Dark Forest Chocolate Cake

Dark Forest Chocolate Cake! 🌿✨🍄🧚🏼‍♀️🧌Adorned with the most luscious chocolate buttercream! The moss is green cake crumbs! The mushrooms are marzipan I hand sculpted and painted! The BEAUTIFUL cake toppers are from Camp Hollow Studio 👩🏼‍🎨

This is my tried and true chocolate cake recipe! I’ve tried almost every icing imaginable with it and it’s delicious every time!

Cake-

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup oat milk + 1 tsp lemon juice)

½ cup your favorite oil (I used melted coconut)

2 large eggs (or ½ cup applesauce)

3/4 cup strongly brewed hot coffee

Frosting-

1 ½ cup sweet cream butter, softened (2 sticks)

1/3 -1/2 cup dark cocoa powder

4-5 cups powdered sugar

¼ cup heavy cream

Preheat your oven to 350°. Grease your desired cake pans and line with parchment paper. I used 4 six inch cake pans.

You can also make this recipe into any size cake (s) or even cupcakes. Set aside.

Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix on low until all dry ingredients are evenly distributed. Add the sugar, buttermilk, and oil. Mix on low until all dry ingredients are evenly moistened. With the mixer still on, add the eggs in one at a time. Making sure they bust and evenly incorporate. Turn the mixer off, stop to scrape the side and bottom of the bowl. Carefully pour in the hot coffee and mix by hand until it is completely mixed into the batter. About 30 seconds of hand mixing. The batter should be thin. I put 1 ¼ cup of batter in each of my six inch pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out cleanly. Allow the cake to cool 30 minutes before transferring from pans to a cooling rack. While the cake cools you can begin working on the frosting.

Sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder together. Set aside. Add the butter to your mixer. Mix until light and fluffy. Scrape the side of the bowl. Add in the powdered sugar mixture ½ cup at a time. In between each sugar addition add in a splash of heavy cream until you run out. Keep adding powdered sugar until desired consistency/sweetness is achieved. Pipe (or spoon) onto cake (s) and enjoy!