If you are looking for a moist chocolate cake that is not too sweet then look no further. The chocolate flavors in this cake are brought out by my favorite trick – coffee! And the frosting itself uses mascarpone which is rich, velvety, and much less sweet than your conventional buttercream.

Cake Ingredients: Makes two 8 inch cakes but you can half the recipe if you do not want to go for a tier option.

• All purpose flour: 1 & 3/4 cups
• Unsweetened cocoa powder: 3/4 cup
• Granulated sugar: 1 & 3/4 cups
• Baking soda: 2 tsp
• Baking powder: 1 tsp
• Salt: 1 tsp
• Espresso powder: 2 tsp – This is optional but recommended to bring out the flavors of the cocoa powder
• Vegetable oil: 1/2 cup
• Eggs: 2
• Vanilla extract: 2 tsp
• Buttermilk: 1 cup
  • *If you do not have buttermilk, take 1 tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar and fill the remainder of the cup with regular milk. Mix with a spoon and watch as the mixture thickens.
• Hot coffee: 1 cup – I use instant black coffee but ensure that there is at least 2 tsp of instant coffee grounds in the cup.
• OPTIONAL TOPPING IDEA: Frozen raspberries, strawberries or blueberries

Frosting Ingredients: Same as for the cake, half the recipe if you are only making a 1 tiered cake

• Mascarpone cheese: 1 cup – keep in fridge until needed
• Vanilla extract: 1 tbsp & 1 tsp
• Powdered sugar: 1 cup
• Heavy whipping cream: 1 cup – keep in fridge until needed

Cake Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius
• Prepare two 8 inch cake pans by buttering them, then adding a layer of cocoa powder over the greased pan. This will provide you with a double security to ensure no sticking. Also, by using cocoa powder instead of flour, the color will blend into the cake.
• In a bowl, mix all of your dry ingredients together
• In a stand mixer, mix together your oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until incorporated
• Add your buttermilk to your wet mixture until combined
• Start adding in your dry ingredients, while pausing to scrape the sides and bottom with a spatula to ensure everything gets mixed in together
• Add your hot coffee last and allow to fully incorporate – the batter will be on the thinner side
• Split your mixture equally into your cake tins and bake until a toothpick comes out clean from the center

Frosting Preparation: Throughout the preparation, ensure to not overwhisk your frosting and keep your ingredients cold until the last second otherwise you run the risk of your mixture curdling

• In your stand mixer with a medium setting, whisk your cold mascarpone together with your vanilla – do not overwhisk; it should not take more than a minute or two
• Add in your powdered sugar and combine fully
• Add in your whipping cream and whisk until the mixture has thickened – should not take more than 3 minutes but you will have to stop occasionally to scrape the sides in order to incorporate all ingredients
• The ending consistency will not be thick enough to frost the entire cake but rather top each layer. So not a stiff consistency.

Assembly:

I simply topped one cake (once fully cooled – I also like to prepare them 1 day before the frosting and put them in the fridge to ensure the cake does not melt my frosting) with frosting, added some frozen raspberries (optional), and then placed the second cake over that, topped it with more frosting and frozen raspberries.

For this cake, I did not trim anything off to flatten the cake but depending on how your cake has cooked and if it has a sort of hill in the center then you might want to even out to top to have a flat surface.