Ina Garten's Chocolate Cake Recipe

Best known as the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten hosts her own Food Network program, has written numerous cookbooks, and is unstoppable in the kitchen. One of her wildly famous recipes, Beatty's Chocolate Cake, features two layers of rich, dark chocolate sandwiched together with the most amazing homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. Every forkful of this melt-in-your-mouth cake will have you wishing you could recreate it as wonderfully as she makes it. Well, now you can.

Recipe developer Kate Shungu of Gift of Hospitality has taken Ina Garten's chocolate cake recipe and given it quite the twist. Each euphoric bite will have you saving this recipe for the next time company pops by.

"I adore watching Ina Garten and following her on social media. She works hard to create really good, solid, useful recipes that her viewers can make again and again," Shungu said. "I absolutely love chocolate cake, and I was intrigued by the addition of coffee to the cake batter. I had also heard about this chocolate cake from others who had made it and loved it, so I knew I wanted to try it."

For this fantastic Ina Garten's chocolate cake with a twist recipe, you'll need all-purpose flour, sugar, a decent cocoa powder like Valrhona, baking soda, baking powder, kosher salt, buttermilk, vegetable oil, extra large eggs, vanilla extract, freshly brewed hot coffee, seedless raspberry jam, unsalted sticks of butter, Nutella, whole milk, powdered sugar, and table salt. Both the Barefoot Contessa and Shungu emphasize using "good cocoa powder."

"This is Ina's suggestion. She encourages home cooks to use quality products as much as possible. I used Hershey's cocoa powder for this recipe, which is all that my local grocery store had, and it turned out great," Shungu said.

With thoughts of a dreamy chocolate cake ready in an hour, head into the kitchen and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Then line the bottom of two eight-inch round cake pans with parchment paper, then grease the parchment paper and sides of the cake pans with cooking spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together one and three-fourths of a cup all-purpose flour, two cups of sugar, three-fourths of a cup good cocoa powder, two teaspoons of baking soda, one teaspoon of baking powder, and one teaspoon of kosher salt. Mix on low until the dry ingredients are thoroughly combined. A handheld mixer will work in a pinch, too.

In another bowl, whisk together one cup of shaken buttermilk, half a cup of vegetable oil, two extra large eggs warmed to room temperature, one teaspoon of vanilla extract, and one cup of freshly brewed hot coffee. With the mixer on low, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Scrape the bowl with a spatula to ensure all of the ingredients are completely mixed.

"Any type of strong brewed coffee works well. I used decaf since it's what I drink at home. Use whatever you have available, even if it's whatever's left in your coffee pot in the morning," Shungu said.

Divide the batter of Ina Garten's chocolate cake with a twist between the two prepared round cake pans. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in the oven or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of each round cake layer comes out clean. Let the cakes cool for 30 minutes, then run a knife along the edges of the cakes to help loosen them from the pan. Invert the cakes onto a wire rack to finish cooling. The tops will sink a little in the center, and that's just fine, Shungu said. When the cakes have cooled completely, turn your focus to the buttercream frosting.

Place two sticks, which is equal to one cup, of softened, unsalted butter and one cup of Nutella in a large bowl. Mix on medium with a hand mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add three tablespoons of whole milk, one teaspoon of vanilla extract, and one-eighth of a teaspoon salt, and blend until thoroughly combined. Add in four cups of powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until the frosting thickens. You can add an extra half a cup of powdered sugar if it's needed. You will not be able to refrain from swiping a finger through the frosting and sampling it before spreading it on the two layers of cooled cakes.

Gently transfer one cake layer to a cake stand or serving platter. Spoon half a cup of seedless raspberry jam over the top and gingerly spread it with a knife or offset spatula. Be sure to leave one-fourth of an inch of space on the edges of the cake all the way around.

Top the jam with one cup of Nutella buttercream frosting, and carefully spread it across the surface. Place the second cake layer on top and spread the remaining buttercream frosting across the top and sides of the cake. It's now ready to slice and serve.

It can be tricky smoothing the Nutella frosting over the delicious raspberry jam. Shungu suggested placing the Nutella frosting in a resealable sandwich-sized plastic bag and cut a half-inch hole in the corner. Pipe the frosting in rows across the layer of jam, then use an offset spatula or knife to carefully spread it out.

"The piping bag technique gives you a good head start on getting the frosting spread into an even layer," she explained.

The Nutella frosting will not smoothly glide over the seedless raspberry jam, so be patient and cautiously work it outward from the piped rows.

So how does Shungu's version of the Barefoot Contessa's chocolate cake recipe differ from the original Ina Garten's chocolate cake? She added a layer of raspberry jam to the chocolate cake and swapped out the chocolate buttercream frosting to Nutella buttercream frosting.

"Raspberries pair really well with chocolate, so I knew that flavor combination would be a slam dunk. Hazelnuts also pair well with chocolate and raspberries, which is where the inspiration for a Nutella frosting was born," Shungu explained. "The Nutella frosting is super creamy, sweet, with lots of chocolate hazelnut flavor."