This Ina Garten Beatty’s Chocolate Cake is a beautiful chocolate cake made with all-purpose flour, sugar, good cocoa powder, and other essential ingredients. It’s frosted with a chocolate frosting that consists of semisweet chocolate, unsalted butter, and confectioners’ sugar.

You might say this Beatty’s Chocolate Cake is one of Ina Garten’s favorite cake recipes, much like her German Chocolate Cake or Flourless Chocolate Cake. But in this recipe, Ina focuses on the richness of cocoa and the moistness added by freshly brewed hot coffee.

Importantly, adding coffee to this cake does not make it taste like coffee; it simply accentuates the chocolate’s natural flavors, making this cake a perfect chocolate dessert.

This is Ina Garten Beatty’s Chocolate Cake Recipe from Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook.

Jump to Recipe Jump to Video Print Recipe

Beatty’s Chocolate Cake Ingredients

1 3/4 cups All-purpose flour: Plus more for pans
2 cups Sugar
3/4 cup Good cocoa powder
2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Kosher salt
1 cup Buttermilk: Shaken
1/2 cup Vegetable oil
2 Extra-large eggs: At room temperature
1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
1 cup Freshly brewed hot coffee
Butter: For greasing the pans

Chocolate Frosting Ingredients:

6 ounces of Good semisweet chocolate
1/2 pound Unsalted butter: At room temperature
1 extra-large egg yolk: At room temperature
1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups Sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 tbsp Instant coffee powder

How To Make Ina Garten Beatty’s Chocolate Cake

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans with butter, line them with parchment paper, and then butter and flour the pans.
In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix them on low speed until combined.
In another bowl, mix buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Slowly add this to the dry ingredients while mixing on low speed.
Add hot coffee to the mixture and stir just enough to combine. Pour this batter into the prepared cake pans.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pans for 30 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Once cooled, frost the cake with the chocolate frosting.

How To Make Chocolate Frosting

Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over simmering water. Beat the butter until fluffy, add egg yolk and vanilla, and continue beating.
Add sifted confectioners’ sugar and instant coffee powder dissolved in hot water.
Mix until blended and use it to frost the cooled cake.

Why Is It Called Beatty’s Chocolate Cake?

The cake is named after Ina Garten’s friend Beatty, who gave her the recipe. It’s featured in Ina’s “Barefoot Contessa at Home” cookbook as a tribute to both the friendship and the cake’s great taste.

How To Store Beatty’s Chocolate Cake

To keep Beatty’s Chocolate Cake fresh, store it in an airtight container. You can keep it at room temperature for up to 3 days or refrigerate it for up to a week. For longer storage, you can also freeze the cake for up to 3 months.

Gluten-Free Beatty’s Chocolate Cake

For a gluten-free version of Beatty’s Chocolate Cake, replace the all-purpose flour with a gluten-free flour blend. Make sure to also check that your cocoa powder and other ingredients are gluten-free. The rest of the recipe remains the same.

Try More Ina Garten Recipes: