Chocolate Swirled Cake — a soft chocolate cake, topped with a creamy chocolate frosting, rich chocolate ganache, and a smooth white chocolate ganache. A simple but elegant dessert.

I published this chocolate cake recipe, several months ago, but my photography and knowledge of cake and frosting techniques have grown significantly since then. So I decided it was about time that I reshoot and republish this blog post, to make it better. Definitely worth it, because I tweaked the recipe a bit to make it better, and now this chocolate swirled cake is on a whole notha level! This chocolate snack cake is soft and moist, not like those dry cakes you get at the grocery store, but soft and light. Then it’s topped with a creamy and delicious, chocolate swirled frosting. It’s heavenly!

One of the things I love so much about this cake, is that it’s egg free! Which is great when you’ve run out of eggs. (I run out of eggs a lot because of all the baking I do.) The fact that it’s egg-free is also fantastic, if you have an egg allergy!

Tips for the Cake:

Tip One: Don’t over mix the batter. When I make this cake, I mix together the dry ingredients first, and then the wet ingredients. Then when I combine the two, I use a wooden spoon to fold the ingredients together. The reason we don’t want to over mix the batter, is because if you over mix the batter, it activates the baking soda before the cake hits the oven, and then the cake won’t rise in the oven like we want it to. If we just fold the ingredients together, we don’t risk over mixing it. Then the baking soda activates in the oven like we want it to, and we’ll get a nice fluffy cake.

Tip Two: Line the baking pan with parchment paper! Parchment paper is my best friend when it comes to baking! I freakin love it. It keeps the cake from sticking to the bottom of the pan, and makes it sooo easy to remove it from the pan.

The Frosting:

The main trick to this frosting is the heavy cream. It’s what makes our buttercream ultra light and fluffy. When you combine the powdered sugar and butter, add in two tablespoons of heavy cream, then make sure the butter and powdered sugar are fully combined, before adding in the remaining heavy cream. The little addition of heavy cream at the beginning will help the butter and powdered sugar come together more easily. But it’s important to only add a little heavy cream at the beginning, because if we add too much, the frosting isn’t set up to absorb it properly and it will separate. Once the powdered sugar and butter are fully combined, then we add in the remaining heavy cream, and that’s how we get a super light and fluffy buttercream.

Let’s get baking!

How to make Chocolate Swirled Cake

For the Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 375° Fahrenheit.
2. In a mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda.
3. In a separate bowl combine the oil, hot water, vinegar, and vanilla extract.
4. Then combine the wet and dry ingredients together.
5. Line the bottom of a 8″ cake pan with parchment paper, then pour your cake batter into the pan.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted into the middle of the cake and comes out clean.
7. Remove the cake from the oven, and let cool 15 minutes. Then go around the edge of the pan with a knife to loosen it from the pan.
8. To easily remove the cake from the pan, take a cookie sheet and lay it on top of your cake pan. Holding the cake pan and the cookie sheet, flip the cake tin over so the cookie sheet is now on the bottom. Gently pound on the bottom of the cake tin to remove it from the cake pan.
9. Remove the wax paper from the bottom of the cake. Let the cake cool completely before frosting.

For the Frosting

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the butter, powdered sugar, and two tablespoons of heavy cream. Using a hand mixer, starting with the speed on low, gently increase the speed of the mixer until the butter mixture is creamy and smooth. Then add in the remaining remaining heavy cream, and mix until the frosting is creamy and smooth.
2. Add in the Vanilla Extract and the Cocoa Powder, cream until combined.
3. In a microwave safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips and heavy cream. Microwave for 30 seconds. Then slowly stir together until the mixture is combined.
4. In a separate microwave safe bowl, combine the white chocolate chips and heavy cream. Microwave on high for 30 seconds. Then slowly stir the mixture until completely combined.
5. Transfer the milk chocolate and the white chocolate to two separate ziplock bags. Press the air out of the bags, seal them shut, then snip off a small corner of both ziplock bags.

To Frost the Cake

1. Place your cake on a cake decorating stand. Using a cake spatula, add a 1/4″ coat of chocolate frosting to the top of the cake.
2. Then starting in the center of the cake, pipe a spiral of chocolate ganache onto the top of the cake.
3. Then starting at the center of the cake again, offset from the chocolate ganache, pipe a spiral of white chocolate ganache onto the cake.
4. Place the flat edge of a cake spatula in the center of the cake, then slowly turn the cake stand, so that the cake spatula creates a spiral in the cake frosting. Once you’ve gone through one full rotation, repeat again starting with the spatula in a different spot in the center of the cake. Repeat until the entire cake is spiralized.