Chocolate Popcorn Cake (Easy)
Easy chocolate popcorn cake recipe, homemade with simple ingredients. This soft and moist layer cake is filled with chocolate buttercream frosting. Topped off with spicy popcorn as topper/ decoration and crunch. Great for carnival, cinema, film theater and movie night themed birthday parties!
Servings: 9 Slices
Calories: 949kcal
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1 ¾ cup All-purpose flour
- 2 cups Granulated sugar
- 1 cup Buttermilk
- 1 cup Coffee Strongly brewed, Cooled to be lukewarm
- ½ cup Oil
- 2 Eggs Large, Room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon Baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
- 4 cups Chocolate buttercream frosting
- 1.5 cups Chocolate ganache
Decoration
- 1 cup Popcorn Butter flavored
- 1 teaspoon Chili powder
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- Red edible spray
Instructions
- Sift flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl and keep aside.
- In another bowl, mix together eggs, oil, buttermilk, coffee and vanilla extract until combined.
- Add this wet mixture into your sifted, dry mixture and mix just combined. Don't over mix or you will end up with a tough and gummy texture.
- Pour this batter into 2 greased and floured round cake pans (Dimensions: 8x2).
- Bake at 350 degrees F for about 40 minutes or until an inserted toothpick in the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool to room temperature.
- While the cakes are baking and cooling, prepare the frosting and ganache.
- Also prepare the popcorn. For this, make your salted buttered popcorn the way you normally do and dump it all in a big deep bowl.
- Sprinkle chili powder and paprika on your popcorn and mix everything with a big spoon.
- Spray these popcorns with red edible spray (optional). Don't overdo it. It's nice to see shades of yellow (from the butter) and red (from the spray).
- To assemble, place one cake on a serving dish.
- Spread frosting on top evenly with a spatula.
- Drizzle some chocolate ganache.
- Place second cake on top of this icing and ganache layer.
- Press gently to secure the two layers together.
- Frost the entire cake in chocolate buttercream as smooth as possible.
- Use a spatula to make a diagonal pattern along the sides of the cake.
- Pour ganache on top of the cake and use the back of a spoon to spread it out and let it pour down the sides of the cake slightly.
- Place this cake in the fridge and just before serving, toss some spicy butter popcorn on top. Enjoy.
Notes
- For the popcorn, you can adjust the amount of chili powder and paprika, based on the level of spice you can handle or you can omit it completely if you can't handle spices too well.
- If you toss the popcorn on top of this cake in advance, they will become soggy and yucky. Please only put popcorn on top of the cake, just prior to serving!
- Don't assemble a warm cake because that will cause the icing to melt and make a mess.
- Line pans with parchment paper or grease and flour properly to prevent the cakes from sticking to the pan.
- Read additional tips and variations above.
- Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container for up to 3 days but please note that the popcorns may have become soggy. Discard them and add a fresh batch before enjoying.
Nutrition
Calories: 949kcal | Carbohydrates: 162g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 18g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 39mg | Sodium: 515mg | Potassium: 481mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 129g | Vitamin A: 276IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 86mg | Iron: 4mg