Mole’s Dark Chocolate Cake with Hazelnut Buttercream
One Two-Layer 8” Cake
Cake layers:
1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened extra dark cocoa – available everywhere now
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp chili powder
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
¼ cup canola oil
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
½ cup steaming hot coffee, unsweetened
Finishing:
4-5 cups Hazelnut Buttercream – recipe is available on my blog site
¼ cup coarsely chopped roasted hazelnuts (for decoration)
Cherries (for decoration)
1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8” cake pans (either butter/flour or use floured cooking spray) and line the bottoms with a round of parchment paper.
2) Sift, or whisk, together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and chili powder in a medium bowl and then set at the ready.
3) In a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar and then add the oil. Mix until you have a light creamy mixture.
4) Add in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla paste.
5) Alternately add the dry mix and the buttermilk – dry, milk, dry, milk and the remaining dry.
6) With the mixer on low, add the hot coffee and mix until batter is smooth. Divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake 25-30 minutes until a wooden skewer comes out clean and the cakes are just starting to pull away from the pan.
7) Cool the cakes on a wire rack for 15 minutes and then remove them from their pans to cool completely.
8) Frost the cake, between the layers and on top, with the Hazelnut Buttercream. Garnish with buttercream rosettes, the coarsely chopped hazelnuts and cherries.
