If you love salted chocolate like me, this is the perfect cake! It's intensely chocolatey, dark, and sweet with a pop of salt. You can use salted butter and leave out the added salt.
2 1/2 cups cake flour or White Lily All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa
1 pound (2 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted if lumpy
2 cups granulated sugar
8 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/3 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
Preheat oven to 300°F. Prepare Old Country Kitchenware square tube pan by brushing with chocolate pan coat (if using two piece pan, fit with a parchment paper square between the two pieces first). Sift together cake flour and cocoa powder. Beat butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer until creamy and it sticks to the bowl (about 5 minutes at medium speed). Add vanilla extract, salt, baking powder, and 1/2 cup cocoa flour mixture, beat until combined. Scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl. With the mixer running on low, add one egg at a time, beating well after each addition until fully incorporated. Beat about in a third of the cocoa flour mixture until it just disappears, then drizzle in about half the buttermilk with the mixer running on low. Beat in the next third of the dry mixture, then the remaining buttermilk. Beat in remaining flour mixture until it disappears. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and beat for another 10 seconds. Pour batter into prepared tube pan and gently shake to settle the batter. Place on middle rack of oven with a baking sheet on the rack below it to catch any drips. Bake 2 hours or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool until the pan is comfortable enough to handle. (If using two-piece pan, place it over a metal can and press down to remove the outer piece first). Transfer the cake to a wire rack in two steps: first, turn the cake up on its side, then invert fully. Let cool completely.
Sea Salt Chocolate Coating
1 bag (10 oz) dark chocolate melting wafers
Big pinch flaky sea salt
Melt chocolate wafers according to package directions. Pour over cake and smooth top. Sprinkle with flaky salt.
