Chocolate Layer Cake

1. Stage

Preheat the oven and prepare the pans: Preheat oven to 300°F degrees. Cut parchment rounds to fit two 9-inch round cake pans. Butter and flour the pans. Set aside.

2. Stage

Whisk the dry ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

3. Stage

Whisk wet ingredients: In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla.

4. Stage

Combine the wet and the dry: Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir together with a stiff spatula. The batter will be thick. Pour in the piping hot coffee. Stir until combined (the batter will look like a muddy, clumpy lake) then thin out to a cohesive pourable consistency. Just keep stirring. No worries.

5. Stage

Pour into pans and bake: Divide the batter equally between the 2 pans (about 1 lb 7 oz or 652 g per pan). Place in oven for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean. I like to rotate the pans back to front halfway through the cooking time, because it helps with even baking.

6. Stage

Cool the cakes: Remove the cakes from the oven and onto a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Then remove the cakes from the pans, peel back the parchment paper, and let the cakes cool completely, about 1 hour.

7. Stage

Frost the cake: Put one cake round onto a platter or cake board, then place the cake on a rotating cake stand (if using). Spread a generous amount of chocolate frosting on top of the cake round. Using an offset spatula, smooth the frosting into a thick, even layer. Then place the next cake round top down on top of the frosted round. Place a generous amount of frosting on top and spread it evenly across the top until it hangs over the sides. Gently spread the frosting onto the sides in a thin, even layer. This is your crumb coat. Transfer it to the refrigerator for at least an hour, and up to overnight. Once the crumb coat has set, use 2/3 of the remaining frosting to frost the cake as you did before. Once the sides and top are smooth, you can start to decorate.

8. Stage

Decorate the cake: To make the spiral swirl on top, take the tip of your offset spatula and tilt it at a slight angle on the outside edge of the top of the cake. Hold it there and start to spin the rotating cake stand. Move the spatula slightly inward toward the center as you spin the stand, until you’ve made the spiral swirl. Fit a pastry bag with a large coupler and secure a Wilton Large 2D Drop Flour Tip to the end. Add the remaining frosting to the piping bag. Pipe large and small blobs of frosting around the top edge of the cake. Dot some of the tip with the silver pearls. Then dust with powdered sugar.