Sue B’s Chocolate Cake gets its name from a lady who developed the recipe for another lady on the Fine Cooking forum. I guess that’s kind of confusing, especially since the source of the recipe is now Food.com. But that’s the history as I know it. And my daughter still loves this cake! We originally made it because it seemed easy and like a good blank canvas for decorating, and we both agree it was and still is a good choice. With so many cake recipes out there it can be stressful picking one.
Sue B’s Chocolate Cake is perfect for novice (or 8 year old) bakers since it doesn’t involve any creaming and can be made with a whisk and a spoon. And for a cake that’s basically just dumped and mixed together, it has a surprisingly light texture. Compared to the Chocolate Butter Cake from a few days ago, it’s lighter and less tight crumbed. Compared to Favorite Cocoa Layer Cake, it’s just lighter and less dense.
Sue B.'s Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 3/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups granulated sugar 14 oz
- 2 cups all purpose flour 9 oz
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting
- 1 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate
- 1 1/2 oz semisweet chocolate
- 12 tablespoons butter unsalted or salted
- 3 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3/4 pound powdered sugar about 3 cups
- 4-5 T. buttermilk or regular milk plus more if needed — room temperature NOT cold
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Pinch or two of salt — if using salted butter omit
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 9 inch round cake pans.
- Mix cocoa and boiling water together in a small bowl or large measuring cup; set aside.
- Mix buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl
- Mix sugar, flour, salt and baking soda together in a second mixing bowl.
- Mix dry ingredients into buttermilk/oil mixture and stir well with a heavy duty rubber scraper. Mix in cocoa mixture – ours was still very warm when we stirred it in. Stir until well mixed (though batter might have a few lumps). Don’t overbeat the flour.
- Pour batter into pans and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn from pans and cool.
- Frosting: Melt both chocolates in microwave, double boiler or bowl set over barely simmering water; set aside to cool. Beat the butter until creamy. Make sure it’s not too cold or it might cause the chocolate to re-solidify. Stir in the cocoa power, about a cup of the powdered sugar, and the cooled melted chocolate. Scrape sides of bowl and beat well; add remaining powdered sugar, then add room temperature milk, vanilla and salt, beating and scraping until you get the consistency you like.
Anna
That is so cool! I should change the name to Jennifer’s (and Sue B. and Fuzz G.’s) Chocolate Cake.
Jennifer
I hope you liked the cake. I’m actually the one who invented it. Sue B. was a fellow poster on the Fine Cooking discussion boards years ago. She had this cake recipe that she loved the flavor of, except that it kept falling in the middle. I’m a very obsessed amateur baker, and I love playing with recipes, so I took her original and reworked it to fix the problem. Since I did it for her, I named it after her as well.
PD
Aww, Fuzz’s decoration is too cute! 🙂 this looks worth trying, as I like to avoid using the mixer whenever I can.
LMC502
Nice job, Fuzz! Mickey is my favorite, and on a chocolate cake – yum!
Tina
I was thinking the same thing about Emma! She looks so mature in this picture. Beautiful as always. I can’t believe how fast time is just flying by seems like the girls just started Kindergarten.
janet
I can’t believe how grown up Fuzz looks…is she in a growing spurt? Maybe it’s her hair pulled back? Anyway, she looks very pretty! She did a terrific job on the cake.
Jen
Fuzz looks so much like Todd in this picture!
Louise
Did you forget to take a photo of a piece of cake before it is all gone? We’re looking forward to seeing it. 🙂
Annmarie Kostyk
This recipe looks easy and delicious. Next time my niece and nephew come over I’m going to make it with them. My nephew, who is now 7, says chocolate is the most important meal of the day. I couldn’t agree more. Going to post this on my chocolate blog. Hope you don’t mind!
Cookie Sleuth
I can’t wait to see a picture of the sliced cake. Yum!
Stacie @ Imperfectly Healthy
That’s so nice! Good job Fuzz! 🙂 I like how colorful it is and the stars along the side!
Carole Resnick
Super job Emma (aka Fuzz). By the way, whichever name you want to use, you are developing into a beautiful (inside and out) young woman.
Katrina
That looks fantastic! Did you say you like this one better than the butter cake, Anna?
Just the star placement around the bottom looks great (and like a job I would not enjoy!)
Therese B.
Hi!
Oh…Anna is so cute! Great work on the cake Fuzz..
Anna…I can’t believe how grown up she is getting!
Oh…why does time fly when you have your children?
Happy Monday!
Anna
Fuzz says thanks!
I’ll post a picture of the cut cake this morning so you can see the texture.
Cakelaw
What a fab cake! Love it.
Louise
That’s a terrific cake decorating job. And a great photo of Fuzz with her cake. Looking forward to hearing how it is tomorrow.
Andrea
Beautiful cake Fuzz! Love it!
I just can’t help noticing how you keep growing. You look much preetier. 🙂
Chelsey Green
if you bake something new everyday, what do you do with all of the goodies?
Karen
Beautiful job by Fuzz! My 16-year daughter is now the main cake decorator around here, although I’m still the main baker. She does a great job piping borders and greetings on birthday cakes (which are the only cakes that we bother to decorate!)
P.S. Anna – I made an upside-down chocolate cake flan thing tonight. I first ever saw that on your site, but I used the one from this link below (scratch cake and ten inch pan instead of cake mix and tube pan). It was a lot of fun and really good!
http://girlichef.blogspot.com/2009/11/c-h-o-c-o-f-l-n-it-speaks-for-itself.html
Kristi
Looks yummy and I love the decorations!!! Good job!