This two-layer Dark Chocolate Butterscotch Cake features rich, moist chocolate cake stacked with smooth, buttery butterscotch icing. The deep cocoa flavor pairs perfectly with the caramel-like sweetness of the frosting, making every bite bold, indulgent, and perfectly balanced.
This cake’s inspiration came from a comment my son made when we were eating these butterscotch brownies, about how well this frosting would go with our favorite chocolate cake. I knew I had to make it, and it was just as delicious as we had hoped. These two flavors go super well together, and this chocolate cake is SO moist. I’ve been making it forever, and it is always the base of my chocolate cakes. You can see a post on it here.
I love baking cakes, and there are a few staple things I use that make them come out great. One is parchment circles for the pans. These allow your cake to easily release from the pan, so when you stack your layers, you don’t have any missing pieces. I buy the 8 inch size for the 9 inch pans, because otherwise they have to be trimmed a bit to fit perfectly in the bottom. I also really love these 9-inch pans for baking cakes or coffee cakes or pull apart rolls. Finally, I love using baker’s joy to quickly coat my pans for easy release. This spray contains both oil and flour so everything comes out super easily. It works great for muffin pans too or any other baked good.
You could also bake this as a sheet cake if you don’t want to mess with doing the layers. A 9×13 pan should work fine, just keep an eye on the baking time as it may be a little different.
Dark Chocolate Butterscotch Cake
Equipment
- 2 9 inch cake pans
- 2 8 inch parchment circles optional
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups AP flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup hot coffee
For the frosting:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter browned 1 cup total
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup heavy cream plus more for whipping
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 and spray pans with baker's joy or oil spray, then place parchment circles in the bottom and spray them as well.
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
- In another bowl whisk the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk until combined. Stir in the hot coffee. The batter will be thin. Pour equally between the 2 pans.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until the center is set and a toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs. Don't overbake. Set on a rack to cool. When cool, run a knife around the edge and flip out the cake rounds.
For the frosting:
- Place the butter in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat and cook, swirling occasionally until it begins to brown. Once you see golden brown bits in the bottom, pour into the your stand mixer bowl and scrape all the browned bits in as well.
- Clean the pan and dry it. Place the brown sugar in the pan over medium heat and allow it to sit until the edges are liquifying. Once a layer of liquid sugar has formed, slowly stir and melt until all the sugar has melted. You aren't trying to caramelize it, just melt it. At this point, whisk in the cream. The sugar will harden up briefly, but if you keep stirring and heating, it will mostly remelt.
- Continue cooking over medium heat until most of the sugar has reliquifed, then pour through a fine mess strainer into the stand mixer to remove any remaining chunks of sugar. Add the vanilla and salt.
- Mix with the whisk attachment briefly to combine and allow this mixture to cool to room temp or slightly warm. Add in the powdered sugar and begin whisking. Add a few extra tbsp of cream if needed to thin to desired consistency and whip until smooth.
To assemble:
- Place your first layer on your serving dish and scoop1/2 or so of frosting on. Spread over the top. Use more or less depending on how much icing you like between layers. Add the 2nd layer and proceed with frosting the rest of the cake. Store this cake at room temp or if you store in the fridge, return to room temp before serving. You can slice refrigerated cake into slices and freeze them individually as well.