This is my favorite chocolate cake recipe since it’s quick and simple to prepare, plus it reminds me of Chicago’s famed Portillos chocolate cake! This is a luscious chocolate cake that is rich and chocolaty, coated in a thick layer of chocolate buttercream frosting, then stacked for a delectable dessert. The ideal foundation for my handmade Portillos Chocolate Cake Shake.

Don’t leave because of the name! Mayonnaise is an ingredient that serves three functions, and you’d never guess it if I didn’t tell you.

Which I have to so you can make it yeah.

But really… mayonnaise?

I seldom use mayonnaise unless I’m cooking a large quantity of my copycat Ruby Tuesday pasta salad, and this cake is an exception.

Mayonnaise is typically made with egg yolks, oil, vinegar, and salt. And, if you consider most cake recipes, they ask for eggs, oil, salt, and occasionally vinegar, thus the mayo fills the roles of all of those components at once!

So don’t allow the thought of mayo in this chocolate cake turn you off; I guarantee there will be no feature of the finished cake that will keep you from falling in love with it.

Portillo’s Chocolate Cake Copycat recipe

This is my Portillos Chocolate Cake clone recipe. If you didn’t already know, I’m from Illinois, and one of the things I miss the most about it (apart from the deep dish pizza, ooooooohmygod) is Portillos.

Portillos has some of my favorite dishes, and it’s the first place I go when I visit. I always order the same thing:

• Italian Beef sandwich, dry with gravy on the side
• Cheese fries (crinkle fries, to be precise)
• Chocolate cake shake
• And, depending on how long I’m in town, maybe a chocolate cake to go with it.

While I don’t get to fly home to Chicago very often to indulge, the good news is that baking my own rich double chocolate layer cake at home couldn’t be simpler, except from hiring someone to do it.

Yep, we’re using boxed chocolate cake mix

I wouldn’t generally recommend using a box mix, but it’s the quickest way to obtain the flavor I want, so that’s precisely what we’re going to do!

A box of Betty Crocker Super Moist Milk Chocolate cake mix, to be exact. You may use a different brand, but this one has the greatest taste in my opinion.

How do you keep chocolate cake layers moist?

There are many factors that contribute to a delicious chocolate cake that isn’t too heavy and doesn’t crumble, which is why I like to use certain shortcuts in this recipe to assist assure success!

• Do not overmeasure the flour. Because we’re using a boxed cake mix, all of the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, sugar, etc.) have already been measured for you! If you’re unclear how to measure dry ingredients, bookmark this page for future reference.
• Try not to overmix the cake batter. This is helped a little by using the dry mix, but still! Make sure to blend the ingredients well, but you don’t need to do it for an extended period of time for good measure.
• Maintaining a steady baking temperature. If you need assistance with verifying the calibration of your oven, I have a guide on how to do it! Aside from that, make sure you’re not opening and shutting the oven while it’s baking since this might substantially reduce the baking temperature and give inconsistent results.
• Don’t overcook! I’d want to label this the most significant advice, but they’re all crucial. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out wet with crumbs.Some recipes ask for the toothpick to come out clean, but I find that if it stays that long, it’s overcooked and perhaps dry.
• Add a generous amount of icing. Although you may not realize it, putting a layer of frosting between the two cake rounds, as well as icing the top and edges of the cake, helps give and keep moisture!

How to level a cake

Make use of a cake leveling tool. I prefer to use a cake leveler like this one, which allows you to change the height on each side while gliding it across the cake from one side to the other.

Make use of a serrated knife. Place your knife at the edge of the cake dome and keep the blade parallel to the counter while cutting a few inches into the cake. Remove the blade, flip the cake a quarter turn, and repeat the process. Work your way around the cake the rest of the way, then take one last parallel slice all the way through to remove the top.

Use toothpicks, unflavored dental floss, and a ruler. You may have seen a video of this popular hack at some time. You measure up from the bottom of the cake with a ruler and place a toothpick where you want the layer to be removed.

Turn the cake an eighth turn and repeat the process all the way around. Wrap the dental gloss (unflavored this time, my friends) around the cake, laying it on top of each toothpick. Cross the floss ends and pull straight across to draw the thread through and slice the cake.

For what it’s worth, this technique will be the dirtiest of the three, but hey, a hack is a hack, right?

How to frost a layer cake

There’s no need to be afraid by layer cake decorating! This one, in particular, was not doing any crazy fondant or complex piping.

• 4 all the way around.Within around 1 minute, place 3 of your frosting on top of the initial layer of cake.Spread roughly 1 teaspoon of frosting using an icing spatula.
• Place the second layer on top, centering it and aligning it with the bottom layer.
• The crumb layer or crumb coat is a thin coating of icing applied to the edges of the cake. It seals in any crumbs that may appear while you’re icing.
• Now, frost the exterior of the cake whatever you wish with the remaining frosting!

Decorating a chocolate layer cake

To be absolutely honest, I prefer to utilize the remaining cake tops from when we flattened the tops of the cake rounds as a decoration since it is straightforward and eliminates waste.

Simply crumble them and lay them on top, and you’re done!

As a consequence, the cake is moist, rich, and doubly chocolaty, with a delightfully thick layer of chocolate buttercream icing.