Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (VIDEO)

5 from 5 votes

This is the most perfect Chocolate Sponge Cake recipe you will ever make, easy and delicious baking basics recipe for home bakers!

Prep Time15

Cook Time30

Chilling time3

Total Time3 45

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 311kcal

170 g All purpose flour any low protein content flour eg. pastry flour can work too.
45 g Cocoa powder unsweetened, dutch processed
120 g Granulated sugar
120 g Brown sugar
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1 teaspoon Baking powder
½ teaspoon Salt
70 g Vegetable oil
2 Eggs room temperature
165 g Milk room temperature
120 g Coffee freshly brewed strong coffee, room temperature

Heat oven to 200°C or 425°F (no fan). When you open the oven door, the temperature will inevitably drop a bit therefore I always recommend pre-heating the oven higher than the actual baking temp.
Prepare 3 15 cm (6 inch) round cake pan with parchment paper
With an Electric hand mixer whip together the wet ingredients for 1-2 minutes: room temperature egg, oil, sugar, coffee and milk
Sift dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, salt
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients then fold just until combined
Divide batter equally into 3 cake pans with the help of a Digital scale
Place baking pans into the oven and reduce oven temperature to 180°C / 356°F (no fan). Bake for 25-30 min or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cakes comes out clean
Cool the chocolate sponges on Cooling rack. Chill them in the fridge before assembling the cake

Whip mascarpone, cream cheese, vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract and powder sugar until smooth and fluffy, this will only take a few minutes. Use a hand mixer and do not over beat as it can become runny

Measure the frosting (200g in between each layers)
Start to build up the layers from the bottom to the top. Once the last cake layer is placed, chill the cake for a minimum of 30 minutes
If at any point the frosting gets soft or the cake gets unstable, place it into the fridge to chill then only after continue
Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of frosting and then chill the cake again for another 30 minutes before decorating. I left the cake in this semi-naked way but you can also apply another layer of coating if you wish.
Chill the cake before decorating

Press chocolate sprinkles into the bottom sides of the cake. Sprinkle a few chocolate sprinkles over the top and sides of the cake.
Pipe the decoration on top of the layered cake using a round piping tip nozzle.
Place the decorated cake into the fridge to chill for one hour before serving
Store refrigerated

INGREDIENT NOTES:

Measure your ingredients with a Digital scale for accuracy
All ingredients for the chocolate cake must be at room temperature to properly emulsify: eggs, milk, coffee etc.
For the frosting, use mascarpone and Philadephia full fat versions

TECHNIQUE NOTES:

Make sure you read my Expert tips section above to maximize your success. A short recipe alone is not able to cover all the necessary details, and science behind baking. Consider this recipe more like an in-depth tutorial, literally the only recipe you will ever need
Do not overbake your sponge layers as that will result in a dry texture. Use the toothpick test to check if your cake is ready.
Cool the cake completely on a wire rack. This will help the cake not break when it’s fully cooled and can be removed from the pan.
When whipping the frosting, pay attention to the consistency and stop as soon as it is fluffy and pipeable consistency. This will take only a few minutes
During the assembling, if at any point the frosting feels soft, or the cake feels unstable, place it into the fridge for 1h to chill then continue with the next layer