Black Magic Cake
What I am about to share with you is a very big deal. When anyone in my family hears I’m baking they ask “you’re making your chocolate cake, right?” These cupcakes are very dark magic. The blackest of magic.They’re so magic you gotta turn to page 394 to find this recipe. They’re so magic there’s a nervous black cat giving you some sassy advice. They're so magic they will come out as bisexual in episode 19 of season 4. These cupcakes are so black magic that the patriarchy may very well burn you at the stake over this.
The key to this beauty is to melt a bar of dark chocolate with a cup of fresh, hot coffee. Use a light roasted bean because the darker the coffee is roasted the more oil the beans release and you don’t want additional moisture in this batter.
Mix them together and make a decadent mocha to add later. Set aside to COOL SLIGHTLY. If you let the mocha get completely cooled then the chocolate will harden and it will make more of a brownie textured batter.
Always sift your dry ingredients together. This will prevent lumps from the beginning, so you don’t get dry powder bombs in your batter and it also prevents over mixing later.
I like using avocado oil in this recipe because it’s light in flavor and bougie AF, but that is expensive so canola oil also works great. I’ll put the buttermilk and oil in the same measuring cup so the buttermilk comes out more easily.
After they’re mixed in, add that warm mocha. You should be able to touch it without hurting your hand but it should still be quite warm. Once you mix that in, the batter will be quite thin. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit on convection. I really recommend doing convection because you get less air bubbles in the final cake. These puppies rise a lot so only fill your pan/cupcake liners halfway.
That’s how they look after 25 min and THIS CAKE IS THE BEST. It’s never steered me wrong. I’ve made it with Nutella, peanut butter, orange curd, lavender custard, strawberry jam, and probably something else I’m forgetting. It is the best possible base for any dessert that’s a huge crowd pleaser.
RECIPE:
2 cups sugar
1 ¾ cup all purpose flour (I use Pamela’s Gluten-Free)
¾ cup Cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs (room temperature if you can)
1 cup buttermilk
1 ¼ cup strong black coffee (freshly brewed and light roast)
½ cup avocado oil (if you can’t canola oil is fine)
1 3.5oz bar of chocolate (85% cocoa)
Vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (use convection if you have it you will get a more even bake)
Break up the chocolate bar in a medium sized bowl and melt it with the hot coffee
Sift together the dry ingredients in the bowl to your mixer and add the buttermilk, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract (I don’t measure vanilla I splash it in until my heart is content)
When the mocha mixture is cooled but STILL WARM add it to the batter. Mixture will be quite thin.
Add the batter to your pans of choice. If using cake pans grease and cover with cocoa powder and lime the bottom with parchment paper. Only fill pans halfway as these have a lot of rise to them.
Bake for:
Cupcakes: 20-25 minutes
9 inch cake round: 30-35 minutes
Bake time obviously will vary depending on the size of the pan. After the first 20 min check with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean
Allow to cool completely before removing from pan.
My favorite combination with this cake is Nutella and whipped cream. I love this recipe because it can handle a really sweet icing and filling. It goes great with almost everything: caramel, berries, orange, cream cheese, buttercream, custard…… it’s the perfect base to be creative and make your all-time favorite flavor combinations!