Chocolate Chip Cake With Whipped Chocolate Buttercream

Name: Chocolate Chip Cake With Whipped Chocolate Buttercream
Prep time: 120 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 155 min
Ingredients: 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp salt; 3/4 cup unsalted butter (room temperature); 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar; 3 large eggs (room temperature); 1 1/2 tsp vanilla; 1 cup buttermilk (room temperature); 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (tossed in 1 Tbsp flour); 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (room temperature); 4 cups powdered sugar (sifted); 1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (sifted); 4 Tbsp heavy whipping cream (room temperature); 1 tsp vanilla; 8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (melted, cooled)

By Olivia, 81 Comments

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Take the classic birthday cake up a few notches with this easy and delicious Chocolate Chip Cake with Whipped Chocolate Buttercream!

It’s April! Flowers are *finally* starting to bloom, and it looks like we have a magnolia tree on our front lawn that I had no idea about. So exciting!! I am SO over winter — and this year has been a particularly bad one. Getting through the January to March phase is always the worst for me. Nothing to look forward to for 3 dreary months. Thankfully we were able to break it up a bit with our February Sydney trip, but that’s not always an option.

So, to kick off April and the signs of spring and summer on the horizon, I bring you this bright and cheery Chocolate Chip Cake!

There was no special occasion for this birthday cake, it’s just one that I’ve wanted to do for a while. And really, does there need to be a special occasion to have cake? I didn’t think so.

The chocolate chip cake is the same one I use in my Milk & Cookies Cake. It’s a buttermilk based cake, and tastes truly delicious. Ryan insists the cake tastes just like a chocolate chip muffin, and really, it totally does. I use the same “base” cake recipe for all of my vanilla cakes, but for some reason the addition of chocolate chips gives it a whole different kind of flavour.

This is Ryan’s new favourite cake, and I’ve been instructed to not give any of it out (lol). I managed to smuggle a few pieces away for some friends, but the rest of it has been squirrelled away into the freezer.

The chocolate buttercream did not turn out as I intended. My vision for this cake was not to have a whipped buttercream at all, but a rich, fudgey chocolate one. Apparently this is something I am incapable of achieving, as I have tried multiple times without success. Either the color is off or the texture isn’t right — I never quite get what I’m after.

This is an American style buttercream, which I don’t do very often. I typically stick to Swiss meringue buttercreams, but I knew that getting a rich chocolate color with a meringue would be all but impossible, so I went with a powdered sugar based buttercream instead. Maybe I should have added more melted chocolate, or cocoa powder, or milk instead of cream. Or maybe I whipped it for too long or at too high a speed. Regardless, it’s light and airy rather than rich and fudgey. Flavour-wise, it’s still perfectly delicious.

So, the chocolate fudge buttercream I was after turned into a whipped chocolate buttercream. I’m actually totally ok with this and think it looks perfectly pretty, it’s just not exactly what I had envisioned.

I wanted to try something a little different for the sides of the cake this time, and I would say that I’m about 80% happy with how it turned out. Again, it’s not exactly what I was going for, but I was lazy and I didn’t want to scrape it all off and start over. It was close enough. I used a large straight icing spatula, pressed it into the bottom of the cake and swiped upwards at an angle. I didn’t clean it between swipes, which helped to give the frosting the pronounced ridges. I think it would actually be a cool effect for a “wood” themed cake, as it kinda looks like bark.

Some classic rosettes and a mixture of pastel confetti and sprinkles top off this pretty Chocolate Chip Cake.

The cake is fairly dense but moist, and it pairs well with the fluffy whipped chocolate buttercream. Perfect as a birthday cake or for any special occasion.

Notes & tips for this Chocolate Chip Cake:

Use mini chocolate chips rather than regular sized ones for the cake. For the frosting I melted down regular size chocolate chips, but any would work.
Use a large straight icing spatula to create the scalloped effect on the sides and the swirl on top.
For a darker chocolate frosting, you can experiment by adding more chocolate or cocoa powder, or less cream.
Best served at room temperature.
If you would like a vanilla frosting version instead, check out my Milk & Cookies Cake!
To help ensure your cake layers bake up nice and flat, see my Flat Top Cakes post.

Print Rate

5 from 6 votes