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. 

Step-by-Step Instructions With Photos

Black Cake

1. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt until they’re evenly distributed.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, sugar, eggs and sour cream until they’re well combined and smooth.
3. Sift the dry ingredients over the wet and whisk just a little – about halfway. 
4. Pour in the hot coffee and whisk until the batter is completely smooth.
5. Scrape the edge of the bowl and give it a good mix. Pour into prepared cake tin(s). 
6. Bake for 40ish minutes, until the tallest part of the cake, in the center, springs back when you press on it. If you’re hesitant, give it another minute or so.
7. Let the cake rest for 10 minutes in the pan before removing.
8. If you want to flatten the top, flip it over onto a tea towel upsidedown for about 30-60 minutes or so and then flip back over. 
9. If it’s domed or if you want to add a soak (I did a double shot of espresso), trim the top off after it’s completely cooled and then drizzle the coffee on top. 

Mascarpone Frosting

1. Beat together the cold mascarpone with the powdered sugar until it’s completely smooth.
2. Add the vanilla bean paste and turn the mixer to medium speed. 
3. Stream in the cold heavy whipping cream in 3-4 increments, stopping to scrape the edge of the bowl each time.
   • Once all the heavy whipping cream is added, it may seem soft so turn the mixer up to full speed and it should thicken and hold peaks within a couple of minutes. Don’t over-beat once you’ve reached this stage.

4. If you’re adding the espresso, make sure it’s completely cooled before adding it and mix just until it’s combined. 
5. Spread the cream on top of the cake and dust with a generous dusting of cocoa powder (I used dutch process here cuz I thought black cocoa might look funny lol. Natural also works fine). 

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.