This French Silk Pie Cake is the dessert of your dreams!! Incredibly moist chocolate cake layers topped with an unbelievably silky chocolate frosting.
This French Silk Pie Cake is an homage to my very favourite cake from my childhood, and it’s still one of my favourite cakes today: the McCain Deep’n Delicious Chocolate Cake.
This cake is so good. SO. GOOD. We wouldn’t get it often when I was little, but when we did, it was the best treat. The cake itself is fine, basically good old chocolate cake. But the frosting… the frosting!! Where is the heart eyes emoji?? That stuff is like crack. I’d gladly take a bowl full of that frosting with a spoon and be happy.
I actually haven’t had this cake in decades (seriously), but over the holidays I got this inexplicable craving that just had to be satisfied. All the precious cakes lining my freezer were just not going to cut it. Ryan was all like — imagine if your followers knew what you were getting?? Blasphemy! Little did he know I had already blasted my guilty pleasure to everyone on my Instagram stories. There were some closet Deep’n Delicious fans that came out of the woodwork, let me tell ya — this cake has a cult following. Rightfully so.
So twenty some odd years later, I am happy to report that it’s every bit as good as I’d remembered. Except it used to come with chocolate sprinkles. Where did the chocolate sprinkles go??
I am not kidding when I say I bought at least two (maybe three) of these cakes over the holidays and ate them all. Happily. Maybe it was that I needed a break from baking, or that I was tired of all my cakes, or I just wanted to relive some nostalgia. It was wonderful.
Over the course of discussing our mutual obsession with my friend Amy from Constellation Inspiration, I decided I needed to try and re-create this cake. A quick Google search led down a rabbit hole which eventually led me to French Silk Pie. Apparently the filling for this pie is what is used as the frosting on the Deep’n Delicious cake.
What is French Silk Pie?
It’s basically a mousse, but not made in the traditional way you’d make a mousse. The key difference with French Silk Pie is the way you whip the eggs. Or rather, how long you whip them for.
The recipe starts out with creaming butter and sugar together, then adding in melted chocolate. At this point you start adding cold eggs one at a time and whipping for 5 minutes after each addition. This part is critical. If you add the eggs all at once it will be a big soupy mess. If you don’t whip for long enough after each egg, the filling/frosting/mousse will be grainy. Trust me when I say not to rush this process.
When you’re finished whipping, the filling will be thick, fluffy, and silky… but a bit on the runny side. You couldn’t use it as a frosting in this state. All you need to do is pop it into the fridge for 20-30mins so that it starts to firm/set up a bit. I chilled mine for a total of 30mins, rewhipping every 10mins. It was still thinner than a normal frosting at this point, but totally worked for piping the dollops. You could chill it a bit longer if you prefer.
It’s important to note that I piped the dollops on each layer separately and chilled them again for 30mins before stacking. I wanted to make sure the frosting was firm enough so that it wouldn’t ooze out the sides. You could serve this cake stacked or as two individual layers. How you choose to serve it is up to you. Each is equally pretty in my opinion.
This French Silk Pie Cake recipe is simple, but a bit more time intensive (not THAT much more though). Decorating this cake is super easy, so the time spent on making/chilling the frosting balances out. And it’s worth it, I promise!! That frosting is pure heaven.
So, did my version of the Deep’n Delicious cake live up to my expectations?? I gotta tell ya, it’s pretty darn close. My cake layers are more dense and moist (which I like better), but the frosting is almost identical. Certainly in texture. I used unsweetened Baker’s chocolate in the frosting as that’s what most French Silk Pie recipes called for, but I think next time I’d try it with a high quality dark chocolate instead (Callebaut is my favourite). I am a chocolate snob when it comes to baking!
Does this mean I’ll stop buying the McCain cakes? Unlikely. But if you’re as big a fan of that nostalgic cake as I am, you will love this homemade version!
Tips for making this French Silk Pie Cake :
- This recipe uses raw eggs for the frosting. If you’re uncomfortable eating raw eggs, you can use pasteurized eggs or try one of my other chocolate frosting recipes.
- Raw eggs should not be consumed by pregnant women, small children, or anyone with health issues.
- Do NOT skimp on the whipping time for the frosting. You really need to whip for 5 minutes after each egg so that the sugar dissolves completely and the frosting is light and fluffy.
- I used caster sugar as it’s super fine and will dissolve quicker, but good old granulated sugar will work just fine. Just make sure the sugar is completely dissolved. If not, keep whipping until it is.
- I used Baker’s chocolate in the frosting, but next time I think I would try it with a really good quality dark chocolate.
- To help ensure your cake layers bake up nice and flat, see my Flat Top Cakes post.
Looking for more Chocolate Recipes??
- Chocolate Truffle Cake
- Mocha Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cake
- Dark Chocolate Ganache Tart
- Chocolate Cheesecake Stuffed Bundt
French Silk Pie Cake
This French Silk Pie Cake is the dessert of your dreams!! Incredibly moist chocolate cake layers topped with an unbelievably silky chocolate frosting.
INGREDIENTS
Chocolate Cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder sifted
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 1 cup hot water
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
French Silk Frosting:
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened, but still cool
- 1 cup caster sugar superfine sugar (granulated ok, not powdered)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 3 oz unsweetened Baker's chocolate melted and cooled completely
- 3 large whole eggs cold
Assembly:
- chocolate flakes or sprinkles
INSTRUCTIONS
Chocolate Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350F, grease two 8" round baking pans and dust with cocoa powder. Line bottoms with parchment.
- Place all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Stir to combine.
- In a medium bowl whisk all wet ingredients (pour hot water in slowly as not to cook the eggs).
- Add wet ingredients to dry and mix on medium for 2-3 mins. Batter will be very thin.
- Pour evenly into prepared pans. I used a kitchen scale to ensure the batter is evenly distributed.
- Bake for 45 mins or until a cake tester comes out mostly clean.
- Cool 10 minutes in the pans then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
French Silk Frosting:
Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until pale & fluffy (approx. 3 mins). Ideally use a a chilled bowl*. Scrape bowl as needed.
Add cooled melted chocolate and vanilla, whip until combined. Scrape bowl as needed.
Switch to whisk attachment. Add eggs one at a time, whipping for 5 mins after each addition. Scrape bowl before adding each egg.**
Frosting will be fairly runny. Place entire bowl with whisk into the fridge to chill for 30mins (take out to whip every 10mins).
Assembly:
Place each layer of cake on a cake board or plate. Using a French star tip, pipe dollops on top of each layer then sprinkle with chocolate flakes.***
You can either serve them like this, as two separate cakes, or place both in the fridge to chill for 1 hour, then carefully remove one from the cake board stack on top of the other.
NOTES
* A cold bowl will help the frosting whip up better.
** Do not skimp on this! It takes a long time, but this is what helps give it the proper texture.
*** You will have a bit of frosting left over. You can use this to add more frosting to the cake if desired, or spoon into small bowls and serve as mousse.
French Silk Pie filling recipe from Martha Stewart.
NOTE: This recipe uses raw eggs which may be an issue for some. You can use pasteurized if you prefer. Raw eggs should not be consumed by pregnant women, small children, or anyone with health issues.
The nutritional information and metric conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data. If this important to you, please verify with your favourite nutrition calculator and/or metric conversion tool.
Hello there! This recipe looks great and I will definitely try it some time. But what I am looking for right now is vanilla mc cain cake icing. My daughters b day is coming and the vanilla ones are her favorite. The icing is really different than other vanilla icings. Do you have any ideas for me? I would really appreciate some help.
Hi Alex! I’ve actually never had the vanilla one so I can’t speculate as to what it’s like. I suppose you could try leaving the chocolate out of this one, but not sure if that’s the best strategy.
Cant wait to try out your recipe tomorrow for a friend who has not eaten mccain chocolate cake in years now, because we live in the Netherlands in Europe and it is not available here. I have never had mccain chocolate cake, so I have no idea what it should taste like.. I want to surprise her with it and hope it will take her back in time to when she still lived in Aruba and used to buy this cake often because she loves it so much. I was wondering if you have made this recipe before with homemade buttermilk, and if so, did you use fresh lemon juice or from a squeeze bottle? I can go out and buy fresh buttermilk tomorrow, but im afraid our buttermilk looks a bit thin compared to the thick buttermilk I see in American videos.. ours is almost as thin as regular milk.
Hi Aike! I almost always use homemade buttermilk as I never want to buy a whole carton of it! It will work just fine 🙂 I add 1 Tbsp lemon juice (squeeze bottle) to 1 cup milk (I use 1% because that’s what’s in my fridge, but any works). You can also use vinegar. Let me know how she likes it!!
Hi Olivia,
I just pulled my cakes out of the oven and the layers are only 1,5 inches tall. Is that normal? This always happens when I use the hersheys chocolate cake recipe or one that is kind of similar to it too. I thought that was because I use dutched cocoa powder (I am from the Netherlands and us Dutch people are only able to get Dutch process cocoa here) . But in your recipe it was specifically asked for so I thought it would be ok this time. I used store bought buttermilk and Im wondering if perhaps that might not be acidic enough to react with the baking soda? Or perhaps our flour is different.. American flour is made from hard wheat and hours is made from soft wheat, but I made sure to buy one that has the same protein content as american all purpose flour. This is so frustrating because I love the flavour of these types of chocolate cake, but I just wish it would bake taller. When its in the oven it seems to rise to a nice height, but eventually when they are still in the oven, they just deflate and shrink. I am not an unexperienced baker and have followed the recipe to a T. Weighed out all of my ingredients exactly in grams. I have joined your facebook group today, I could sent you a picture of the cake layers and hope you can help. A quick google search shows i am not the only one in Europe struggling with this type of chocolate cake falling or just not rising properly. Wish I could get my hands on some american all purpose flour to see if that might work better.
Hi Aike! Did you use 8″ pans? If so they should be about 2″ tall. Did you check to make sure your baking soda and baking powder are not expired? Sometimes this can be the culprit. I always only use Dutch cocoa as well. Are you at high elevation by chance? That could cause problems for sure. It’s possible re: flour. I tried to bake a cake at my sister’s in Sydney and it was a total fail — dense and didn’t rise much. I assumed it was the flour. Definitely email me a pic or post in the group!
Hi Olivia,
Yes everything was very fresh because I bake a lot nothing sits in my pantry for long and I also check the expiration dates before I buy products. I used 8 inch pans. I have tried many variations on this type of chocolate cake and they always end up dense and very flat. According to wikipedia the Netherlands is at 98ft elevation and the USA is at 2493ft elevation. I wish i could get these recipes to work because they look so delicious. I went to a windmill today to buy freshly ground special flour thats supposed to be super soft like cake flour.. im hoping that might work
Hmm, that is super strange! Please let me know if you figure it out, I’m curious!
Try making your own buttermilk with 1 cup milk +1 tbsp lemon juice. I like to combine them and let it sit to get thick while I get other ingredients ready. Also, I add just a pinch extra baking soda because I like very light fluffy cake, and try lowering your oven. Cake baked at 300 or 325 F (150C – 165C or gas mark 2 or 3) will often rise higher than cake baked at higher temperatures, but you will need to adjust cooking time accordingly.
my daughter lives in the UK. the flour definitely has a different texture. I cannot get my cinnamon rolls to rise very well either. I am not sure how to fix the problem but I do feel that the difference in flour texture is the culprit.
Ugh, good to know. Have you tried different kinds/brands of flour over there?
Hi I was wondering if their was a way to make the frosting but without the chocolate in favor of vanilla i wanted to make it for my dad but he didn’t want chocolate frosting. (Sorry if you have made a vanilla version and I haven’t seen it)
Hi Alexis! This particular frosting is unique and specifically chocolate. If you want a vanilla one you can use the one in this recipe: https://livforcake.com/vanilla-cake/
YOU COULD TELL ME, WHAT DOES THE CAKE MEASURE OF HIGH FOR 12 PEOPLE?
THANKS
I made this for a surprise party I was attending at the request of the person throwing the party. I asked what kind of cake the bday girl (70 yrs old bday girl 😊) and was told nothing chocolate. This cake was a HUGE hit with everyone, especially the bday girl. Many people said it was the best chocolate cake they ever had. I doubled the recipe and made a 12 inch cake. It was perfection.
Oh typos!! Sorry about that – I was told anything chocolate, not nothing chocolate.
So happy to hear that!! Glad everyone liked it, it’s a fave of mine 🙂
I just was reading about you. OMG!!!
You grew up in Edmonton, which is where I grew up and lived for 50 years of my life.
I now live in Newfoundland. We are almost neighbors!
I love to know a bit about you.It is so nice to see the pictures you posted and I feel like we have so much in common.
Small world!! And wow, that is quite the move after so many years! Ryan and I talk about visiting the East coast often. Need to get out there.
You are amazing! Just wanted to let you know, even when I don’t look at the author of the recipes I look at , I can usually pick yours out, just by how well written instructions there are and everything else.
I am making this cake tomorrow, but will be using 3- 6’pans, and would like to use a white frosting on it for contrast. Could you suggest one that will work well with it? And I am pretty sure I don’t have to adjust much of the ingredients? I hope you can let me know your thought on this.
Aww thanks so much Carol! You are the sweetest! The cake should work fine in three 6″ pans, though there’s a chance it could spill over a bit, so maybe just put a baking sheet under the pans just in case. Don’t fill the pans more than 1/2 full as the batter rises a LOT. And I actually think a simple whipped cream would go really well. That way the texture is close to the chocolate frosting. Anything else might be a bit on the heavy side.
Love the idea of something simple, like whipped cream. Sounds perfect.Making this beautiful cake today, can hardly wait.
A gray day here, hopefully we do not get more snow, did you hear that we had around 35cm last week? Just got rid of that, and it is raining so much,so now there is a chance certain places here will get more snow. But otherwise it has been a great spring. I hope you come here sometime, it is worth it.
Thanks so much! Have a lovely day!
How did it turn out? I hope you liked it!! I heard about all the crazy snow, insane so late in May!! I will visit one day for sure 🙂
This looks divine! The baking imp is beckoning and now I’m scheming with that frosting in mind. I wanted to ask if you ever use, in lieu of water, strong, fresh black coffee? I have a recipe that’s similar to this from Ina Garten that calls for coffee and it’s quite de-lish. What are your thoughts?
Hi Angie! I have used coffee in this recipe in the past, but I like it better with water myself. I find that it’s a bit less bitter, but also I’m SUPER lazy and it’s easier to boil water than make coffee. The frosting is to-die-for. I hope you try it!
Hi there!
Is there any particular reason for the difference between vanilla base cake and this chocolate base one? I’ve notice for your cakes that have a vanilla base, you cream the butter and sugar, incorporate the eggs, then add the flour, whereas with this chocolate base there is extra hot water and you combine all the dry and wet ingredients separately before finally combining them all.
Thanks! 😊
Hi Arden! The vanilla and chocolate cakes just use different formulas and mixing techniques. I keep meaning to try a vanilla cake using the hot water method and replacing the cocoa with more flour, but I haven’t gotten around to it.
I have a question about the chocolate cake. I need to make a 3 layer 8 in cake. Will this recipe work? And if it had basic American Buttercream on it how much would you sell it for? I’m not sure you want to answer that last question but thought I would ask! 😊
Hi Kimm! I would 1.5x the recipe for a 3 layer 8″, unless you don’t mind thinner layers. I don’t sell my cakes, so I can’t help you there, but it also really depends on SO many factors. Here are some links to check out for pricing:
http://www.bakecalc.com/cake-pricing-calculator/
https://youtu.be/qMj4Z2e-CeE
Hi 😊 The French silk frosting tastes great; but it seems like it has split. It also seems to be a bit grainy even though I beat 5 minutes exactly(!) between each egg. Would perhaps not beating sugar and butter enough cause this? I did use a 70% chocolate infused with coffee. So it had tiny grains of coffee powder in it. I don’t know if that would cause any such trouble.
Hi Gunn! Yes, the excessive whipping is to help ensure the sugar is completely dissolved. The coffee powder could have affected the texture as well. What do you mean that it seems like it has split?
Hi, Can buttermilk be replaced with any other ingredient?
Ideally not as the acid in it is required for the leaveners. If you don’t have access to buttermilk you can easily make your own — 1 cup milk + 1 Tbsp lemon juice!
Making 2 9 inch cakes instead of 8, what would you suggest to increase the recipe to?
Hi Tari! Ideally you would increase it by 1/3 but that would give some weird amounts. I would suggest 1.5x the recipe and make cupcakes with any extra batter. The layers rise a lot so be sure to not fill the pans more than half full. I hope that helps!
Looks great! Can I freeze this cake and for how long? Can I freeze the frosting while in the cake? I plan on making the cake and putting frosting between layers then when ready taking out of freezer, frost it and then decorate.
Hi Maria! I would freeze the cake layers themselves and then make the frosting the day you plan to serve it for best results.
Apaixonate, estou aqui agora traduzindo a receita para tentar reproduzi-lo.
Parabéns e obrigada querida por receitas e bolos maravilhosos.
Thank you Georgia!! I hope you like it 🙂
Hi Olivia,
I made your delicious cake last night. My mousse didn’t set up as firmly as yours, no matter how long I let is rest in the fridge. I ended up smoothing out the mousse to make a thick layer on top instead of the pretty stars you have. I was wondering:
-did you refrigerate the mousse covered (would it “drying out” in the fridge work better?) before piping?
– how long do you whip when you rewhip every 10 minutes of fridge time (is it 5 minutes each time)?
– I had small chunks of chocolate that had solidified from the cooled melted chocolate. Would that have deflated the mousse and made it difficult to form stiffer peaks?
The overall flavor of both the mousse and the chocolate is excellent. I’d really like to be able to pipe nice stars though for my next cake.
Hi Stephanie! Sorry to hear that your mousse didn’t set up — perhaps something was off with the measurements? Mine got pretty stiff once refrigerated for a few hours :\
Before I frosted the cake, I only refrigerated the mousse for a total of 30mins (rewhipping for less than 1 min, every 10mins). It might take a bit longer depending on how warm your kitchen was, etc. but it should eventually get quite stiff. I did not cover the mousse at any point.
For the chocolate chunks, at what point did that happen? I made sure to scrape the bowl often so I didn’t have any stray pieces of chocolate anywhere.
Hi! The chocolate pieces could have come from the difference in temperature when oh mixed in the cold ingredients into the chocolate mixture. If a lot of the chocolate got cold and formed into pieces there was less chocolate mixed into the mousse and that could explain why it didn’t properly set.
Hi There! I’m in the process of whipping the filling/frosting after every 10 minutes of refrigeration. How long should I whip it for each time. 5 minutes again? I’ve been doing 3 and then putting it back in the fridge. My cakes are still warm so I think the mousse should have plenty of time to chill and set up before piping. I was planning on doing the every-ten-minute-whip for the first half hour and then letting it just sit until the cakes are completely cool. Before piping I thought I could give it one final whip. Does that sound about right? Thanks!
Hi Stephanie! I just whipped it very briefly to incorporate between the chilling times (less than 1min). Sounds like you have a good plan there! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Found you via Pinterest and I must say I’m already in love with your baking without even trying a single recipe. I’m sure all recipes must be “no fail” by the way you write about it. I’m going to try this Cake for sure. Just want to know wether I can ‘simply do half of each ingredient’ to make only one pan of cake? Will you suggest this method or any other?
Thank you and keep baking 🙂
You can see my baking on Instagram: amit_chippa
Cheers 🙂
Thanks so much Amit! That’s such a sweet comment. You can totally halve the recipe to make one layer, but it might be tricky for the frosting since it uses 3 eggs. Do you have a scale? If so, I would just lightly whisk one of the eggs and weigh out 25g to get half. I hope you like it!
Thank you very much. I will do as you said and post my results.
Cheers 🙂
Is this a butter cake or chiffon cake? *thanx liv
Hi there! It’s neither actually. It’s too dense to be a chiffon and contains oil instead of butter. It’s more of a rich, brownie-like, mud cake.
Hi Olivia! Just wandering, what is the difference between this cake recipe and the one in you chocolate chip cookie dough cake recipe? Thank you in advance!
Hi Amarantina! Not much, just some of the proportions are different so it would work better in the 8″ pans.
Why does the total time say 1 day, 8 hours, 35 minutes?
Hi Barbara! It was an error in the time calculation.
Beautiful cake!!! Does cake need to stay refrigerated ? If this cake sets out to room temperature will the frosting lose it’s shape and become runny? I usually let my cakes get to room temp before serving(I thinks they’re moister this way). Thanks.
Hi Anne! You should refrigerate it to set the frosting, but after that it should be ok out for a couple hours. I would not leave it out for extended periods of time though.
Is the cake recipe part the same as in your Black Forest cake? I’m planning to make a Black Forest cake next week for my birthday, and while I have a chocolate cake recipe that I usually use, I’m on the lookout for a better one. Is this your go-to chocolate cake?
Hi Nichole! Yes, its my favourite chocolate cake recipe! 🙂
I really.. really LOVE your blog !
Thanks so much Widya!
Is it best to keep the cake cold until you are ready to serve? Will the frosting turn runny if it sits at room temperature?
Hi Jenna! I would definitely refrigerate it to “set” the frosting, but after that it’s totally fine out for a few hours. It will not turn runny — or at least it didn’t for me!
I’m amazed at the frosting still holding its shape in the middle! It’s a sad day when you realise a cake is actually more attractive than you.
Lol! Thanks Tilly 🙂 The frosting actually sets up quite well! It help up through the entire shoot 🙂
Mouthwatering!! I can’t wait to try this cake! I’ve always loved the grocery store version … especially slightly frozen. SO good!
Me too!! It’s seriously SO good. I think my version does it justice! xo
one more question?
for the frosting you have written 3 eggs ,,can it be white eggs only or it should be whole egg?
It needs to be whole eggs.
look amazing definatly giving it a try…what size of pans did you use for the cake?
thanks
Thank you! I used two 8″ pans.