Chocolate Buttermilk Layer Cake

buttermilk-chocolatecakeFrom Donna Hay #50

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 cup water
125g unsalted butter, chopped
35g cocoa, sifted
300g all purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking soda
440g caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:
100g unsalted butter, room temp
500g cream cheese, room temp
320g confectioner’s sugar, sifted
50g cocoa, sifted

Instructions:
Cake
• Preheat oven to 325F.  Grease two 8″ round cake pans (I didn’t have round, I did this in square pans), line with parchment and grease the parchment lightly.
• Place water, butter, and cocoa in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the butter has melted.
• Sift the flour, baking soda, and sugar in a bowl.  Add the cocoa mixture to the dry ingredients.
• Add the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla and whisk.
• Divide mixture between the 2 cake pans.
• Bake for 40-45 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.  Allow to cool in the pans.  Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting:
• While the cake is in the oven, place the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until pale and creamy.
• Add the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa and beat for another 6-8 minutes until really creamy.
• To assemble, slice each cake in half, horizontally.  Frost between the layers and on the top.

- Recipe courtesy of Susan Salzman