Black and White Cake – dark chocolate cake layers with a light and fluffy vanilla buttercream.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, my friends! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break, filled with loved ones, good times and delicious food! We spent the holiday back home in LA with our families and the most beautiful weather. I’ve started to love the white winters here in Utah, but I’m not going to lie, I’d take those 70-degree winter days in LA over a winter white any day. You can take the girl out of California, but you can’t take the California out of the girl!
The 10 days away were packed with fun and lots of yummy food, but by the end, I was definitely ready to come home. Aside from baking a few things here and there with my mom and sister, I really didn’t do much in the kitchen this break. I didn’t even make a single cake. And I missed it so much! In fact, we arrived home on Sunday night this past weekend, and by Monday morning at 8am, I was already whipping up my chocolate cake.
Black and White Cake
It really did just feel so good to be home and in my element. Since it was New Year’s Even, I made sure we had cake for our festivities. I decided to keep it simple with a classic I’ve made before but have actually never posted about. I used my dark chocolate cake recipe with my vanilla buttercream to make a classic Black and White Cake. It’s an easy combination to overlook, but it’s always a hit. And because there’s just two elements to this cake, it’s the perfect cake for beginners to master.
Chocolate Cake
This is my high-altitude friendly chocolate cake recipe, but remember, it works anywhere! I originally came up with this recipe when we moved to Utah four years ago to account for the altitude, but it won’t taste any different at low altitude.
You’ll notice I have a four layer cake in my pictures, but the recipe is for a three layer 8-inch cake (or four layer 6-inch cake). To add an extra layer for a four layer 8-inch cake, I added an additional 1/3 of the recipe. You’ll then put 15-16 ounces of batter in each pan for the 8-inch cake and 11-12 ounces of batter in each pan for the 6-inch cakes
Vanilla Buttercream
If you’ve tried this buttercream before, you know I’m not exaggerating when I claim it to be the best vanilla buttercream you’ll ever try. It’s light and fluffy and full of flavor. Per usual, I went with an American Buttercream, with good ol’ powdered sugar and butter. But, to ensure I get a light and fluffy texture, I always add a little heavy whipping cream and beat my frosting with the paddle attachment for about 5 to 7 minutes. I love watching the buttercream color turn nearly white with those extra little steps.
Here’s a look at how I decorated this cake for our New Year’s Eve party. You’ll see I added parchment paper to the “wet” frosting. Don’t let that scare you. Gently place the parchment paper into place, add your sprinkles, and then freeze the cake (with the parchment paper still on) for about 20 minutes. After the cake has been frozen, you can then remove the parchment paper without compromising your smooth edges.
Enjoy!
Please tell how you get the triangles to be that long- I tried cutting parchment cake liner triangles but they are not long enough.
I used large parchment paper and measured my cake height and used a ruler to create my triangles on the parchment the same height as my cake.
Do you use .25 or .50 acrylic disks when frosting tour cakes?
Correction to my previous reply. I meant 8.25 or 8.5 disks. I have no shrinkage so I am thinking 8.5 would be best.
Thank you so much for always putting out the best recipes Courtney!! I tried this one yesterday, and it’s super close to my normal go-to chocolate recipe, I just normally use coffee instead of hot water. But I wanted to say thanks, it turned out so good!! I think this will be my new go-to chocolate recipe 🙂
Amazing!!!!!
Hi. I had a question about buttercream. Mine always turns grainy or greasy. Heavy cream doesn’t help. Doesn’t chilled butter cause graininess? How do you get it so smooth? Can you please do an in-depth buttercream video tutorial with all steps included? Thanks
Check out the tutorials on my blog. I have one on how to make the perfect buttercream.
What brand of heavy cream and powdered sugar do you use? Please let me know! Thanks
Does the finished cake need to be refrigerated?
Depends on when you eat it after you finish frosting it. It can be refrigerated overnight in an airtight container or box, but anything longer than that, I would freeze it to stay fresh until you serve.
Will Hershey’s special dark cocoa work with this recipe or should I just stick with regular Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder?
I love the Hershey’s special dark for this as a replacement
How many sprinkles does it take to do something like this?
I had a 6oz bottle of sprinkles and didn’t use it all.
I followed this recipe exactly except i used coffee instead of the water, it was just a beautiful & delicious cake!! I have remade over several times & shared with friends! Great recipe!
I made this for a friend’s New Year Eve party and it was phenomenal! I used black cocoa powder and replaced the hot water with coffee and it was such a hit! Not only did it look fantastic and striking with the contrast of the black cake against the white buttercream but it tasted delicious. It was so moist and the buttercream was to die for. I got so many compliments on the cake and one of the guests actually hugged me, lol! My only regret was I should have made it 4 layers like you did. I look forward to trying your other recipes!
This makes me so happy to hear! Glad you loved it!
I’ve experimented with dozens of chocolate cake recipes over the years and none have been great. I made this for my 4 year old’s birthday, with different decorating, of course. This cake was the absolute best, moistest chocolate cake I’ve ever made. Chocolate cake often dries out quickly, and I’m still eating a very moist cake 3 days after baking it. I did use a simple syrup in the 4 layers, but the recipe itself is just amazing. I also tried the trick of letting the frosting go for a full 5 minutes and it makes such a great difference. Thank you!!!