Life.Love.Craft: One Bowl Chocolate Cake & Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Hey everyone, kind of a mouth full title, no? Not sure if I could have made it any longer, maybe I'll try next time. At least it's not boring, I mean it does have the word chocolate in it twice. If you're anything like me, then you didn't needed to hear it twice to be interested.

I mentioned on Facebook that we had friends over for dinner and I needed a quick dessert. I was in a cake mood, so I thought I would try my hand at making a cake and icing from scratch.

This was a super easy cake recipe that I will definitely make again. And the icing was pretty simple to make as well.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake (original recipe here)

2 cups white sugar                                         1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 eggs                                                           1 cup milk
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder                 1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp baking powder                                 2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking soda                                     1 tsp salt
1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two nine inch round pans.

2. In a large bowl, mix the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. Stir in the boiling water last (the batter will be very thin). Pour evenly into the prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 min. or until the cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing (original recipe here)

1 1/2 cups butter, softened                              5 cups icing sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa                                1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract                                         1/2 tsp coffee powder

1. Add cocoa to a large bowl and whisk to remove lumps.

2. Cream together butter and cocoa powder until well-combined. Add the sugar and milk to cocoa mixture by adding 1 cup of sugar followed by 2-3 tablespoons of milk. Mix well between additions. Repeat until all sugar and milk have been added

3. Add vanilla extract and espresso powder and combine well (if frosting appears too dry add more milk a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency. If it appears too wet then add sugar, a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency).

I let the cake cool over night then made the icing in the morning. I chilled the cake in the fridge for a few hours to help everything set, then took out a few hours before we were going to eat it.

The cake was very rich, I might try a little less cocoa next time I make it. But it was so moist, which completely made up for the richness. This was almost as easy as making cake from a box, especially if you have all of the ingredients on hand. This recipe would be perfect for cupcakes because they are the perfect portion so they wouldn't be too rich.

This is hard for me to say, but the icing was almost too sweet. I don't think I have ever said that about icing, but it's true. I love anything sweet, but I can only handle a very small amount of the icing. I don't know if I will make this exact recipe again, but I am glad that I did make it. You never know if you like something until you try it, right?