Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (VIDEO)
This is the most perfect Chocolate Sponge Cake recipe you will ever make, easy and delicious baking basics recipe for home bakers!
Prep Time15 minutes mins
Cook Time30 minutes mins
Chilling time3 hours hrs
Total Time3 hours hrs 45 minutes mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 6
Calories: 311kcal
For the chocolate sponge cake layers
- 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
For the Cream cheese frosting
- 600 g Cream cheese full fat eg. Philadelphia
- 200 g Mascarpone full fat
- 100 g Powdered sugar sifted
- ½ tablespoon Vanilla extract pure, eg. Nielsen Massey
For the chocolate sponge layers
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
For the cream cheese frosting
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
Assemble
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
Decoration
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
Calories: 311kcal | Carbohydrates: 67g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 486mg | Potassium: 243mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 41g | Vitamin A: 124IU | Calcium: 112mg | Iron: 3mg