Ingredients
Method
- Add the butter, milk, coffee/water, and cocoa powder in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth and well combined.
- Add sour cream and stir until combined. Then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract until combined. Set aside while you mix dry ingredients.
- In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, and salt. Whisk until combined.
- Add your wet ingredient mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk/stir until batter is smooth. Don't overmix. Let your batter rest for 15 minutes to help fully hydrate the flour.
- While that is resting preheat the oven to 350℉ and prepare your cake pans. I spread a thin layer of softened butter to completely cover the pan and line the bottom of my 8" round stainless steel pans with parchment paper.
- Next add baking soda, baking powder, and vinegar to batter and mix in until combined.
- Evenly divide the batter into prepared cake pans and bake at 350℉ for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs. You don't want to overbake it or you risk having a dry cake.
- Cool cake in the pan/s for 20-30 minutes and then run a knife along the edge to loosen it from the edge and carefully invert cake onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Frost when cake is completely cool.
Notes
If you don't have coffee you can substitute by adding a teaspoon of instant coffee or if you want to leave the coffee out completely just substitute with water.
Using coffee helps bring out the chocolate flavor, but you don't taste coffee.
If you don't have Dutch process cocoa powder you can substitute regular unsweetened cocoa powder. The Dutch process gives the deeper almost black look to the cake. Regular cocoa is just a tad lighter in color, but still tastes and looks great.
This recipe can be made in a 9"x13" pan or cupcakes (approx. 24), just adjust baking time. Remember metal and glass pans distribute heat differently so baking times may vary.