Beatty's Chocolate Cake

I've made a lot of different types of chocolate cakes before but now I think this recipe will be my go-to chocolate cake.  Yesterday, we celebrated birthdays for five people in my family. Yes, five.

We have a lot of July birthdays but since the grandkids were in Japan during their own two birthdays, we had to celebrate now that they are back and I made this chocolate cake. After I decorated it, it looked like this:

Our 5-year-old granddaughter requested chocolate cake so I picked Ina Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake.  It was a huge success.  We let her blow out the candles and she was so thrilled.  But she was more thrilled eating it and even commented how good it was.  I told her I'd make it every year for her birthday if she wanted.   

Everyone loved this cake.  It was super moist and chocolately.  As with many of my recipes that involve chocolate cake, it uses coffee to bring out the chocolate flavor. The batter was more runny than most cakes since you used one cup of brewed coffee in it, but it didn't matter.  It baked beautifully.   The frosting was amazing, too.  It used instant coffee crystals to enhance the chocolate flavor and it had an egg yolk to emulsify it all.  It was so light and fluffy and perfect with the super moist cake.

This is a recipe I got from Ina Garten so I knew it would be a good one.  It's from her 2006 cookbook The Barefoot Contessa at Home.  I mostly liked the story of this cake.  It's called Beatty's Chocolate Cake because Beatty was her friend's grandmother. (If it's a grandmother's recipe, it's probably good!)  If you watch her cooking show, you know she has many friends from where she lives in the Hamptons and they will often appear on her show.  One friend is her florist, Michael Grim, known as The Bridgehampton Florist.  Well, Beatty was his grandmother and the recipe had been in their family for years.  His grandfather had a milk route in Pennsylvania Dutch country and Beatty would bake this chocolate cake to take to the customers on his milk deliveries.  I mean, who doesn't like the combination of chocolate cake and milk?  It's an easy recipe, too, so I can see how you could make it often especially back when people couldn't just go out and buy a cake at the store.  But trust me, this is no store-bought cake.  It's so much better.  Even a 5-year-old will comment how good it is.  Ina Garten has done some "updating" on this recipe but it's basically still the old fashioned chocolate cake that Beatty use to make.  It doesn't have to be a birthday for you to make this recipe.  Do you just want a good old fashioned chocolate cake?  You can whip this beauty up in no time.  

Cake

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee, may use decaf.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)
1//2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 Tbsp. instant coffee granules, such as Nescafe

Cake

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter two 8-inch round cake pans.  Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans. 

2.  Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.

3. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.

4. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ones.

5. With the mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. 

6. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake the 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

7. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

8. Place one layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal.

9. With a knife or offset spatula, spread a thin layer of buttercream on the top only.

10. Place the second layer on top, flat side up, and spread the frosting evenly first on the sides and then on the top of the cake. Cake in wedges and serve at room temperature.

Frosting 

1. Chop the chocolate and place it in a heatproof bowl over a pan over simmering water.

2. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature. 

3. Beat the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. 

4.  Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes.

5. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy.

6. Dissolve the coffee in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. 

7. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip!



8. Spread immediately on the cooled cake.