I almost titled this recipe “a chocolate cake so good it may actually kill you” but I didn’t want to be over dramatic.

But seriously.  All I can say is thank God I didn’t discover this during The Great Cake Binge of 2014.

We had friends over for my good friend Leina’s birthday and when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday dessert, she responded and said “Anything chocolate! Brownies, cake, cookies, anything.”

If chocolate was the order of the day, the mission was accomplished with this cake.  The secret ingredient is an entire cup of hot coffee added to the mix, making the batter suspiciously runny but by some black magic, pulled out of the oven as the most moist, amazing chocolate cake you’ve ever had.

And no, you can’t taste the coffee.  At all.

The simplicity of this recipe is pretty amazing too.  There’s like 3 steps.  You just put stuff in the mixer.  No sifting flour or beating eggs for a minute at a time.  Easy peasy.  You can make this late at night just because you want one.

This recipe will make 2 9 inch cakes or 24 cupcakes.  I divided my batter 3 ways into a smaller 7 inch pan and made a 3 layer cake.

Still a little warm from the oven, I smeared each layer with chocolate syrup and let it soak into the cake.   Then I assembled the layers with a fudge buttercream, iced the outside with fudge buttercream as well, and then topped the entire thing off with a rich chocolate  ganache over the top to drip down the sides.  And then topped that with chocolate shavings. Because why not?

It was over the top chocolate goodness.

Enjoy.

Cake recipe from Foodess

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or sub by using a cup of whole milk with a tablespoon of white vinegar and letting it sit 5 minutes until thick)
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup of hot coffee

Chocolate Frosting for layers and outside of cake:
My favorite recipe for chocolate frosting

Ganache for the top:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Chocolate shavings for garnish if desired, I used a Cadbury chocolate bar.
Hershey’s chocolate syrup, for spreading over warm cakes

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°.  Grease and flour (3) 8 inch cake pans, or grease and line with parchment paper circles. (I really recommend parchment paper for easy removal with cakes)

In your mixer, add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined.  Add the eggs, melted butter, vanilla, and buttermilk, and mix until just combined.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir the hot coffee into the batter by hand.  The batter will be runny.  It’s supposed to be!

Pour into your cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean with just a few bits of cake stuck to it.  That’s when it’s perfect.  Start checking around 15 minutes.

When you remove each cake from the oven, let it cool, run a knife around the edges of the pan, and carefully remove it from the pan onto a baking rack (with parchment or wax paper on top of it, if you have it, for much less sticking and mess) and spread about 1/4 cup of hershey’s syrup over the top.  Let that soak into the cake.

Assemble with fudge frosting in between layers and around the outside.  Place cake in the freezer about 10 minutes while you make the ganache.  To make the ganache, just place the chips and cream into a microwave safe bowl for 30 seconds at a time, stirring well in between until it is all melted together.  This shouldn’t take more that 2 minutes.  Be careful not to burn your chocolate.

Dump the ganache over the top of the cake, and spread it around so it drips over the sides. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings if desired.  Refrigerate until serving.