Chocolate Cake with Butterscotch & Cream Cheese Frosting
Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe
Pinterest gets me in trouble, and it isn’t even from me browsing. Diane will be lying on the couch at the end of the day, scrolling along while I catch up to the sports world on ESPN. Then suddenly she’ll pipe up “I want that”, thrusting her phone towards me. What am I supposed to do, say “No”? Well, I could but between you and me, I like to bake. I don’t mind at all when she discovers these little sweet cravings.
We’ve had some great finds, as well as a few others that looked really cool, but in the end I wasn’t crazy about the taste or texture. Sometimes if they are interesting enough the “no-go’s” will get shuffled into a drawer and every once in a while I’ll work on adjustments to see if I can make something I’m happy with.
The Black Magic Cake had no worries of being shuffled off into the “let’s work on this” drawer. With a few personal adjustments on the fly, it was awesome first time off the paper.
Diane’s been bugging me about this one for a while. The black magic cake recipe is just for the cake alone, and it took me a bit to think up of how I wanted to finish it. Finally this concoction of butterscotch, roasted peanuts, and a cream cheese frosting popped into my head, so I cranked up the mixer and went to work.
The cake came out marvelous. Straight out of the oven the cakes had beautiful domed tops which to my temporary dismay fell flat while cooling. With the top now settled even with the sides, the lazy cook on my shoulder whispered, “But now you won’t have to cut the top level!” Good point I said back to myself.
With the butterscotch already done ahead of time, and after whipping up frosting once the cakes had cooled, I assembled the cake and waited for it to chill so we could get a pretty slice out for the photos. It was a long, hard wait. After an agonizing couple hours (my sweet tooth was kicking in), we sliced, shot, and sampled the cake. “Would it be share worthy?” “Would we have to do-over?” “Could it painfully be a fail?”
Yes. No. And definitely No. The cake was awesome. Super moist, just the right amount of fluff to not be dense. The peanuts, butterscotch, and frosting played off the chocolate cake to remind me of one of my favorite candy bars, Snickers. Awesome!
So here you are. Hope everyone who get a chance to make it loves this chocolate cake recipe as much as we do.
-Todd
"Black Magic Cake" with Butterscotch & Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
butterscotch ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsalted Butter (60 g)
- 1 cup Brown Sugar (220 g) , tightly packed
- 1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream (120 ml)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (5 ml)
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons Bourbon (22 ml)
- Sea Salt to taste (@ 1 teaspoon (5 g))
chocolate cake ingredients
- 2 cups Sugar (400g)
- 1-3/4 cups Flour (220g)
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (65g)
- 2 teaspoons Baking Soda (10g)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder (5g)
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt or Sea Salt (5g)
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 cup Buttermilk (240ml) *see note 1 for alternate
- 1 cup Espresso or Strong Coffee (240ml)
- 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil (120ml)
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract (10ml)
cream cheese frosting ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted Butter (115 g) , room temp.
- 16 ounces Cream Cheese (455g), room temp.
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (5 ml)
- 4 cups Confectioners Sugar (455 g)
- few dashes Orange Bitters (optional)
additional ingredients
- 1/2 cup Roasted Peanuts (65g) , roughly chopped
Instructions
butterscotch directions
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over low-medium heat. Just before butter is completely melted, add the brown sugar, stirring to completely moisten the sugar.
- Gently cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture caramelizes and transforms from its initial graininess to a smooth “molten lava”. Make sure to get the corners of the pot and watch closely because the texture will change quickly, 3-5 min of total cook time.
- Whisk in all of the cream at once, and continue whisking until the the liquid is homogenous. Cook for another 7 minutes, whisking every few minutes.
- Turn off the heat and let cool for 15 minutes. Add half of vanilla extract, bourbon, and sea salt, then taste for flavor. Add more of each until the flavor is perfect to your palate. Allow to cool for at least 45 minutes to determine texture. You may want to slightly re-warm the butterscotch when pouring it between the cake layers.
cake directions
- Heat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. Line the pan with a parchment circle. If making buttermilk substitute *see note 1, make that now.
- Sift then whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in mixer bowl for at least 20 seconds. Beat in eggs, buttermilk, espresso or coffee, oil, and vanilla extract until well combined. Make sure to stop and scrape the bottom of the bowl once or twice to get everything well mixed.
- Divide batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans.
- Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cakes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then release cakes from pans onto wire racks to cool completely. While the cakes cool, make the frosting.
cream cheese frosting directions
- In a mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese and beat until light and fluffy.
- Stir in confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, and bitters then slowly increase speed and beat until incorporated. Set aside until ready to frost cake.
final assembly
- Put a dab of frosting in the middle of a cake circle or plate (the frosting helps keep the cake from sliding around). Place the first cake layer on a cake circle or plate. Line several strips of wax paper around base of cake to help keep circle or plate clean.
- Put about 3/4 cup of frosting in the middle of the cake and spread the frosting working from the center out, leaving a slight built up edge on the outer rim. When finished, you should have nice thin layer of frosting over most of the top surface of the cake, with a little wall on the outer rim that will help hold in the butterscotch.
- Pour butterscotch over the thin frosting layer, spreading it evenly over the bottom cake layer. Sprinkle the roasted peanuts over the butterscotch. Take the second cake and place on top of the peanut layer.
- Spread a thin layer of frosting over entire cake as a crumb coat. Place in the freezer to chill for about 10 minutes, then add the rest of the frosting and evenly spread across and on the edges of the cake. Remove strips of wax paper at base of cakes. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature before serving if possible.
Nutrition Information per Serving
Here’s more chocolate dessert recipes
FYI this recipe (in all its variations) makes great cupcakes – large or mini. I’ve had better luck using paper liners rather than greasing the cupcake pans. I frost them with a swirl of cream cheese frosting and top that off with a raspberry.
What’s the cooking time for regular cupcakes?
14-18 minutes on regular size and 13-15 on mini. My yields are usually 24 regular and 7 dozen mini.
wow!!!! we’re having a retirement party next weekend after agonizing over what dessert, this takes the cake!!! good job you two!!!! thinking one w/bourbon and one w/kahlua. whoooohooo, i’m excited!!!!
thanks so much!!!
I needed a recipe for this weekend, and I’ve just found it. Thank you! This looks amazing.
What an amazing cake! I love that Diane finds things and tells you to make them. I also wanted to thank you for such an amazing session this weekend. You brought many of us to tears, not once but twice!
Oh my! I saw this in my Facebook feed this morning and started drooling. Now that I’ve read that it tastes like a Snickers candy bar, I know for sure this cake wouldn’t last long at my house!
Damn you, Todd & Diane!
I’m going to dream about chocolate cake and this fabulous filling & frosting!!!
:-p
But they will be such sweet dreams, Gail!
xoxo!
T
Great choice, definitely my flavors.
Hopefully you’ll get a chance to make it!
T
The looks amazing!!!So grand!
Thanks so much.
T
That is one amazing looking cake! I love love the addition of bourbon here, and I especially love the butterscotch filling. Cut me a slice please 🙂
This is such a grand age for bourbon right now. It is hard not to love it. One slice coming up.
T
It’s a good thing I don’t have bourbon or espresso on hand or I’d be about 4k calories over my daily allotment today.
You could always make it without the bourbon & espresso – although I’d have to think of what to use instead for the liquid replacement. Maybe OJ? Just sayin’. Maybe trying to tempt a little too. 😉
Woah! No wonder Diane requested this cake! I would too!
It has just about everything in your site name, Crunchy – Creamy – and Sweet. You must make!
T
I love that Hershey’s Black Magic Recipe and you did it up right! One of my favorite homemade peanut butters to make is with honey roasted peanuts and butterscotch chips and white chocolate, so I know I would love the filling! The texture on your cake is just awesome – super moist and that filling, mmm, so good! Beautiful!
Averie, your descriptive comments simply rock. If you get a chance to make it, you’ll definitely love this one.
T
Oh my word. I can definitely see how Diane would want this! YUM
Yeah, she gets me into trouble with her finds. Delicious trouble.
T
I can totally see why Diane wanted this cake so bad! Maaaan what a fabulous recipe!!
Thanks so much Katrina. She was mostly wanting me to try the chocolate cake, but I think the butterscotch & peanuts amped it a little. Great chocolate cake recipe for sure.
T
I don’t think I have ever heard of a better frosting than Butterscotch and cream cheese. Seriously I think it sounds genius!
Awwww. You’re such a flatterer. 😉 Thanks so much.
T
This has been my family’s go-to chocolate cake for years. Originally baked from a $0.75 paperback cookbook that you sent away from from the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa Powder package in the early 80’s. It’s even better the 2nd day. We get very liberal with modifying it (cutting back the sugar, sub-ing Kahlua for some of the coffee, using a darker cocoa) and it never fails.
I love this filling/ frosting combo and cant’ wait to try it. Thanks!
Also, tried it with coconut oil for the first time a few weeks ago and it worked perfectly!
Great to know the versatility of the Black Magic Cake recipe. I’m all in for the Kahlua sub! The bourbon we used was great in it too, but before hand I kept going back and forth between Kahlua, Dark Rum, or Bourbon. Thanks for sharing.
T