This high altitude chocolate maple cake is beautifully decorated for the holidays with deep green buttercream swirls and painted evergreen trees. The chocolate cake is soft and moist, and is just delicious with the salted maple buttercream.
You might also love this white chocolate maple spice cake, maple pound cake, and spiced maple cupcakes.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Moist for Days. For today’s chocolate cake with maple buttercream, I started with my popular high altitude chocolate cake. It’s easy to make, and always so moist, soft and perfectly chocolatey. It’s great with any flavor of frosting, but I really love the sweet and salty combination of the chocolate cake with maple frosting.
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
Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Cake. Make half the recipe for a smaller 6-inch cake (as shown in today’s photos) or the full recipe for a standard 8-inch cake.
Maple Buttercream
- Butter. Use either salted or unsalted butter, but reduce or omit the extra salt if using salted butter.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the buttercream.
- Meringue Powder. Stabilizes the buttercream and improves texture.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Vanilla + Maple Extracts. Flavor.
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Prepare and bake the chocolate cake recipe as instructed.
- For the smaller 6-inch cake in today’s post, make 1/2 the cake recipe. For a standard 8-inch cake, make the full cake recipe.
- Cool the cakes completely before frosting.
Maple Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder and salt, mixing until combined.
- Add the extracts, and increase the speed to medium. Beat the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl down several times, until very light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to “stir” and mix for 1 more minute.
- Stack, fill and frost the cake with the maple buttercream. If you like, use tip 1M to pipe swirls on top of the cake.
- If decorating your cake with green buttercream, see this Christmas tree cake post for tips on how to make a deep green colored buttercream.
Painted Buttercream Decorating Tips
- I’ve long been inspired by my friend Lindsey’s painted buttercream wedding cakes. She has shared a helpful palette knife decorating tutorial on her own website (Lady in the Wild West) for painting with buttercream. If this style of cake decorating interests you, I’d encourage you to read through her tutorial.
- To get the deep green color I used for my chocolate maple cake with evergreen trees, I’ve shared my process for mixing the color in this Christmas tree cake post.
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
How should I store leftover cake?
Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also freeze the frosted and decorated cake in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Can I use maple syrup to flavor the buttercream?
No, maple syrup does not have a strong enough flavor, without using far too much of it. You need to flavor your buttercream with maple extract, not maple syrup. I’ve used both Cook’s Pure Maple Extract as well as imitation (Kroger brand) maple extract, and both taste great for baking. Imitation maple extract seems to have a stronger flavor, and I use a little less of it than when I use pure extract.
You Might Also Like
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High Altitude Chocolate Maple 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
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- ½ recipe Chocolate Cake
Maple Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder, optional
- ¼ – ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 tsp maple extract
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Prepare and bake the chocolate cake recipe as instructed.Baker's Note: For the smaller 6-inch cake in today's post, make 1/2 the cake recipe. For a standard 8-inch cake, make the full cake recipe.
- Cool the cakes completely before frosting.
Maple Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder and salt, mixing until combined.
- Add the extracts, and increase the speed to medium. Beat the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl down several times, until very light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 1 more minute.
- Stack, fill and frost the cake with the maple buttercream. If you like, use tip 1M to pipe swirls on top of the cake.
- If decorating your cake with green buttercream, see this Christmas tree cake post for tips on how to make a deep green colored buttercream.
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