Beatty’s Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream
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This chocolate cake, made with buttermilk and oil — no butter — and exclusively cocoa — no melted chocolate — is incredibly light and moist and stays this way for days. It’s an Ina Garten recipe, one she begged for from a friend, the grandson of Beatty, after taking one bite. It has become a family favorite — a real crowd pleaser with adults and children alike.

Earlier this month, upon realizing that I had officially become my mother, not only in my preferences, but also in how I impose my preferences on others — dark meat chicken, cakes without frosting — I decided it might be wise to branch out a bit, to bake a cake with not one but two layers and to guild it not with a delicate dusting of powdered sugar but with a slathering of silky frosting.
It was a healthy exercise. You see, I didn’t know that frosting — chocolate buttercream in this case — has the ability to silence a table surrounded by both toddlers and adults and afterward to elicit unprompted comments such as: “You are such a good cooker.” This cake, made with buttermilk and oil — no butter — and exclusively cocoa — no melted chocolate — is incredibly light and moist and stays this way — tasting freshly baked — for days. It’s another Ina Garten recipe, one she begged for from a friend, the grandson of Beatty, after taking one bite.
I’m so happy I branched out. Because while I am completely embracing that I am my mother’s daughter, adoring almond tortes and torta capreses, I understand there is a time and a place for layers of cake and frosting. A silent table is always (or almost always) a sign of success.
How to Make Beatty’s Chocolate Cake, Step by Step
First, sift the dry ingredients together: flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt:
Next combine the wet ingredients: buttermilk, oil, eggs, vanilla, coffee:
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine.
How to Make a Parchment Paper Circle Cake Bottom:
Transfer the batter to two buttered and parchment-paper-lined baking dishes.
Bake until done.
How to Make Chocolate Buttercream:
Frost the cake by spreading just under half of the frosting over one layer. Top with the other layer; then spread the remaining frosting over the cake and on the sides.
Beatty’s Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream
- Total Time: 1 hours 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings
Description
Adapted from: Barefoot Contessa at Home
This chocolate cake, made with buttermilk and oil — no butter — and exclusively cocoa — no melted chocolate — is incredibly light and moist and stays this way for days. It’s an Ina Garten recipe, one she begged for from a friend, the grandson of Beatty, after taking one bite. It has become a family favorite — a real crowd pleaser with adults and children alike.
A few notes:
- Ina uses the stand mixer, but I find it works great just by mixing with a whisk and spatula.
- I now make this in one bowl: whisk together the dry ingredients; then add the wet one by one, being sure I beat the eggs prior to adding them to the bowl.
- I’ve added weight measurements, because that’s how I prefer to bake.
- The original frosting recipe calls for a raw egg yolk, but I omit it and don’t notice a difference.
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- Butter, for greasing the pans
- 1 3/4 cups (225 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
- 2 cups (418 g) sugar
- 3/4 cups (66 g) good cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons (10 g) baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) kosher salt
- 1 cup (225 g) buttermilk, shaken
- 1/2 cup (108 g) vegetable oil
- 2 extra-large eggs (98 g) at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 1 cup (227 g) freshly brewed hot coffee
For the Chocolate Buttercream:
- 6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (Ina recommends Callebaut.)
- 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups (152 g) sifted confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then flour the pans.
- Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Whisk until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Add the coffee and stir just to combine. Batter will be really thin. Pour the batter — if you feel like being really precise, pour about 690g of batter into each pan — into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
- To make the frosting: Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature. Alternatively: Melt in the microwave at 30 second to 1-minute intervals until spreadable.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners’ sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. On low speed, add the chocolate to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don’t whip. Spread immediately on the cooled cake.
- Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Cake
- Method: Mix
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
307 Comments on “Beatty’s Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream”
I thought it was not a good idea to use raw eggs in cooking because of Salmonella. This is not addressed in the recipe.
I’m making this for Valentines Day with a steak that has a balsamic glaze…..wonder where I got that idea??? Hmmmm? That and an Ina Garten playlist and a bottle of Rose……my favorite cooks and my boy……how does it get any better! Love and hugs forever! XxxOoo
How fun, Laurie?! And where might I ask do you get an Ina Garten playlist?? I need that. Your menu sounds delicious. xoxo 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’d like to try this as a sheet cake. What would you recommend for the temperature setting and time in the oven? Love your website; love the photography!
Aww, thanks 🙂
For a sheet cake, I would try: 350ºF for maybe 20-25 minutes … are you using a rimmed sheet pan? I would just start keeping an eye on it after 20 minutes.
Just how essential is it to sift the dry ingredients? I’m a total baking novice, but after making several bread recipes from your cookbook (which was a lovely Mother’s Day gift), I’d love to branch out and try this recipe. Thanks!!
Not important at all! I never sift. Wonderful to hear about the cookbook 😍😍😍 Makes me happy 💕
Hi! Just want to know if you actually used the metric measurements when you baked this or just did a standard conversion (not that there’s a standard conversion, at least for flour). Ina does not use metric weights and I’ve been looking for someone that has for this recipe.. I’ve been burned before with recipes giving metric weights with the recipe author not testing them.
Hi Pat! I have used the metric measurements listed in the recipe — baking by weight as opposed to volume is my preferred method for baking anything: cakes, cookies, bread, etc.
Thank you for responding! YAY! I’m all about weight measurements !!!
Woohoo! Me too 🙂
Oh Ali! This is such a delicious cake and it brought back memories of my mom ‘s chocolate cake. My chocolate cakes have never tasted like mom’s until now. Thank you! I love your book, BREAD TOAST CRUMBS. I am able to make bread now! I love your recipes and your videos. Delicious and so easy to follow. Thank you for sharing your food and your beautiful family. Have a safe and happy holiday. BTW I was trying to order the cambro. Your site went to Amazon Canada, and delivery wasn’t available to me. I did order but wasn’t able to do it from your site.
So ncie to hear this, Terry! Thank you so much for your kind words 🙂 🙂 🙂 Means a lot. And thank you so much for writing and letting me know about the link going to Canada Amazon … I just fixed a dozen other links in the shop that were going to Canada Amazon as well. So bizarre. Glad you got a cambro! I find them to be so helpful.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This has become my family’s favorite for birthday cake – we make it with a vanilla buttercream frosting and cover it with shredded coconut – oh so delicious! Always comes out perfect!! Love it!
Meryl! So funny … my sister, who lives outside of Philly and who we just spent the weekend with, made this cake this weekend to celebrate her and her husband’s birthdays (May 30th/31st), and I had forgotten how good it was!! Love the idea of a vanilla buttercream + coconut. Yum. Thanks for writing! Hope all is well xo
That is funny – it was for my son in law’s birthday, May 30 and so delicious as usual.
All is well- miss you. Any classes coming up? Happy summer to you and your family!
xo Meryl
So funny! Miss you, too, Meryl! I have one more virtual class on the calendar: Veggie- and Quinoa-Stuffed Bell Peppers Then I’m taking a little break for the summer and will add some more classes to the calendar in the fall. Happy summer to you and your fam as well!
I took that class and LOVED it! Enjoy your break, you earned it. Matt told me I might be in for a happy surprise in early Fall. Hope so.
Thanks so much! Stay safe.
xoxo
Yes, fingers crossed for something fun in September!! xo
So funny – I just saw your new post for the mixed berry galette. I am trying to figure out an easy but nice menu for company staying with me in July and I wanted to include a mixed berry galette. There is a baker here in Great Barrington, The Sweetish Baker, who makes delicious ones but she doesn’t use frangipane which I love and had in one of your classes. I was going to try to put a recipe together and then you, my fairy godmother appeared. I can’t wait to try this!!
Thank you.
xo Meryl
Oh yay! I hope you love it, Meryl! I don’t think there is anything more summery than a fruit galette. I love the frangipane, too 🙂
Thanks for being literally the only version of this cake on the internet that uses weight instead of volume. I’ve been wanting to make this cake but do not trust any recipe that uses volume measurements. We really need the US to get with the program and switch to metric only baking!
Right?! Some of my older recipes are still in volume measures, and it drives me bananas … but the important ones, I think, are all converted.
thank god there’s a metric version of this recipe. this is the only metric one i can find online!! i absolutely despise baking with cups!! can’t wait to try this out!
Me, too! It’s the worst. Hope it turns out great!
THANK YOU a million times over for converting to metric measurements. It’s how I like to cook as well, but after a very long week with a very, very sick puppy I just didn’t have it in me to convert Ina’s recipe. I almost gave up when I found your blog. You saved my brother-in-law’s birthday cake (Christmas Eve baby).
I can’t wait to explore your blog more and cook more great recipes. Happy Holidays and thank you again.
Hi Amy! I hope the cake turned out well, and I hope your puppy’s health is on the mend… poor thing! Thank you for the kind words. Belated Merry Christmas, and Happy Happy New Year to you!
Hi Ali,
Thank you for such an amazing cake recipe. I made it this week to celebrate my wife’s (75th) and granddaughter’s (8th) birthdays. It was so easy to make, very moist and so,so delicious. It will be “the chocolate cake” for future bakes.
All the best to you.
So nice to hear this, Bruce! Happy Birthday to your wife and granddaughter! February is a birthday month for my family as well — daughter, nephew, mother-in-law and brother-in-law 🙂 So glad you like this one. It’s one of my favorites as well! Thanks for writing. Hope all is well.
Fantastic cake! Really simple to make and the real deal moist dark chocolate cake. It’s now my go to, there’s one in the oven right now.
Third time I made it I mixed the cocoa with the hot coffee to bllom it and I think this made it even better. Sometimes I just make a simple chocolate ganache to ice ,(frost) the cake. Sometimes a sieved cherry jam above and below the filling.
Just one tiny thing,: can you publish the weights in a uniform code, imperial or metric? It’s great that you have the weights on here! Thank you for all your wonderful work.
Great to hear all of this Paddy! Love the idea of blooming the cocoa with the coffee — I’ll try that — and sieved cherry jam sounds heavenly! Can you clafify your request? I would love to have the measurements be as useful as possible for everyone… just not exactly sure what you are asking. Thank you!!!
The best, moistest chocolate cake recipe ever! I make it for all 4 of my kids’ family birthday parties and as cupcakes for their friend parties. Crowd pleaser for kids and adults alike, even my sister in law, who “doesn’t like cake.”
Lindis! This is amazing 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Thanks for writing. xoxo
This is a more affordable alternative to my normal cake recipe. I made it as a sheet cake and it was exceptional!
Great to hear! Thanks for writing 🙂
Thank you for posting this with the weight measurements! I was very disappointed that Food Network didnt even have a conversion listed … cmon we all know weighing is the “right way” to do it.
I can’t make cakes/cookies/bread, etc. anymore without weights. Hope it turned out well!
This is my favorite recipe by far! Have been baking this since last 10 years, and so grateful for your weight measured recipe.
So nice to hear this Hetal! It’s one of my favorites as well. Thanks so much for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
I am new to baking by weight and I have scale but it only gives lbs and ounces and I always have to google to convert grams to ounces. Can you recommend a food scale? BTW I’m making this for a friend’s birthday. Your recipes are always so good. A few months ago I made the carrot cake for another friend’s birthday and everyone raved.
Also, I was thinking of making this in a 9 x 13 pan instead of a layer cake as I will be transporting. Do I need to change anything?
It’s possible the cooking time might change slightly, but otherwise, you shouldn’t have to change anything.
Oh that’s frustrating, Lisa! Yes, I love this scale.
So nice to read all of this. Thank you for your kind words 🙂
I am a terrible cake baker. Look what happened. So sad. I even bought new pans and I have a brand new oven.
Well I can’t upload a photo but they rose up and spilled out of the pans all over the oven, then collapsed. Hardly anything left in the pans.
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear this. What size pans are they?
7 inch and I only filled them 1/2 full but now I’m thinking I didn’t have enough flour to give the cake structure. I don’t think my scale is accurate. I’m going to try it again today and just measure like normal. My new scale won’t be here until tomorrow but my friend’s bday is today.
Lisa, I think your pans are too small. I use two 8- or 9-inch pans for this recipe. But I’m perplexed because filling them 1/2 way should have solved that problem. An alternative is to bake this in a 9×13-inch pan. I know a number of people who do this and simply frost the top layer.
This is a wonderful recipe! I used olive oil instead of regular oil. Also added a bit of Grand Marnier to the cake and that worked well with the olive oil. Frosted the cake as directed and my family loved it!
Brilliant! Going to try both of those moves next time around. Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes.
I’m hesitating between this one and Gourmet’s Double Chocolate Cake…. How would you compare the two? I could – of course – bake them both and compare, ha!Thanks in advance!
Gosh I don’t know! I love them both. You can’t go wrong with either. If you make both and compare, however, I’d love to hear the results!
So, after making 3 chocolate test cakes for a birthday, this is the clear winner for taste. And yay, weights! And reduced cleanup! (Which after 3 cakes, I really appreciate). But would you consider posting a halved recipe, for 6″ pans (my 6″ pans are 6″ x 3″, so I wonder if they would work anyway, or if the layers would be too thin)? It is still a lot of cake, even if it smaller than some. Thank you.
I LOVE this idea. I have those 6-inch pans and they are a go-to for the birthday cake I make many times a year. Having a chocolate go-to birthday cake in the 6-inch size is a brilliant idea. I am deep in the editing process of my pizza book manuscript, so I won’t be able to get to this immediately, but I’m adding it to my to-do list. Thanks!
Hi Alexandra,
I love this recipe and it’s become my go-to chocolate cake. I wonder if you’ve tried it with Dutch-process cocoa? I want to experiment because I do love the dark colour of it and I’m curious to see how the flavour would come out. I’m not sure how much to tweak the leavening ingredients though. 1tsp baking soda and 2 tsp baking powder? Or half and half? Or leave as is and see? I might have to make three cakes to test it out…unless you already have! Thank you
Hi! I feel like at some point over the years I must have made this with Dutch process cocoa, but I don’t have any notes to confirm. My instinct is to just try it as it is, and then adjust the leavening amounts the next time around. Let me know if you give it a go!
I’ve wanted to make this Barefoot recipe for years, but I never did until now because of the lack of weight measures and the raw egg. I was so thrilled (and should not have been surprised!) to find that you had exactly the version I needed on your site. It was simply perfect. I was feeding a small crowd, so I halved the recipe and made it one frosted layer instead of two. Everyone raved. And I was even able to freeze the leftover slices – I put them on a sheetpan in the freezer to let the frosting firm up, and then I wrapped each piece in foil, then put all of them in a ziploc bag. Thank you for your inspiring and always dependable recipes!
So nice to read all of this, Wendy 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes.
I never leave comments but wanted to do so here just to thank you for converting to metric. This cake is fabulous and yours is the only version I’ll make for any birthday. Currently making it in two heart pans to make a “doggie” cake for my four year old. Thank you!!!!!
Yay! Great to hear, Talee. And my pleasure: I can’t bake with cups anymore 🙂
Hello!
I came across this recipe after searching chocolate cake recipes, Ina Gartens Beatty cake, but wasn’t keen on the yolk added to the frosting. You’ve put my mind at ease that it’s not required and I love that you have weight measurements!
I’d like to ask your advice on baking the cakes in advance. Have you made them in advance and frosted day before or day of serving? Would love your input .
Thank you,
Diana
The cake stays moist for days, so I think you definitely can make it and the frosting ahead of time. I would frost the cake just before serving or the day of. Hope you love it 🙂
This cake is just delicious! I love that it comes together in one bowl. I cheat on the frosting and make a simple ganache with dark choc and heated coconut milk or cream. Then I just pour it over the top. Sometimes I add dollops of raspberry jam to the top. It’s so good. Thank you Ali, and Ina and Beatty!!
Awww I love all of this so much. Thanks for writing. Happy holidays!!
It looks like you’re missing the coffee in the frosting!
THIS is the BESSSSST chocolate cake I have made in my 37 years of cooking and baking. I tweaked the recipe a bit but it still came out AMAZING!! Thank you for sharing this beautiful recipe. I used less sugar (1 1/3 cups but I used organic brown sugar) and it was still sweet enough and I used 1 cup of cake flour and 3/4 cup AP. My family demolished this and I will be making it next weekend for friends.