Moist Coffee Chocolate Cake
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This coffee chocolate cake is covered in the best coffee buttercream! It’s the perfect triple layer cake for both chocolate lovers and coffee lovers. It has been tested with dairy ingredients as well as completely dairy free.
It’s clear to see with just one look at my recipes that I am a huge chocolate lover. But I am also a total coffee lover (my coffee chocolate chip cookies and fudgy espresso brownies are two of my favorites). So I figured it was time I start making some coffee flavored cakes!
This espresso cake gets all of its coffee flavor from a combo of brewed coffee and instant espresso powder, so it really packs a punch.
Featured Reader Review
“Turned out perfect! Exactly as as described. The coffee butter cream icing is decadently delicious!!”
Linda
The coffee chocolate cake layers in this recipe are super moist thanks to the oil, and the brewed coffee brings out the chocolate flavor even more. Most of the coffee flavor comes from the creamy and delicious coffee buttercream though! Seriously, this cake is melt in your mouth delicious.
Ingredient Notes
- Butter and Milk: you can use regular butter or dairy free butter if you’re dairy-free. Same with the milk!
- Instant Espresso Powder: make sure to use instant espresso powder and not just espresso powder! Instant has a much stronger coffee flavor.
- Brewed Coffee: you can use regular or decaf coffee.
How To Make This Cake
Whisk dry ingredients!
Add wet ingredients, then coffee.
Bake the cake layers.
Make the espresso buttercream.
Assemble the cake!
Decorate as desired 🙂
Recipe Developer Expert Tip
- You can still make this chocolate coffee cake if you have 9 inch round cake pans. The cake layers will be thinner and they won’t need as much time in the oven, I recommend checking on them at 14 minutes.
More Recipes You’ll Love
If you make this recipe, let me know how it went in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you! You can also tag me on Instagram or Facebook so I can check it out!
Baking FAQ
These are the topics I’m asked about most frequently:
You can get these answers and more in my frequently asked questions post!
Moist Coffee Chocolate Cake
Video
Ingredients
Cake
- 2¼ cups (281 g) all-purpose flour
- 1¾ cup +2 Tablespoons cup (375 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ tsp salt
- 2¼ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- 1 cup +2 Tablespoons (97 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 eggs
- 1½ cup (337 ml) hot brewed coffee
- ¾ cup (161 ml) canola oil (or sunflower oil)
- ¾ cup (188 ml) milk of choice, (regular or dairy free)
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
Coffee Buttercream
- 1¾ cup (368) butter, softened, (regular or dairy free) SEE NOTES
- 3½-4 cup (420 g) icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp instant espresso powder
- 1-2 Tablespoons milk of choice or brewed coffee, ONLY AS NEEDED
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare three 8 inch round cake pans. Spray the inside with cooking spray, then cut round pieces of parchment paper so that they fit in the bottom of each pan (do not skip the parchment paper lining!)
- Whisk flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda together in a large bowl.
- Add in the eggs, vanilla, oil, and milk. Pour in the hot coffee and mix until smooth.
- Divide the batter evenly between the three cake pans and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20-26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then run a butter knife around the outside of the cake to loosen it from the pan and flip upside down onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Make the buttercream. In the bowl of a standing mixer or handheld mixer, beat butter until smooth. If using shortening, mix with the butter until combined.
- Add in the vanilla extract, espresso powder, then add the icing sugar, 1/4 cup at a time until desired consistency is reached. If the buttercream is too thick, add in milk or brewed coffee 1 tablespoon at a time to thin it out to the consistency you want. If it's too thin, add in more confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar) 1/4 cup at a time.
- Once the cakes have cooled completely, assemble and enjoy!
Notes
The calorie information provided for this recipe is an estimate. The accuracy of the calories listed is not guaranteed.
Photography by: Callan from The Cozy Plum
Delicious !!
Thanks Natalie!!
This is genuinely the best cake I have ever made. The chocolate cake is unbelievably moist, and the coffee buttercream pairs with it perfectly. The flavors balance each other so well without being too sweet or overpowering. Everyone who tried it loved it, and I was honestly so impressed with how it turned out. This is definitely a recipe I’ll be making again and again. 5 stars!!
Thank you, Sidney! I really appreciate the kind review and I’m so glad you enjoyed the cake!
Perfect and delicious!!
I made this for my daughter-in-laws birthday. Everyone loved it. She sent me the tecipe ad a request to make it. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!
Thank you Andrea!
My husband loved this cake! He’s a coffee lover so this was a big hit! Can’t wait to try some more of your recipes.
So happy to hear this! Thank you Jennifer!
Soo delicious. Thanks for the recipe. Exactly as is.
Turned out perfect! Exactly as as described. The coffee butter cream icing is decadently delicious!!
So happy to hear you enjoyed this Linda! Thank you for your review!
Having made (several times) and wolfed down (*every* time) your Gabby’s Double Chocolate Espresso Toffee Oreo (No Chill) Cookies (or whatever their real name is before I changed it on my computer), I can’t wait to make this cake (into the batter of which I shall surely pour a cup of TJ’s chocolate covered espresso beans!) But I’m not allowed to use more than 1 cake pan per project, so I’m wondering if this recipe would fit some square or rectangular pan nicely. And if so, if you’d be kind enough to let me know which size to try? Thank you, Gabby, for your continuous treasure trove of lovely recipes than even I can successfully put together!
Unfortunately it won’t! It’s a bit too much batter to fit into a 9×13 since its a 3 layer recipe.