Do you love cake? What is your favorite kind? Ask anyone and the majority of them will say chocolate cake! Everyone needs to have a good chocolate cake recipe in their recipe book. I did not! Not sure why! So when a few years back Mayur asked me for a chocolate cake for his birthday, I had to make a chocolate cake fit to feed a king! I do not want to brag, but this might be one of the best cakes I have made!! 

What you will need:

How to make it:

To make the cake:

• Tip: The eggs need to be at room temperature. To bring the eggs to room temp, just add them to a bowl of warm water. You may have to change the water and repeat the process twice. 
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease your cake pans with butter and dust them with flour. 
• In a bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract. 
• Take another bowl, sieve, and mix all the dry ingredients, including flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. 
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until everything is well combined. Do not over-mix. 
• Next, add hot coffee, a little at a time, and mix well. Tip: To make coffee, I mixed 2 teaspoons of instant coffee powder in hot water. However, you could use regular black coffee as well. Make sure that the coffee is hot.
• The batter will be very runny. But do not worry! You have it right 🙂
• Pour the batter immediately into the greased and dusted cake pans. 
• Bake on the middle rack for 45-50 minutes, based on your oven and baking pan size, or until a toothpick comes clear when pocked in the center. 

To make the frosting:

• While the cake is cooking, make the frosting.
• Add butter, powdered sugar, and unsweetened cocoa powder, along with salt to a stand mixer. If you use salted butter, do not add extra salt.
• Mix everything well on a medium speed until it comes together.
• Tip: The butter needs to be soft and at room temperature. If you plan to use the frosting later, refrigerate it. Remove out from the refrigerator and let it soften at room temperature for at least 30-40 minutes. 

Putting it all together:

• Once the cake is cooled completely, cut it into layers as desired. 
• Place a little frosting on the bottom of the cake plate. Place a layer of cake. Add some frosting and spread evenly. 
• Repeat with the remaining layers, alternating between cake and frosting. 
• Crumb-coat the cake and let it rest in the fridge for 15 minutes. 
• Remove it and then frost it again, evenly. 
• Decorate with chocolates or berries of your choice. 
• Refrigerate until ready to serve. Remove for at least 45 minutes to an hour (depending on your climate), and let it come to room temperature before cutting. 
• Note:  Note that, unlike other cakes, I did not use any syrup to moisten the sponge. That is because this sponge is insanely moist in itself. However, if you want, you can make a simple sugar syrup with 1 part sugar and 4 parts water and use it to moisten the cake even more.