Midnight Chocolate Cake

Midnight Chocolate Cake is perhaps my favorite chocolate sheet cake. The cake itself is wonderfully tender and light in texture and the chocolate frosting has a deep chocolate flavor.

With a warm glass of milk to wash it down with, this is the ultimate chocolate sheet cake.

The cake batter for this recipe is a 10 out of a 10. It has rich chocolate flavor from 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate. It has a super fine and light texture from using cake flour and superfine sugar. And just a scant 2 tablespoons of shortening helps add to the light and soft texture and lots of butter gives the cake great flavor.

There is an ample amount of frosting and the frosting contains lots of chocolate, lots of powdered sugar, and lots of butter. It’s wonderfully sweet, creamy, buttery, and rich.

This is a recipe I have adapted just slightly from the cookbook Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson. It’s an oldie, but is my favorite cookbook for chocolate recipes.

Midnight Chocolate Cake Recipe Tips:

I use salted butter for this cake because it is what I typically buy. But you can use unsalted butter and add a pinch more salt to the cake batter and frosting.

Superfine sugar creates a wonderfully fine-textured cake that I love. If you don’t have any, you can put regular granulated sugar in a food processor and process it for a few minutes to make superfine sugar. Use a little extra sugar and remeasure after processing it because superfine sugar takes up less space than granulated sugar and measures a little differently. Superfine sugar is also really great for making cocktails and sweet tea because it dissolves really easily.

Wrap the leftovers well in plastic wrap or store in an airtight container at room temperature. The cake will stay fresh for at least 3 days.

Try these other desserts for chocolate lovers:

• Easy Death By Chocolate Cake
• Chocolate Cake with Cream Filling
• Chocolate Poke Cake
• German Chocolate Upside Down Cake
• Bittersweet Chocolate Brownies

Midnight Chocolate Cake

4.50 from 2 votes

Prep: 20 minutes mins

Cook: 25 minutes mins

Servings: 20

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Midnight Chocolate Cake is perhaps my favorite chocolate sheet cake. The cake itself is wonderfully tender and light in texture and the chocolate frosting has a deep chocolate flavor.

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Ingredients

Batter

• ▢ 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate,, finely chopped
• ▢ 1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons boiling water
• ▢ 2 cups cake flour
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 14 tablespoons salted butter,, softened
• ▢ 2 tablespoons shortening
• ▢ 1 2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine sugar
• ▢ 4 large eggs
• ▢ 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 3/4 cup buttermilk

Midnight Chocolate Frosting

• ▢ 7 cups confectioners' sugar,, sifted
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate,, melted and cooled to tepid
• ▢ 12 tablespoons salted butter, melted and cooled to tepid.
• ▢ 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• ▢ 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk

Instructions 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with baking spray with flour.
• Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. Pour the boiling water over it. Let stand until chocolate is completely melted, stirring a few times. Let cool to tepid.
• Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt onto a piece of waxed paper.
• Using an electric stand mixer, beat butter and shortening on medium speed for 3 minutes.
• Add the superfine sugar in three additions, beating for 1 minute after each addition.
• Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating for 45 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl several times.
• Slowly beat in melted chocolate and vanilla.
• On low speed, beat in the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions. Scrape down the sides of the bowl several times during these additions.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared baking dish, smoothing it out.

  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Cool the cake before frosting.
• To make frosting, place half of the confectioners' sugar and the salt in the bowl of an electric mixer.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted chocolate and butter until blended.

  Transfer to the bowl with the confectioners' sugar. Beat for 1 minute on LOW speed.
• Add the milk and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
• Add the remaining confectioners' sugar and mix in.
• Add the heavy cream and beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Add a little more heavy cream if too thick.
• Spread frosting on cake.

Notes

You can use unsalted butter instead of salted butter and add a pinch more salt to the batter and frosting.

If you don't have superfine sugar, process granulated sugar in a food processor for a few minutes to make superfine sugar. You will need to use a little more granulated sugar and then remeasure after you process the sugar since superfine sugar takes up less space.

Nutrition

Calories: 529kcal

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Recipe slightly adapted from Chocolate Chocolate

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