The most delicious, moist and easy to bake chocolate cake with buttermilk. This is my favourite recipe I bake often for my family and friends – it’s always a big hit!
Why make this recipe?
- Great chocolate flavour
- Very moist chocolate cake
- Relatively easy to make
My top tips on making this recipe successfully the first time round
Do take time to whip the egg whites separately and then fold them into the cake mixture as this makes the cake nice and light
Use buttermilk in this recipe to get that extra lovely flavour. If you don’t have buttermilk see my ingredients notes for making buttermilk at home (it’s very easy)
Any specialist equipment needed?
I’ve used Bundt baking tin for this cake, but you are welcome to use any round or square tin you have. Ideally you want your cake to be nice and deep so anything that is at least 10 cm deep will be fine.
You can also use two 2 pound loaf cake tins or four one pound loaf cake tins.
If you do end up with more cake than you bargained for, just freeze some for later.
Ingredients & Possible Substitutions
Flour
You will need white self-raising flour (cake flour) for this recipe. If you don’t have self-raising flour, use plain (white cake flour) and add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. If you have just one (baking soda or baking powder) use 1 teaspoon of just one raising agent.
Cocoa powder
Use the best cocoa powder you have, you’ll get better chocolate flavour with a dark cocoa powder. If you don’t have cocoa powder, you can use hot chocolate drink powder, but since it’s slightly weaker, you might need to add 1/2 teaspoon of instant coffee granules to bring the chocolate flavour out.
You can also use plain or cooking chocolate, but you’ll need to use about twice as much to get the same chocolate effect.
Buttermilk
You can buy buttermilk in most large supermarkets (look where the cream is). If you don’t have buttermilk, you can use the same amount of full-fat milk (or any type of dairy milk) and a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. Add the vinegar or lemon juice to the milk and leave for a while to curdle. Use instead of buttermilk.
Chocolate
I’ve used plain dark chocolate for the chocolate sauce, but milk chocolate or milk chocolate substitute would be fine too.
White chocolate might be little bit too sweet, but that’s just a personal preference. If you wanted a lovely colour contrast, the white chocolate or any white chocolate substitute would make a great chocolate sauce to pour over your buttermilk cake.
Butter
I always use unsalted butter, but in this recipe, both salted and unsalted butters are fine. If you use unsalted butter, it’s a good idea to add a pinch of salt to the cake mixture.
Vanilla essence
Vanilla round up everything flavour wise, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry. In this recipe you will hardly notice it.
Sugar
I use caster sugar for this buttermilk chocolate cake, but brown or light brown sugar would be fine too. If anything it would add extra richness to the cake.
Eggs
I’ve not used any substitutions for eggs for this recipe, as you need to separate them and whisk the egg whites to make the cake mixture light and fluffy.
The method – Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly oil and line a 9 inch (23cm) round cake tin. I sometimes use bundt cake tin and only decorate the top with the chocolate sauce/mix.
Then in a large bowl cream together the butter, vanilla essence and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs yolks – one at the time.
In another bowl sift together the flour and cocoa powder and gently fold into the egg mixture together with the buttermilk.
In another bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form and then fold carefully into the chocolate mixture in two batches.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until firm. Make sure that you check with a wooden skewer to make sure the cake is done.
Cool slightly in the cake tin and then turn out carefully onto a wire rack and leave to cool down completely.
Whilst the cake is cooling down, melt the chocolate and butter. You can do this either very carefully in the microwave in 20 sec bursts and mixing after each 20 seconds.
Alternatively, you can place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a simmering pan of water. Stir the chocolate mixture and then leave to cool down at room temperature until slightly thicker and easy to spread.
To cover your chocolate cake, split the cake first horizontally in half and use the chocolate mixture to sandwich the two cakes together. Spread a little on the top too and on the sides of the cake to keep the cake nice and moist.
To make the cake extra special you can also whip some double cream and decorate the top of the cake and add sprinkles, chocolate pieces or other chocolate decorations. Either way, even without the cream, this is very delicious cake!
Allergies & dietary requirements
I’ve not tried to make too many changes to this recipe as all the ingredients are quite crucial to make this cake.
The only thing I would swap around if needed is the flour as there is not a lot of it. It’s best to use gluten-free blend, which already has xanthan gum (that replaces the gluten) incorporated.
Can I scale up or down this recipe?
Potentially, yes you can, but this recipe is already quite large, so if you needed to make it even bigger you’d need to increase the baking time by 1/3 every time you double the recipe up.
Scaling down is little bit easier, just half the recipe and bake it in a smaller tin. The baking time will be about 1/4 shorter than the recipe, but do check with a wooden skewer when the cake is done. I think, something like a brownie tin would work great for 1/2 the recipe size with the chocolate sauce drizzled over it.
How to serve the chocolate buttermilk cake
This buttermilk chocolate cake can be made with or without the chocolate sauce and whipped cream. You can also serve it with chocolate sorbet, vanilla ice-cream, salted caramel sauce, simple chocolate syrup or white chocolate ganache.
Can this cake be made in advance?
This cake keeps well for 3-4 days, so yes, you can make it one day in advance.
How to store the cake
Keep the cake in air tight container with a lid somewhere in a cold area of your kitchen. It doesn’t necessarily need to go to fridge, but if it’s very hot (like more than 20C) it’s probably better in the fridge (especially if you are making the chocolate sauce topping).
Why not stay in touch…
I hope you enjoy making this recipe and if you do, I’d love to know what you think! Let me know in the comments below or find me on Instagram or Facebook and add the hashtag #cocoaandheart so that I can see your post.
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Magdalena
Chocolate Buttermilk Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the buttermilk chocolate cake
- 175 grams unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
- 350 grams caster sugar
- 4 medium eggs separated into egg whites one bowl and egg yolks (second bowl)
- 100 grams self-raising flour
- 40 grams cocoa powder
- 175 grams/ml buttermilk
For the cake topping
- 200 grams plain dark chocolate
- 100 grams unsalted butter
- 300 ml double cream optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly oil and line a 9 inch (23cm) round cake tin.
- In a large bowl cream together the butter, vanilla essence and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs yolks – one at the time.
- In another bowl sift together the flour and cocoa powder and gently fold into the egg mixture together with the buttermilk.
- In another bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form and then fold carefully into the chocolate mixture in two batches.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until firm. Make sure that you check with a wooden skewer to make sure the cake is done.
- Cool slightly in the cake tin and then turn out carefully onto a wire rack and leave to cool down completely.
- Whilst the cake is cooling down, melt the chocolate and butter. You can do this either very carefully in the microwave in 20 sec bursts and mixing after each 20 seconds.
- Alternatively, you can place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a simmering pan of water. Stir the chocolate mixture and then leave to cool down at room temperature until slightly thicker and easy to spread.
- To cover your chocolate cake, split the cake first horizontally in half and use the chocolate mixture to sandwich the two cakes together. Spread a little on the top too and on the sides of the cake to keep the cake nice and moist.
- To make the cake extra special you can also whip some double cream and decorate the top of the cake and add sprinkles, chocolate pieces or other chocolate decorations. Either way, even without the cream, this is very delicious cake!
Jean says
This chocolate cake is really soft and the flavour is amazing! I baked it a couple of days ago and the family loved it.