How to make Grandma's Chocolate Cake

By the time Mich'l and I worked together in the pastry shop at a hotel in Atlanta, I already knew that I was going to leave to cook on the restaurant's hot line. After nearly three years of non-stop pastry, sometimes 18 hours a day, I was ready for a change. And just as I was getting ready to go, Mich'l showed up. Armed to the teeth with legendary experiences (working for and with the stars of the pastry world) and heart-breakingly wonderful recipes (collected over more than a decade as she moved through our hotel's properties around the country), Mich'l was a welcome dose of frenzy -and optimism - in our otherwise dreary shop. Unlike other newcomers to the shop, she wasn't jockeying for a title or ownership of our product. That role belonged to our executive pastry chef who preferred autocratic control and traditionalism over productivity and happiness. Newcomers either fell in with him - and, by default, the rest of us - or grew quickly dissatisfied and found better jobs at other hotels or country clubs. No one left the shop to work in the benefits-free zone of restaurants.  Mich'l was neither cowed by his barking or put off by our established routines and recipes. With a manner that was a cross between doting mother and Betty Boop, with a touch of SoCal rebel thrown in for seasoning, she was able to convince our exec to change up the recipes that were, until that moment, the sacred cows of our shop.

My ice cream recipes? Out the door. Replaced by ones given to her by Sebastian Canonne (who everyone claims as an influence, but most have to pay to work with these days. Not M'chl). Our cake? She had better recipes from L.A.

Mich'l had the credibility the rest of us - mostly rejects from restaurant kitchens and country clubs - lacked. And she seemed to know everyone in the industry.

One of the biggest revelations for me was a recipe she brought to the property from her last job. It is a glorious, sweet-but-not-too-sweet version of a devil's food chocolate cake with wonderful sour notes in the icing that offset the usual heaviness of similar cakes. I'm not sure who originated the recipe, but I've passed it on to everyone I know because it is not only easy but a consistent crowd-pleaser. I've used it as the basis for wedding cakes, I've served it at birthdays. My sister who lives in Berlin bakes it weekly for parties (and it is great for cupcakes, too). Friends, Grandma's Chocolate Cake is your ticket to love, respect, and a fulfilled life full of flowers, birds, and magic. Or maybe it is just a great cake.

I love this cake. The photo above shows how this cake may come out if you get a little sloppy with the execution. Not my best work.

The recipe is as reliable as a cake recipe can be, and the results are always great. Just make sure to mix for as long as the recipe indicates. Yes, a seven-minute mix followed by a four minute mix is odd, but it works. Trust me.

Here is a link to the GLUTEN-FREE and EGG-FREE version of this cake.

The Ingredients, more or less, messy:

Grandma’s Chocolate Cake

Prep Time: Cake: 15 minutes prep/40 minutes bake

                                                Frosting: 2 hours (start to finish)

Ingredients

Cake:

1 cup water

½ cup cocoa ("Dutched" or Alkalized gets a better rise)

1 cup buttermilk (or kefir)

¾ cup vegetable oil

2 each eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cup flour

2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon baking soda

Frosting:

½ pound butter (two sticks)

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 pound confectioner’s sugar

8 ounce sour cream

1 pinch of salt

Procedure:

1)     Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2)     Boil water, add cocoa. Stir until smooth and thick, about 1 minute. Allow to cool.

3)     Combine buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.

4)     Mix together flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in large bowl.  Add buttermilk mixture and mix together (using a paddle attachment) at medium speed for 7 minutes. Add COOLED cocoa mixture and mix for additional 4 minutes. 

5)     Pour into prepared cake pan and bake in center of the oven for 30-40 minutes. Check doneness with toothpick. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely

Frosting:

1)     Melt butter and chocolates together in a double boiler (or microwave). Keep warm

2)     Alternate adding sour cream and confectioner's sugar into the icing, mixing thoroughly and scraping down after each addition. Icing should be very dark, not light (as in my pictures below).

3)     Add vanilla and salt. Allow to cool completely before using.

For those of you who are more visual, here are a few photos that may (or may not) help you when it is time for you to turn Grandma's Chocolate Cake into your own.

The first step - combine cocoa and water and boil. The cocoa, after it boils, will thicken significantly. Do not boil more than necessary to thicken:

It will look like pudding, but don't be tempted to eat it. Just let it cool.

In your Kitchenaid (or similar stand-up mixer), start the seven minutes of mix. Since it takes a while for the cocoa to cool, there's no need to work simultaneously with the cocoa and the mixer. You can do this by hand if you have a lot of stamina or if lack of equipment drives you to it:

 

After seven minutes, add the cooled cocoa mixture and run the mixer at medium speed for an additional four minutes. Don't forget to scrape down the bowl, as you'll notice I've forgotten to do:

It will look like this after four minutes - OK, I admit, not a helpful photo (except for the color of the batter) but I like the way my mixer looks:

You'll then pour the batter into prepared (either sprayed, parchment lined, or butter-and-floured) pans of your choosing. Lately I've been choosing smaller pans (8") because it tends to bake better. I have also been using the convection setting for a more even bake. If you do go with convection, remember to rotate your pans in the oven or you will get lopsided, inconsistent rise!

While the cakes are baking, make the icing.

Add your melted butter and chocolate to the confectioner's sugar that is already in the bowl of the mixer. Mix on medium speed until there are no lumps.

Add your sour cream - remember to scrape down to avoid lumps:

Mix, but DO NOT OVERMIX! The key is to just combine the sour cream and the chocolate mixture without adding too much air, which will make the icing hard to spread without visible air bubbles:

Do you see the lumps, above? I do. Gah! The icing will get lighter in color, but the lighter it is, the more air has been incorporated. Try to keep the mixer on low speed.

It will look like this:

That's slightly too light. I had to stir it up a bit to get some of the air out. I'm not always great at following my own instructions.

The cakes, when done, should be depanned and allowed to cool. I was out of parchment so I used aluminum foil and threw a little sugar down:

 

Slice them to size - cut off bulging tops etc. so that your cake will sit flat (and note the tunneling - I've never made this recipe and had an even crumb):

And, once assembled, it may look like this --- or not!

Or it may look like this:

Or like this:

Enjoy! 

Comments

[Jenny]

This looks delish! I usually put the sour cream in the cake instead of the frosting, but now I want to give that a try.

[Jenny]

Oh my. I made cupcakes with this recipe and WOW. They're perfect!
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linsey says:

I know I know! Love this recipe. Mmmmm. Cupcakes. I'd like some of those right now.

[Aph]

mmm. this is the best chocolate cake recipe ever. the secret is out!

[Sierra]

Sweet deal. Thanks for the recipe. Although I used a healthier variant, it was a very nice classic base.

[Little Miss Cupcake]

I REALLY wanted to like this recipe. Especially with all the wonderful comments about it and your description. I have been on the lookout for a new chocolate cupcake recipe and I am sorry to say that this will NOT be it. I found these baked up a lot like Martha Stewart's one-bowl, though they are not as sweet and the cupcake wrappers are soaked through with oil. I even feel the cake has a little rubbery consistency to it. I am bummed. I did follow your instructions to a T, even the 7 mins. + 4 mins of whipping. :(

[Cake and Commerce]

Little Miss Cupcake - I'm not sure what went wrong with your execution - I've made this cake about 50 times and I've never had cupcake cups 'soaked through with oil' or a rubbery consistency. You are the first to have those results. It could be from: 1) elevation; 2) flour; 3) fat; 4) amount of time your liquids were together pre-mixing; 5) temperature of your cocoa when you added it; 6) temperature of your oven; 7) the age of your baking soda etc.

One thing is certain with baking: you give 50 people a recipe and you will get 50 different variations of it.

I've served this cake at weddings and it always gets high praise. I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. Before you give up on it you may want to try it again.

Or, you just may be a chiffon cake gal.

[Little Miss Cupcake]

Linsey,
I am game to try it again....I am in France and so yes, there definitely could be a difference in terms of the raw ingredients that went into it vs. the stuff you can buy in the good ol' USA. For oil, I use something called Isio 4 which is made from a blend of sunflower, grapeseed, Colza and something called Oléisol (which is their proprietary blend). What kind of veg. oil do you use? Thanks for the feedback!

[Cake and Commerce]

I usually use either safflower or sunflower oil, though I'm not sure if oil alone accounts for the differences. I'll admit - I've had less than stellar results at times with this cake - minor variations make huge differences.

I'm hoping one of my pastry friends will come on and shed a little light on this....

[Michl M]

Miss Cupcake - sorry your experience wasn't as transcendent as you'd hoped, but sometimes it's just subjective. I have made this recipe probably 100 times over the years and there are a lot of things that can influence how it comes out, even if you follow everything correctly (or think you did). In the early days, I remember a colleague screwing up one of our huge professional batches by using baking powder instead of soda (can anyone say "rum balls" and "danish filling" forever?) If you bake it at too low a temperature (not preheating oven enough, etc) or in too small of a pan, it can make the insides heavy and dense, almost fudge-like, even if you follow the mixing times correctly. Also, we had the luxury of convection and deck ovens at the hotel (either works fine, but adjustments have to be made for time and bottom heat). Not sure how it would come out in a home gas oven, which is much more difficult to regulate, temperature-wise. I also concur with Linsey - I've never seen this cake "soaking" with oil. Hmm...so many possibilities. In any case, keep trying and hopefully you'll find the one you're looking for. Hell, sometimes I crave Duncan Hines, you know?

[Cake and Commerce]

(Check out Mich'l's reply, above, by the way...she is the one who introduced me to the recipe and has some pretty good insight).

[Michl M]

AKKKK Linsey! No wonder the frosting had lumps in it! If I'm making a less industrial-sized batch, I always do the frosting by hand and keep the melted choc and butter mixture REALLY warm (but not boiling hot, obviously). I then add the room temperature(very important) sour cream and powdered sugar (sifted!) in alternating batches, starting and ending with the sugar. It will have a nice shine and be very dark, almost black. Even when we did it on the 40-qt mixer, we followed this procedure and it comes out perfect every time. If it's too hot, sometimes the butter will pool to the top as it's cooling, but it can always be gently spatulated back in. Home cooks will have the tendency to beat the crap out of it if they do it on the mixer, especially if you start with the 10x first. But then again, if you like the look and taste of an airier frosting, it's fine. Maybe it's too much of a hassle for most people to do it by hand. Whatever - just sayin'...

[Cake and Commerce]

I have CONSISTENTLY screwed up the icing...now I know why. My mom always makes the icing perfectly (dark dark dark) because she does what you do - unintentionally. Now I know my folly. The order is wrong!

[Bronwyn]

Are these 8 or 9 inch round pans?

Bronwyn

[Cake and Commerce]

I think they're 8" pans but to tell you the truth I use whatever pans I have on hand - 5", cupcake, 8", 10" - I've made this in 12" pans as well. It works in any pan size. Good luck. The most important thing isn't the time it spends in the oven (it varies from oven to oven from location to location) but that it is done. When the toothpick comes out clean, it is done.

This recipe makes 24 cupcakes.

[Steph]

I think it's pretty interesting that the batter is mixed for such a long time. Have you ever made this using shorter whipping times? It's just that I get really paranoid over overmixing all the time.

[Cake and Commerce]

Yes, once, and it didn't come out as well! There's no need to worry about overmixing the batter - there's a ton of fat in the recipe the batter remains short; no additional gluten forms (usually the big fear with overwhipping). In this case you are whipping air into it and giving the batter time for a reaction.

[Steph]

Thanks for the reply, I'm going to give this 7 minute beating a try!

[Steph]

One more thing... do you recommend natural or dutch processed cocoa?

[Cake and Commerce]

I use whatever I have at home, but the results are (of course) better with Dutch Processed Cocoa. You can add 1/2 t of Baking Powder if you are not using Dutch Processed Cocoa.

[Anne]

Thanks for this recipe. This is superb. I like Chocolate Cake and I will tried it. Thanks again.

[roxanda]

thank you for posting this FANTASTIC recipe. i've made it twice now and it's consistently moist, delicious, and flavourful - it tastes like a butter-based cake and not oil-based. is there a surefire way of turning this into a vanilla cake? i am guessing you still need to add a cup of water (without the cocoa) for the texture, no? and would you increase the amount of vanilla? i am asking in case you've tried it yourself - it would save me some time and effort:)
thank you!!

[Cake and Commerce]

I have actually done this. And it works. I replace the water with something thicker - I've used milk, coconut milk (cut back on the oil a bit) and water alone. The good news - it tastes good. The bad? The cell size - the crumb of the cake - isn't ideal. Its a little big.

You probably would want to increase the vanilla - use up to a tablespoon. I'm a big fan of vanilla.

[David]

I thought I'd try this out, and the cake itself turned out well. Not nearly as nice to look at as yours (it was darker for one thing) but it tastes nice enough.

The icing on the other hand just didn't work. I don't know if it was just differences in ingredients (as I'm in the UK and I'm assuming you're in the US) but it ended up more liquid that icing. I'm going to give the icing another try, but I'm going to change a few things (I'm not melting the butter with the chocolate and I'm adding less sour cream - mostly because I've run out of it :P)

[Cake and Commerce]

definitely melt the butter and chocolate together - it keeps the chocolate from seizing once you add the sour cream to it. You're right to reduce the amount of sour cream - here in the US there is about 5% corn starch in our confectioners sugar so that it does not clump up. It helps absorb the moisture in the sour cream. If UK caster sugar does not have corn starch, you will definitely want to use less liquid (sour cream). Hope you get the icing to work!

[David]

Wait, most places refer to confectioners sugar as icing sugar, but in your reply you called it caster sugar. Which is it?

I've googled it a bit and checked the back of the sugar packets and neither the icing sugar or the caster sugar include cornstarch (I'm using Silver Spoon sugar here). In the icing sugar here they apparently use Tricalcium Phosphate to stop it clumping up.

Anyways, in regards to the icing, I got a version to work (probably not as nice as yours, but it tasted good enough to me :P). What I did was I creamed the butter and icing sugar together, then I melted the chocolate and added it to the creamed mix (I did add a mix of the creamed butter/sugar to the chocolate to help it pour easier). Once that had thoroughly mixed I added my left over sour cream to the mix (about 3ish ounces I think) and let it mix in. Finally I added the salt and vanilla. As I said, it didn't look as good as yours does - it wasn't stiff enough for me - but it went onto the cake easily enough and it tasted nice enough. As it is, between 3 people I think there's about a quarter of the cake left. :)

Next time I try this cake out I'll try adding the cornstarch myself if I can find it in the supermarkets - so about 425g sugar and 25g cornstarch (I'm not sure what that would be in ounces but theres roughly 450g in a pound). I'll also try adding less sour cream as looking at the picture I think sour cream is also a bit more liquid over here.

One last question, how do you get such an even rise on your cakes?

[Cake and Commerce]

Powdered Sugar - any superfine, powder-like sugar will work, just make sure you add some corn starch (or even tapioca or rice starch) to it - it helps absorb moisture. The sour cream in the states is very thick and not pourable - but if you managed to get the texture to work (and taste good) you probably don't need to make too many changes. The key isn't to follow the recipe exactly (I make my own modifications to the icing now when I make it) but to make it work for you with your ingredients. So it sounds like you are already there.

The even rise? Hmm. I do follow the mixing times exactly, which beats in air and allows some reaction before the bake. The key to having a more even rise is to insulate the sides of the baking pan, which tend to heat up faster and cause the edges to bake faster than the center, which then rises (and needs to be cut off). You can nest two pans together and try to prevent uneven rise that way. Or you can just trim the cake after baking. Either way.