Dressel's Chocolate Whipped Cream Cake

I grew up in Chicago where the Dressel's bakery was located. Every year for my birthday we'd have their famous chocolate whipped cream cake. It was sold frozen in our local grocery stores. So yummy. Most years I try to recreated it - generally with so-so results.

This year's cake was pretty close!

Thanks to Modern Honey - I found a good moist chocolate cake. I used her suggestion and did a 1 1/2 recipe to make three layers.

Chocolate Cake:

• 1 3/4 cup Flour
• 1 3/4 cup Sugar
• 3/4 cup Cocoa high quality
• 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 cup Oil canola or coconut oil
• 2 Eggs
• 1 cup Buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 1 cup Hot Water

Chocolate Buttercream:

• 1 1/2 cups Butter softened
• 1 cup Cocoa
• 5 cups Powdered Sugar
• 1/3 cup Cream Half n Half or Milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. If you have a flour sifter, sift all dry ingredients.
3. In mixing bowl, beat oil, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla for 1 minute. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until combined. Pour in hot water and mix together. The batter will be liquidy but that's a good thing -- it will create a moist cake.
4. Spray two 9-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. You can also use three 8-inch cake pans for this recipe. Pour batter evenly into each pan. Bake at 22-27 minutes. Place toothpick or cake tester in the center of the cake to check if it comes out clean.
5. Let cool before frosting.

To make Chocolate Buttercream:

1. In mixing bowl, cream together Butter, Cocoa, Powdered Sugar, and Cream until light and fluffy. You may want to add more cream or milk depending on consistency. Once the cake has cooled and has been removed from pans, frost each layer with frosting.
2. Top with chocolate shavings, chocolate chips, sprinkles, M & M's or whatever your heart desires.

Recipe Notes

*This recipe makes three 8-inch thin layers to two 9-inch thick layers. If you would like to make a thick triple layer cake, 1 1/2 times the recipe and use three 9-inch cake pans.

This is one baked good that gets even better the next day if covered.

Whipped Cream Filling and Chocolate Ganache topping

I baked three 9 inch layers with parchment paper lining the bottom of the pan. I froze them overnight, thawed slightly the next day, and sliced each one into two layers to create two - three layer cakes.

I put stabilized whipped cream between the layers (recipe below) and chocolate ganache on top.

Buttercream is just to sweet so I made this simple ganache style frosting. I melted about 4 oz of chocolate and gradually stirred in about 2/3 cup of the heavy cream to make a spreadable topping.

To make the filling:

I whipped 3 cups of heavy cream and used the Genius Kitchen recipe to stabilize (tripled it):

INGREDIENTSNutrition

• 1teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 4teaspoons cold water
• 1cup heavy whipping cream (35%)
• 1⁄4cup sifted icing sugar(confectioners sugar)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small pan, combine gelatin and cold water; let stand until thick.
2. Place over low heat, stirring constantly, just until the gelatin dissolves.
3. Remove from heat; cool (do not allow it to set).
4. Whip the cream with the icing sugar, until slightly thick.
5. While slowly beating, add the gelatin to whipping cream.
6. Whip at high speed until stiff.