I have been meaning to make this particular chocolate cake for so long and I finally seized the opportunity recently when a chocolate-loving friend’s birthday came around. See, the internet has been proclaiming that this is the best chocolate cake ever for years now. First, it was Ina Garten’s favorite, based on a recipe from her friend Michael’s grandmother, Beatty, and then published in Ina’s 2006 cookbook. And then the internet got ahold of it and now, well, now it’s everyone’s favorite. Myself included. I’ve made a lot of chocolate cakes and this just might be the best one I’ve ever had. So good, that I already made it a second time even though there was no special occasion to warrant it. Just an extraordinary cake on an ordinary Sunday.

What Ingredients Do You Need for Beatty’s Chocolate Cake?

It’s a lot of the usual baking things and nothing too out of the ordinary. You’ll need:

• Flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt.
• Cocoa powder. (Ina asks you to use a good one.)
• Buttermilk.
• Vegetable oil.
• Eggs.
• Vanilla extract.
• Freshly brewed hot coffee.

• Semisweet chocolate. (Ina asks you to use a good one. I’m sensing a theme here.)
• Butter.
• An egg yolk.
• Vanilla extract.
• Powdered sugar.
• Instant coffee granules.

How Do You Make Beatty’s Chocolate Cake?

For a cake so delicious, it’s not too difficult at all!

For the cake itself, you simply sift together the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl, and then gradually mix in the wet ingredients (buttermilk, oil, and eggs) while you’re mixing on low. Then, you mix in the coffee and the vanilla, divide the batter between two buttered and floured (and parchment papered) cake pans and bake. Easy, right?

The frosting is a little more involved, but not by much. For that, you melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water (a double boiler, basically) and once melted, set the chocolate aside to cool.

You beat the butter until it’s light and fluffy, then add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat it for a good three minutes more. Mix in the powdered sugar, and then stir in the coffee and the chocolate and you’ve got the silkiest frosting you’ve probably ever had.