Black Cocoa Cake

Ingredients for Black Cocoa Cake

• Flour: I use all purpose flour in most of my recipes BUT sometimes you just cannot beat the texture of cake flour. I highly recommend King Arthur’s Cake Flour. It is far superior to some alternatives in the grocery stores.
  • I have used the “homemade cake flour” trick by replacing 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour with cornstarch. 
  • I HIGHLY recommend using a digital scale, as flour is so often over measured. 
• Cocoa Powder: I used black cocoa powder for this cake. If you can’t find that, I recommend using dutch-processed cocoa powder because it’s also alkaline.
  • If you’re going to use natural cocoa powder, it would be best to also substitute the baking powder for baking soda. Use 25% of the amount in place of the baking powder so if it’s 1 Tbsp of baking powder, use 3/4 tsp baking soda.
• Baking Powder: to leaven the cake. I haven’t tested this with baking soda but it should work fine. Use 25% of the amount in place of the baking powder so if it’s 1 Tbsp of baking powder, use 3/4 tsp baking soda.
• Sugar: I used granulated sugar in the cake and I don’t recommend cutting any out as it contributes a lot to texture and it’s not overly sweet… it’s actually not very sweet at all (even though it seems like a lot).
  • I also used powdered sugar in the frosting and don’t recommend cutting any out. 
• Oil: I like oil in chocolate cake recipes – any neutral oil, like avocado, canola, etc. is fine. 
• Eggs: I use large eggs, make sure they’re room temperature. If not, then just place it in a cup of hot water for 10 minutes before using it.  
• Sour Cream: I’ve used greek yogurt and sour cream in this recipe and they both work well. You can also use plain yogurt. 
• Coffee: I use hot coffee in this recipe. I usually use Americanos but fresh brewed coffee is fine too. If you don’t want to use coffee, hot water will work as well, the flavor will just be a little less intense… The acid from the coffee also helps make it a little more tender and it’s not a noticeable coffee flavor so I do recommend the coffee.
  • I also used espresso in the mascarpone frosting. I did fresh brewed espresso but you could also just dissolve about 4 grams of espresso powder in 3-4 Tbsp of hot water and add that to the frosting instead. 
• Vanilla: I like using vanilla extract for cakes and vanilla beans for frosting. Vanilla bean paste works for both as well. 
• Mascarpone: I tested this with different brands of mascarpone, they all worked however, some of the mascarpone’s held a little more water than others. My favorite was BelGioioso Mascarpone but if you find something with an even higher fat content, use that. The cheese should be smooth and creamy (not wet and certainly not like cottage cheese or ricotta).
  • If you use another brand and you see water in it (usually at the bottom) , drain the cheese to avoid adding extra liquid to the cream but I recommend just finding a mascarpone with a thicker consistency.
  • Make sure the mascarpone is cold, straight from the fridge when using.
• Heavy Whipping Cream: I recommend using the cream with the highest fat you can find and make sure it’s cold when adding it to the mascarpone.
  • When you do add it in, you’ll notice the frosting getting softer first, just keep beating at full speed for a few minutes and the cream will “whip up”, stiffening the frosting. Once it’s holding good peaks, stop beating so you don’t over-whip the cream. 

Expert tips on getting perfect black cocoa cake

• Don’t swap ingredients unless I mentioned them in the ingredient section above.
• Don’t reduce the sugar. I know a lot of people do that for some recipes but I don’t recommend it. The cake is not sweet and sugar contributes to a texture.
• Weigh your ingredients with a digital scale 
• Weigh the batter for each cake tin to get even layers. 
• Fresh brewed espresso is the best but if not, fresh coffee is second best. 
• Make sure the mascarpone and heavy cream are cold before making the frosting.
• Use hot coffee for the cake but make sure it’s cooled (or chilled) for the frosting.

What sizes can I make this black cocoa cake 

To make this simple, I wrote the recipe in the recipe card in a way that can easily be adjusted – the recipe card is the 50% version so you can easily halve the recipe (the 25% version) or double it (the 100%).

In these photos, my cake layers look taller because I used the 75% version but I baked it in two 8 inch pans instead of 3. They’re tall and I definitely would not stack more than two of these.

100% (this is double the recipe card – 480g flour, 160g cocoa, 28g baking powder, 700g sugar, 320mL oil, 4 eggs, 300g sour cream, 480mL coffee, etc.) 

• Four (normal) 8 inch cake layers
• Three (normal) or four (short) 9 inch cake layers
• Two (normal) 10″ cake layers
• Two 9×13″ cake
• 48 cupcakes

75% (this is 1.5x the recipe card – 360g flour, 120g cocoa, 21g baking powder, 525g sugar, 240mL oil, 3 eggs, 227g sour cream, 360mL coffee, etc.) 

• Two (tall like my photos) or three (normal) 8 inch cake layers
• Two (normal) or three (short) 9 inch cake layers
• 36 cupcakes 

50% (THIS IS THE AMOUNT IN THE RECIPE CARD – 240g flour, 80g cocoa, 14g baking powder, 350g sugar, 160mL oil, 2 eggs, 150g sour cream, 240mL coffee, etc.) 

• Two (normal) 8 inch cake layers
• Two (short) or one (tall) 9 inch cake layers
• Three (taller) or four (shorter) 6 inch cake layers 
• One 9×13” cake
• 24 cupcakes 

25% (this is half the recipe card – 120g flour, 40g cocoa, 7g baking powder, 175g sugar, 80mL oil, 1 egg, 75g sour cream, 120mL coffee, etc.) 

• One (tall) or two (short) 6 inch cakes
• 12 cupcakes

If you’re making cupcakes, I put 50 grams in each cupcake tin and bake for about 18-20 minutes. 

When baking, generally a thinner layer will get 20-25 minutes of baking and a thicker cake layer will get 30-40 minutes. 

Once it no longer looks wet, press on the center of the cake gently and it will spring back when it’s done baking. If it doesn’t spring back, give it another few minutes. 

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