Recipe by Maya Chen · Serves 12 · Medium
Why this cake works
Hot coffee blooms the cocoa for a crumb so dark it looks doctored, and oil — not butter — keeps every layer damp for days. The ganache is whipped, not poured, so it spreads like frosting and eats like mousse.
Weigh your flour, line your tins, and let the layers cool completely. Chocolate cake forgives a lot, but impatience is not one of them.
Prep25 min
Bake50 min
Serves12
LevelMedium
Ingredients
- 300g plain flour, 80g dark cocoa
- 400g caster sugar, 2 tsp bicarbonate
- 3 eggs, 250ml buttermilk, 120ml oil
- 250ml hot strong coffee
- 300g dark chocolate, 300ml cream (ganache)
- Flaky salt, to finish
Method
1
Heat and line. Oven to 175°C. Line three 20cm tins and whisk all dry ingredients together.
2
Mix wet. Whisk eggs, buttermilk and oil, pour into the dry mix and stir until just combined.
3
Bloom. Stream in the hot coffee — the batter will be thin, which is exactly right — and divide between tins.
4
Bake. 28–32 minutes until a skewer shows damp crumbs. Cool fully in the tins.
5
Ganache. Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate, rest 2 minutes, stir smooth, then chill and whip to peaks.
6
Stack. Layer, fill and coat with ganache using an offset spatula; rustic swirls welcome.
7
Serve. Rest 30 minutes at room temperature, scatter flaky salt, and slice with a hot knife.
Kitchen notes
Thin batter, tall cake
Do not panic at the pourable batter — it bakes into the dampest crumb of any cake we make.
Chill the ganache
Whipping warm ganache gives soup. Chill until scoopable, then whip briefly.
Salt is not optional
A pinch of flaky salt on each slice sharpens the chocolate instead of sweetening it.
