Chocolate Cake for Sculpting
One of the most important things necessary to sculpt a novelty cake is a perfect base. A cake that can be cut and manipulated without falling apart. A cake with a soft crumb and yet taste delicious. This chocolate cake perfect for carving will prove the best sculpting cake recipe for you.
Novelty cakes are a delightful addition to any celebration, offering a whimsical and personalized touch to birthdays, weddings, and other special occasions. These cakes often feature unique shapes, intricate designs, and creative decorations that can range from realistic to fantastical.
Choosing the right cake and frosting is crucial when creating a novelty cake. The cake itself should be dense and sturdy enough to support any decorations or sculpted elements. A cake that is too light or fluffy may not hold its shape well, especially if it needs to be carved or stacked.
Similarly, the frosting plays a crucial role in both the flavor and stability of the cake. A frosting that is too soft or runny may not adhere well to the cake or could cause it to collapse. On the other hand, a frosting that is too stiff could be difficult to work with, making it challenging to achieve the desired decorations.
It’s also important to consider the flavor of the cake and frosting. While the visual appeal is essential for a novelty cake, it should also taste delicious. Choosing complementary flavors that work well together can enhance the overall experience for the person enjoying the cake.
In conclusion, being careful with the choice of cake and frosting is essential when creating a novelty cake. By selecting the right combination of flavors and textures, you can ensure that your cake not only looks incredible but also tastes amazing.
Why is this the best recipe?
- Rich and Moist Texture: The combination of butter, brown sugar, and buttermilk ensures a moist and rich texture that is perfect for carving and decorating.
- Deep Chocolate Flavor: Cocoa powder delivers a deep, rich chocolate flavor that is both satisfying and indulgent.
- Sturdy Structure: The inclusion of baking powder and baking soda helps the cake hold its shape, making it ideal for carving into intricate designs.
- Versatile: This cake can be used for various occasions, from birthdays to weddings, and can be decorated in countless ways to suit any theme or taste.
- Easy to Make: Despite its impressive results, this recipe is straightforward and easy to follow, making it accessible to both novice and experienced bakers.
- Crowd Pleaser: With its rich chocolate flavor and moist texture, this cake is sure to be a hit with anyone who tries it, making it a go-to recipe for celebrations and gatherings.
Ingredients and substitutes
- Butter – I prefer to use unsalted butter so I can control the quantity of salt in my recipe. And yet, if salted butter is all you have, go ahead and use it. Just omit salt in the recipe.
- Brown sugar– contributes to a nice, soft, tender crumb and gives a nice color. The molasses in the brown sugar adds a caramel-like flavor too.
- Eggs– Always use large-size eggs when baking unless specified. The size of the eggs varies significantly these days. So, as a guide, one large egg weighs between 50 and 60 grams.
- Vanilla– A good quality vanilla will make a huge difference in anything you make. Premium vanilla can be expensive, which is why I make my homemade vanilla extract, bean paste, or sugar.
- All-purpose flour – Yes, regular plain flour (maida) is all you need for this cake. And, since self-raising flours contain leavening, they must be used with caution.
- Cocoa Powder – I use regular Dutch-processed cocoa powder for my cake baking.
Step-by-step: Chocolate cake for carving
- Preheat your oven to 325°F/165°C/ Gas Mark 3
- Grease and line the baking pan you plan to use for your novelty cake.
Pro tip – Makes a 1-inch height 9 x 13-inch sheet pan or 2 x 7-inch round cakes - Sift dry ingredients – flour, salt, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream soft room temperature butter, sugar, and eggs until light and fluffy. Then add the vanilla extract.
Pro tip – For this method to work, the butter must be soft at room temperature; otherwise, the batter will be very lumpy. Alternatively, you can cream the butter and sugar first, then add the eggs one at a time. - Next, add the flour mixture followed by the buttermilk and coffee in three batches.
- Pour into your baking pan and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
Pro tip – If using two pans, the baking time will be reduced to about 20 to 25 minutes. - Cool in the baking pan for 5 minutes. Invert and cool on a wire rack completely before you decorate
Pro tip – It is very important that the cakes are completely cooled before frosting. Otherwise, the frosting will melt on the warm cakes. - Once cooled, wrap in two plastic wraps, followed by aluminum foil. Place it in the freezer for at least one hour before you carve into it.
Pro tip – Freezing the cake for an hour makes it easier to carve with fewer cake crumbs. But freezing it hard will make it difficult to carve with more crumbs.
How much cake do I need?
One of the most common questions I get is how much cake do I need? When it comes to novelty cakes, it’s difficult for me to say.
For example, I can’t say you need two of these for a car cake. Why? because it depends on the size of your car template. However, I can say that this cake serves 15 to 20 people. But it can be double and more, successfully.
So, if you choose to make a cake for 60, then you’d multiply the recipe times 3 and follow the same method as below. This cake-serving chart guide will help you decide how much cake you need.
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Tips for Success
- Plan Ahead: Sketch out your design and create a timeline for baking, decorating, and assembling the cake to avoid last-minute stress.
- Use the Right Tools: Invest in quality cake pans, sculpting tools, and decorating supplies to achieve the desired look for your cake.
- Choose the Right Cake: Opt for a dense and sturdy cake recipe that can hold up to carving and stacking, such as a pound cake or a firm sponge cake.
- Allow Enough Time for Cooling: Ensure that your cakes are completely cooled before attempting to decorate or stack them to prevent crumbling or collapsing.
- Level Your Cakes: Use a cake leveler or a serrated knife to trim the tops of your cakes to create an even surface for stacking and decorating.
- Use a Crumb Coat: Apply a thin layer of frosting, known as a crumb coat, to seal in any loose crumbs before applying the final layer of frosting.
- Experiment with Different Frostings: Consider using a firm frosting, such as buttercream or fondant, for decorating, as they hold their shape well and provide a smooth surface for decorations.
- Be Patient and Detail-Oriented: Take your time when decorating and pay attention to detail to achieve a professional-looking finish.
- Practice Makes Perfect: Don’t be discouraged if your first attempt isn’t perfect. Like any skill, cake decorating takes practice, so keep experimenting and learning from each cake you make.
- Have Fun: Most importantly, enjoy the process! Novelty cakes are meant to be fun and creative, so don’t be afraid to let your imagination run wild.
What can I make with this cake?
With this chocolate cake recipe, you can carve various shapes and designs for novelty cakes. These are just a few ideas, but the possibilities are endless! With a sturdy cake like this, you can let your imagination run wild and create almost any shape or design you can imagine.
- Sculpted Animals: Carve the cake into animal shapes, such as dogs, cats, elephants, or lions.
- 3D Objects: Create 3D objects like cars, trucks, airplanes, or even buildings.
- Character Cakes: Make character cakes from cartoons, movies, or books. For example, you could carve the cake to look like a minion from “Despicable Me” or a character from “Frozen.”
- Shapes and Letters: Carve the cake into letters, numbers, or other shapes for themed birthday or anniversary cakes.
- Stacked Shapes: Stack carved cake layers to create a layered effect, such as a stack of books or presents.
- Sports Cakes: Carve the cake into shapes related to sports, like a soccer ball, basketball, or football helmet.
- Fantasy Cakes: Create fantasy-themed cakes, like castles, dragons, or unicorns.
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- Mom’s Vanilla Cake Recipe
Frequently asked questions
Using unsalted butter means you can control the amount of salt in the recipe. Having said that, you can use salted butter in most cakes and omit the salt in the recipe.
Often, people think a dense cake can be kept for longer. True, it does have a longer shelf life than most other cakes. And yet, even a dense cake will stay at room temperature for only 3 to 4 days. You can keep it longer if you wrap it well in plastic and keep it in the fridge.
This chocolate carving is delicious on its own, especially when it’s fresh, so don’t be afraid to use it for not just sculpting. I like to use a butter-based or chocolate-based frosting for my sculpted cakes. The butter and chocolate are both firm after chilling, which makes it easier to cut and manipulate the cake as needed.
For most of my sculpted cakes, I use any one of these frostings
Velvet American buttercream,
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Chocolate Ganache or white chocolate ganache
Don’t be afraid to try my other flavored buttercream recipes as well – see more than 30 plus buttercream frosting recipes
No, this recipe works best with eggs, but I do have an eggless chocolate fudge cake that I use for carving, and that is very popular with my visitors on this blog.
Chocolate Cake Perfect for Carving
One of the most important things necessary to sculpt a novelty cake is a perfect base. A cake that can be cut and manipulated without falling apart. A cake with a soft crumb and yet taste delicious. This chocolate cake perfect for carving will prove the best sculpting cake recipe for you.
Ingredients
- 8 oz (226 g) Butter unsalted, room temperature
- 1 cup (220 g) Brown sugar light
- 2 cups (250 g) All-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ¾ cup (65 g) Cocoa powder
- 1½ tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp Baking soda
- ¼ cup (60 ml) Coffee brewed (1 tsp coffee powder in 1/4 cup water)
- ¾ cup (180 ml) Buttermilk
- 4 Eggs large
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Method
- Preheat your oven to 325°F/165°C/ Gas Mark 3
- Grease and line the baking pan you plan to use for your novelty cake. Pro tip – Makes a 1-inch height 9 x 13-inch sheet pan or 2 x 7-inch round cakes
- Sift dry ingredients – flour, salt, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Cream soft room temperature butter, sugar, and eggs until light and fluffy. Then add the vanilla extract.Pro tip – for this method to work the butter must be soft at room temperature otherwise the batter will be very lumpy. Alternatively, you can cream the butter and sugar first then add the eggs one at a time.
- Next, add the flour mixture followed by the buttermilk and coffee in three batches.
- Pour into your baking pan and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.Pro tip – if using two pans the baking time will be reduced to about 20 to 25 minutes.
- Cool in the baking pan for 5 minutes. Invert and cool on a wire rack completely before you decoratePro tip – it is very important that the cakes are completely cooled before frosting. Otherwise, the frosting will melt on the warm cakes.
- Once cooled wrap in two plastic wraps, followed by aluminum foil. Place in the freezer for at least one hour before you carve into it.Pro tip – freezing the cake for an hour will make it easier to carve with fewer cake crumbs. But, freezing it hard will make it difficult to carve with more crumbs.
Notes
- Plan Ahead: Sketch out your design and create a timeline for baking, decorating, and assembling the cake to avoid last-minute stress.
- Use the Right Tools: Invest in quality cake pans, sculpting tools, and decorating supplies to achieve the desired look for your cake.
- Choose the Right Cake: Opt for a dense and sturdy cake recipe that can hold up to carving and stacking, such as a pound cake or a firm sponge cake.
- Allow Enough Time for Cooling: Ensure that your cakes are completely cooled before attempting to decorate or stack them to prevent crumbling or collapsing.
- Level Your Cakes: Use a cake leveler or a serrated knife to trim the tops of your cakes to create an even surface for stacking and decorating.
- Use a Crumb Coat: Apply a thin layer of frosting, known as a crumb coat, to seal in any loose crumbs before applying the final layer of frosting.
- Experiment with Different Frostings: Consider using a firm frosting, such as buttercream or fondant, for decorating as they hold their shape well and provide a smooth surface for decorations.
- Be Patient and Detail-Oriented: Take your time when decorating and pay attention to detail to achieve a professional-looking finish.
- Practice Makes Perfect: Don’t be discouraged if your first attempt isn’t perfect. Like any skill, cake decorating takes practice, so keep experimenting and learning from each cake you make.
- Have Fun: Most importantly, enjoy the process! Novelty cakes are meant to be fun and creative, so don’t be afraid to let your imagination run wild.
- Cool Completely: Allow the cake to cool completely on a wire rack before storing.
- Wrap Well: Once cooled, wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.
- Refrigerate: If the cake has perishable fillings or frosting, store it in the refrigerator. Place the wrapped cake in an airtight container to prevent odors from the fridge from affecting the cake.
- Freeze (optional): If you want to freeze the cake for longer storage, wrap it in an additional layer of aluminum foil or place it in a freezer-safe container. Frozen cakes can be stored for up to three months.
- Thaw Properly: When ready to serve, thaw the cake in the refrigerator overnight. Bring it to room temperature before serving for the best texture and flavor.
Storage
To store a novelty cake made with butter, brown sugar, eggs, cocoa powder, buttermilk, and leavening, follow these steps:- Cool Completely: Allow the cake to cool completely on a wire rack before storing.
- Wrap Well: Once cooled, wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.
- Refrigerate: If the cake has perishable fillings or frosting, store it in the refrigerator. Place the wrapped cake in an airtight container to prevent odors from the fridge from affecting the cake.
- Freeze (optional): If you want to freeze the cake for longer storage, wrap it in an additional layer of aluminum foil or place it in a freezer-safe container. Frozen cakes can be stored for up to three months.
- Thaw Properly: When ready to serve, thaw the cake in the refrigerator overnight. Bring it to room temperature before serving for the best texture and flavor.
Equipment you will need
Nutrition
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Hi Veena!
I’ll start by saying thank you for sharing all of your knowledge. You are a real sweetie pie!!
I made this cake for my grandson’s pikachu and it was amazing!!! I can’t for the life of me remember if I used natural or dutched cocoa powder!!! What is the proper cocoa powder for this recipe?
Thanks Veena!
Thank you Tracy. Happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe. I always use dutch processed cocoa in my baking. You cake sounds fun. If you share it on any social media do tag me so I can see it. Thanks
Hi mam…Can I have your vanilla cake recipe link for carving?
Sindhu. Please use the Vanilla Pound Cake for carving- work a treat both to carve and taste.
Thank u…can this be used for sheet cake and milk chocolate ganache works goods?planned to do McQueen 3d car cake
Yes Sindhu. Absolutely ! Works great as a sheet cake and would be good for Mcqueen
I loved this recipe. It was so moist and tender unlike sculpted cakes. I took your advice and froze it. Loved getting all the compliments about how tasty the cake was. Used it with your ganache recipe.
Thank you Lolita for your feedback. So happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe. Yes freezing helps with the crumbs and gives more working time. Ganache is definitely one of my favorite with this cake. Thank you for taking the trouble to come back and write this feedback.
This looks like the recipe I need. I’m going to use it today. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you Rigobeto. Enjoy and let me know what you think later. Thanks
I’m looking forward to trying this for a cake I plan to sculpt this week, but I have a quantity question. On all of the ingredients except the coffee & buttermilk, you list both types of measurements, i.e., cups/grams. For the coffee you have 1/4 cup but no ml (which is good for me but not others), and only 150 ml for the buttermilk but no cup amount (which I need to know). I wonder if you would kindly update your recipe to include both measurements for these two ingredients so people can use whichever works for them. Thank you for the recipe!
150 ml should be about 0.6 cups buttermilk. so a little more than half cup. Thanks
That should be 2/3 cup of milk. For proportion sake, that would mean 2/3 tsp lemon juice to make buttermilk.
The recipe says 160 ml which is about 6 oz right?
Hi veena,
I’m making a 8″ ball pan cake with this recipe,do you have any tips as I’ve not made one of these before ?
Also do you think I would need to double the recipe for there to be enough for a 8″ball pan.
Thank you ?
Tina I have a post that shares in details how to make a perfect sphere cake.. Perhaps you may want to check that out.
Hi Veena, im going to make this cake todag…ill make it into half…id like to know…after the cake is removed from the oven…for how long should it be cooled on the rack…and can you keep it under the fan for cooling…?
Whats the right time to put it in the fridge?
And whats the right time to remove it from the fridge for carving and secondly to put fondant over it. ?
YOu can cool it for 10 mins in the pan then remove and let cool completely on the rack. When it’s not warm anymore. Wrap well in cling wrap so it does not dry out. You want the cake cold so it helps will crumbs. You can also freeze if for some time to speed things up.
Hi! Thanks for this recipe, I’ve been looking for one and this one seems pretty good. I’m planning on making a sea turtle (shell is about 12×10) for next weekend and I really hope this recipe works (the coffee part bought me, my Red Velvet cake have coffee in it as well and love it). Have you ever made a sea turtle? Tips?
Thanks for Sharing!
Thanks Melissa. Yes this will work for any novelty cake. Sorry have not make a sea turtle yet. But this recipe will work with any novelty cake.
Thanks for your reply Veena… I made the cakes (no turtle yet) and used 2ea 12″ round cakes. Took me 4 batches and both came out to be 1.5” in height. I know that this is dense and not supposed to raise that much but it looks really thick,like brownies. I went back and loot and doesn’t seem like I missed a step. I need to make 2 more batches to achieve the desired height, I’m just concerned about the brownie like thickness.
Thoughts?
It’s up to you to decide how much cake you need Melissa. If you look at the recipe and the images it’s not a big tall cake? Not can you expect a big tall cake from the list of ingredients. You can double or triple the recipe as many times as you need. Yes it will make a 1 1/2 inch 11 x 13 sheet cake. Thanks
Thanks for your response. I’m not a professional baker so I don’t understand the chemistry of it and I’m not able to know by a list of ingredients how would probably look/feel like. Hopefully I’ll become more knowledgeable as I keep practicing and reading pages and blogs like yours. I just happen to have the hand of my grandma and mom but being talented is not the same as being skilled, long ways to go still here.
I ended up making 4 12” round cakes which took 8 batches, but probably would’ve got away with 3. It is super dense so it was a breeze to carve, not a lot of crumbs falling off and if a piece broke, it was super easy to put back together. It tastes good too, although I would like it a bit more bitter and less sweet but that is just my personal preference.
So, yes. This is the PERFECT chocolate for carving. Thanks again for sharing and taking the time to keep this post alive.
That is a lot of cake ? I hope you have so many people to feed! We all learn by experience but often it’s important to take a moment to plan and read the details – figure out what cake you going to make, Then decide who many and what types of layers you need. Depending on that you can see how many servings the recipe you have gives you – and how many you need to make. That way you can double or use a recipe that best fits your requirement. Well, we all learned this way. Trust me I’ve been there too! We learn by experience. Take it as a learning curve and enjoy the ride.
I made this in a couple small pans for my sons cake and had no issue carving it (aside from the fact that they were very small due to my cake vision). As per someones comment many years ago mine also came out a bit dense like a brownie, but that’s all well and good with us because we love those too! I’m planning on placing it on top of a bigger round chocolate cake, so the contrast will be nice as well. Thank you for the recipe 🙂
Thank you Heather. Happy to hear that you enjoyed it and all worked well. If you bake it in smaller pans you must reduce cooking time considerable. Yes it is dense and actually meant to be used for Novelty cakes which usually use ganache. This cake with ganache is very delicious.
Just wanted to say thanks for posting this. Had my first foray into cake carving making a Lamborghini cake for my son’s birthday over the weekend and could not have done it without your recipe! The cake flattened a little more than I expected, but with two stacked together it still worked well for the car.
Thank you so much Jill. So happy to hear you say that.Yes it does bake flat mostly which is a good thing so you don’t loose much on the dome. I made this myself three times this week for novelty cakes.