This high altitude chocolate butterscotch cake starts with a smaller recipe for a 6-inch, soft and fluffy chocolate cake, frosted with whipped butterscotch ganache. The ganache is silky and fluffy, with the sweet flavor of butterscotch perfectly complementing the rich chocolate cake.
You might also love these recipes for oatmeal butterscotch cookies, maple penuche cake, and butterscotch skillet blondie for two.
This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that I may make a small commission if you purchase a product using those links. This in no way affects my opinion of those products and services. All opinions expressed on this site are my own.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Smaller Size. This chocolate butterscotch cake is half the size of my popular high altitude chocolate cake recipe, so it’s just enough for about 8-10 servings.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Cocoa Powder. You’ll need Dutch processed cocoa powder, not natural cocoa powder. For an extra dark color, I also added a little black cocoa powder.
- Butterscotch Chips. The butterscotch chips are what gives the ganache or frosting its butterscotch flavor. Melted into cream and then whipped with butter, it turns into a silky, fluffy ganache for frosting the cake.
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 6-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, milk, sour cream, oil and vanilla. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry, and whisk until the batter is smooth and well combined.
- Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans.
- Bake the cakes for about 20-25 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Set the cakes on a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.
Butterscotch Ganache
- While the cake is cooling, you should start the ganache, since it takes time to cool and thicken. Pour the butterscotch chips into a bowl.
- Pour the cream into a saucepan, and heat the cream on the stove over medium heat, just until it begins to simmer.
- Pour the hot cream over the butterscotch chips, and let it sit for five minutes, then stir until smooth.
- Place the bowl in the refrigerator to cool down for 30-40 minutes, until it reaches room temperature. You’ll need to set a timer to stir the ganache every 10 minutes.
- With the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cooled ganache for several minutes on medium speed. If it seems to separate and curdle, don’t worry, it should come back together when you add the butter.
- Add the softened butter and the salt, and whip on medium speed for several minutes until thick, smooth, silky, fluffy and spreadable.
Assembly
- Stack and fill the cooled cakes with the whipped ganache, then frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of ganache. Chill the crumb coated cake for 15 minutes.
- Frost the cake all over with a final coat of ganache. Or, you can leave the sides semi-naked as I did. Then I fitted a piping bag with tip 1M, and piped a simple swirl on top of the cake.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
Frequently Asked Questions
Keep the leftover cake at room temperature for up to one day, then refrigerate the leftovers in an airtight container for up to three days. Let come to room temp again before serving.
If you only have 8 or 9-inch cake pans, you can double the cake recipe (the full recipe can also be found in my original chocolate cake post).
You Might Also Like
Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!
Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
High Altitude Chocolate Butterscotch Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- 6-inch Round Cake Pans (x3)
- Stand Mixer with Whisk Attachment
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- ¼ cup unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp black cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp instant espresso powder or instant coffee, optional
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup whole milk
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Butterscotch Ganache
- 11 oz bag butterscotch chips
- 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ¼ – ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 6-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, milk, sour cream, oil and vanilla. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry, and whisk until the batter is smooth and well combined.
- Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans.
- Bake the cakes for about 20-25 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Set the cakes on a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.
Butterscotch Ganache
- While the cake is cooling, you should start the ganache, since it takes time to cool and thicken. Pour the butterscotch chips into a bowl.
- Pour the cream into a saucepan, and heat the cream on the stove over medium heat, just until it begins to simmer.
- Pour the hot cream over the butterscotch chips, and let it sit for five minutes, then stir until smooth.
- Place the bowl in the refrigerator to cool down for 30-40 minutes, until it reaches room temperature. You'll need to set a timer to stir the ganache every 10 minutes.
- With the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cooled ganache for several minutes on medium speed. If it seems to separate and curdle, don't worry, it should come back together when you add the butter.
- Add the softened butter and the salt, and whip on medium speed for several minutes until thick, smooth, silky, fluffy and spreadable.
Assembly
- Stack and fill the cooled cakes with the whipped ganache, then frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of ganache. Chill the crumb coated cake for 15 minutes.
- Frost the cake all over with a final coat of ganache. Or, you can leave the sides semi-naked as I did. Then I fitted a piping bag with tip 1M, and piped a simple swirl on top of the cake.
Video
Notes
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/
Okay, how did you do that simple swirl? Is it basically a giant rosette? And did you do it all in one application? That’s gorgeous.
Yes, it’s just a big rosette, starting at the center, and piping around until you reach the outer edge. I stopped once, about halfway around, to adjust the piping bag, and then started again, but I don’t think it really shows where I stopped and started.