Buttermilk Fudge Cake with a Chocolate Gloss

Buttermilk Fudge Cake with a Chocolate Gloss - made May 28, 2012 from Cakes to Die For by Bev Shaffer

Been a little quiet on the blog this week - I've been busy: traveling for work last week, trying to catch up and just not online as much.  But I'm planning a bakefest shortly so I will have more recipes to put up.  Thanks for all the comments and invites to new link parties.  If I don't respond or don't respond right away, it's because of time and how it seems to fly by (OMG, it's June already) but I do read them all and do my best to keep up.  But sometimes it's all I can do just to find new recipes, type them up (and hope for no mistakes/typos but they do get through - sorry), bake them and blog about them.  Ack, I'm even running out of ingredients because I haven't had time to go grocery shopping.  A Costco run is in my future - I'm down to my last 2 pounds of butter, lol.

But there's always time for chocolate cake.  The ideal time to make chocolate cakes is generally before it gets too hot, especially if it's frosted.  Otherwise it just melts.  While the taste might still be the same, it doesn't look as pretty.  At least that's my excuse for making a chocolate cake while we're still having spring weather, before summer heat arrives.

This is a very good, very easy chocolate cake to make with a great "cakey" texture.  For once I didn't underbake (or overbake) it so the texture came out as it should.  The original directions called for making it as a round, 2-layer cake but I opted for simple and made it as a 9 x 13 cake.  I'm glad I did because the frosting made only enough for a thin layer of frosting on top of the cake.  I don't think it could've stretched to cover a 2-layer cake, top, middles and sides.  So if you do make it as two layers, you might want to double the frosting recipe for it.  Although avoid my mistake and (cough) sift the powdered sugar to get rid of the lumps or they'll appear in your frosting.  Ask me how I know.

A few little powdered sugar lumps in the frosting - oopsie

1 ¾ cup unbleached, all-purpose flour

¾ cup plus 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa, sifted

1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups buttermilk

Chocolate “Gloss”

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

1.     Heat the oven to 350⁰F.  Grease 2 9” round cake pans and cover pan bottoms with a round of parchment paper.  Or else line a 9 x 13" baking pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray. 

2.     In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

3.     In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter with the white and brown sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Scrape bowl.

4.     Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Stir in the vanilla.

5.     With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.  Mix just until blended.

6.     Spread batter into prepared pan(s) and smooth the top(s).

7.     Bake until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes.

8.     Cool in pans for 10 minutes.  Invert onto plates lined with waxed paper.  Peel off parchment or foil and reinvert cakes onto cooling racks.  Allow to cool completely on wire racks.

9.     For the chocolate “gloss”: in a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter with the confectioners’ sugar until very light.  Add the vanilla and melted chocolate, beating until glossy and smooth.

10.   Place one cake layer on a cake stand or serving plate.  Spread with a small amount of the gloss.  Top with the other layer and frost the sides and then the top, swirling the gloss.

11.   Let cake stand for at least 30 minutes before slicing, to allow the layers to set.  Serves 8.