Triple Layer Chocolate Candy Cane Cake – Day Two – 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.
Prep time:
Cook time:
- 1½ cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1¼ cup boiling water
- 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- ½ cup Dutch-processed dark cocoa
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
- 10 tablespoons butter
- 1½ cup light brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Preheat your oven to 350 deg F and prepare 3 8-inch round cake pans. I used Pam with flour, but if you are going to go the traditional route of butter and flour, use cocoa instead to avoid any white spots on the cake.
- Put your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt) into a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, stir the water, chopped chocolate, cocoa, and coffee in a bowl and stir until smooth.
- Beat your butter and sugar with a paddle attachment in your mixer on medium speed and beat for 5 minutes until it's fluffy. Add your eggs in one at a time. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla. The mixture should be smooth.
- Reduce the mixer to low and in ⅓ of the flour, then ½ the chocolate, ⅓ flour, remaining chocolate, and end with flour beating it until its just combined.
- Remove from the mixer and give it a good turn with a large spatula to verify that everything is mixed well. Divide the batter into the three cake pans and bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the pans and bake for another 5 - 10 minutes until they are done.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.
- If you are not frosting it on the same day, store with wax paper between layers, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
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.