Yesterday was Parker’s sixth birthday … I love that I got to make the cake … and then hold the phone on FaceTime so Aunt Liss could join the birthday singalong from Missouri …

How lucky am I to be a part of this?

Back in our Williamsburg days there was (and still is) a wonderful bakery called the Carrot Tree. Much as I’ve always loved to bake, their cakes were beyond anything I could muster. At one point I even volunteered to work for free during the summer in order to learn how they did it (they turned me down flat). Anyway, of course the Carrot Tree was known for their carrot cake, but they also made the best almond cake, bar none. And they offered their cakes in various sizes, including my all-time favorite the baby cake (more frosting per slice and you could convince yourself it wasn’t all that much cake, not really … ha!).

Since coming to Texas, I’ve used a modified version of Smitten Kitchen’s almond cake and buttercream recipes to make my own almond baby cakes in 6″ round Wilton cake pans. They’re known as vanilla vanilla cakes in our family, although they also hide ganache and fruit jam between the layers. They’ve been my go-to birthday cakes for years.

However, last November when Griffin turned ten he requested a chocolate birthday cake instead. So I found this chocolate cake recipe on Smitten Kitchen and modified it to make a two-layer baby cake (which I actually split into 4 layers to make room for more filling). It was so popular that Meg requested it two weeks later for her birthday … then Paul requested it for his birthday last month … all iced with vanilla buttercream, filled with raspberry jam and ganache.

But Parker wanted a chocolate chocolate cherry cake for her 6th birthday. I went back to the Smitten Kitchen recipe, which included ganache icing, guaranteed to melt your teeth. So sure, why not? And it seemed like high time to put the modified recipe on the blog so I wouldn’t have to keep doing the math, reducing all the original SK amounts to 1/3 the original recipe … with the exception of the ganache, which I only reduced by half because smaller cakes have more surface area, right?

Revised 1/2025

• 1/2 cup (120 ml) very hot brewed coffee
• 1 ounce (30 grams) semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped .. or small chocolate chips
• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
• 1/2 scant teaspoon fine sea or table salt
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) vegetable or another neutral oil
• 1/2 cups (120ml) well-shaken buttermilk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup (105 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (45 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
• 2/3 teaspoon (3.3 grams) baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon (1.3 grams) baking powder
• Ganache
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate (Guittard or Ghirardelli chips, chopped if they are large size)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Bonne Maman cherry or raspberry preserves (their other jams would likely work equally well)

Preheat oven to 300°F (yes, 300 NOT 350) and prep two 6″ round cake pans. Spray with Baker’s Joy (or generic flour/oil spray … although I don’t particularly like the butter flavored kind), insert parchment paper rounds, then flip the parchment so it’s coated on both sides with baking spray.

Place chopped chocolate or chips in a bowl and pour hot coffee over them. Let sit for 4 to 5 minutes, then whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in sugar, salt, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla until combined. Whisk in egg.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder in a second bowl. Add to chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth.

Bake cake layers:

New version: Divide batter between three pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean … start checking at 28 minutes, but not more than 35 minutes (cake should just start to come away from the side of the pan). Wait ten minutes then turn onto a wire rack to fully cool off.

Original version: Divide batter between two pans. (Batter for one cake layer weighs about 350 grams.) Bake cake layers in middle of oven until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean … start checking at 35 minutes, but not more than 40 minutes (cake should just start to come away from the side of the pan). Wait ten minutes then turn onto a wire rack to fully cool off.

My take on ganache and filling: Bring heavy cream to a simmer on stovetop. Pour over chocolate chips in a bowl and wait 5-6 minutes. Whisk or stir until chocolate melts (it’s not the end of the world if some of the chips don’t melt entirely). Allow the ganache to cool slightly and be sure the cake is fully cool before icing so the ganache doesn’t slide off.

New version: no need to split layers. Spread two bottom layers with jam, top with third layer and straighten.

Original version: Split the two cake layers into four. Put one half-layer on cake plate and spread with a generous helping of Bonne Maman preserves. Add second half-layer of cake on top and spread with ganache. Add third half -layer and spread with more jam. Top with fourth half-layer and nudge cake as needed to straighten it out.

Put cake in fridge for 5 minutes to set (no longer or ganache will seize up when spreading)

Spread ganache over top and sides. Add candles, if any, before ganache hardens. Put cake back in fridge to set; take out an hour or so before serving.

Next up … Ellis turns four in August. I wonder what kind of cake and icing she’ll want …

In the meantime, I’ll keep on stitching … quilting a dark night sky into My Heart’s Compass …

And one last thing from April 2017 (how did I not think of this sooner?) …