. Open any picture for the full photograph.

What you need

The sponge

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 1 tbsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
  • 1 1/2 cups hot strong coffee
  • 3/4 cup neutral oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tbsp vanilla

The fudge filling and frosting

  • 3 sticks soft butter
  • 1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
  • 6 cups icing sugar, sifted
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 6 oz dark chocolate, melted and cooled

How it goes

  1. 1 — Line three 8-inch tins, bottom and sides

    Parchment rounds in the base and butter up the sides. Three tins baked together rise more evenly than one deep tin split later.

  2. 2 — Dry ingredients whisked, then wet, then coffee last

    The batter is very thin once the coffee goes in. That is correct and it is what makes the sponge moist.

  3. 3 — Weigh the batter between the tins

    On a scale, equal grams in each. Eyeballing it gives you three different layer heights and a cake that leans.

  4. 4 — 350°F for 26 to 28 minutes

    Until the centre springs back. Ten minutes in the tins, then out onto racks and cooled completely — completely, or the frosting slides.

  5. 5 — Level the tops with a serrated knife

    A thin dome off each layer so they stack flat. Eat the offcuts; that is the baker's fee.

  6. 6 — Frosting: butter and cocoa first, sugar after

    Butter beaten alone for three minutes, cocoa in, then the sifted icing sugar alternating with cream. Melted chocolate last, cooled, or it seizes the butter.

  7. 7 — Fill generously, then CRUMB COAT and chill

    A thick layer of filling between each. Then a thin scraped coat over the whole outside — it will look patchy and terrible — and twenty minutes in the fridge.

    pro tip — The crumb coat is the entire difference between a home cake and a cake that looks like that slice. It takes four minutes.

  8. 8 — Final coat, smoothed with a hot palette knife

    The rest of the frosting on thick, then a palette knife dipped in hot water and wiped dry, drawn round the sides in one pass.

  9. 9 — Cut tall wedges with a hot knife

    Hot wet blade, wiped between every slice. Cold milk, which is not negotiable.

Can we talk about this situation!? LFG.

More of what comes out of this kitchen on the food wall.

Every picture on this page is one of mine. I paint for a living the rest of the time — that is the gallery, and the originals are for sale.