Chocolate Drip Cake is an easy and unique method for adding melted chocolate topping to a delicious and simple cake recipe.
This wonderful Cake Recipe is perfect for birthdays, baby showers, or any other special occasion. For more amazing desserts, try my Red Velvet and Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake Recipes.
Sabrina’s Chocolate Drip Cake Recipe
You’ve likely seen these beautiful layer cakes with gorgeous drips down the sides on social media. It looks absolutely amazing, and it’s surprisingly simple to replicate. For this version, I’ve made a classic vanilla cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. For the drip, you’ll make my easy Chocolate Ganache Recipe. As the chocolate dries, the rich, thick topping contrasts beautifully with the vanilla frosting and moist crumb of the cake. Read my tip below on how to get the best drips from your ganache.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
Vanilla Cake:
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup whole milk , room temperature
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 6 cups powdered sugar , about 2 pounds
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-4 tablespoons heavy cream
Chocolate Drip:
- 1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
Instructions
Vanilla Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour two 8 inch cake pans.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt then set aside.
- To your stand mixer add the butter and sugar and beat them together until light and fluffy on medium speed, 2-3 minutes, then add in the eggs one at a time 15 seconds apart along with the vanilla then lower the speed to low.
- Add the flour mixture and milk, alternating a little of each at a time.
- Pour into the cake pans evenly and baked for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool cakes completely before frosting.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
- To your stand mixer on low speed cream the butter then start adding in the powdered sugar in ½ cup increments until fully combined, then raise the speed to medium-high for 2 additional minutes.
- Add in the vanilla and heavy cream and beat until light and fluffy for an additional minute.
Frosting:
- To your cake stand add a spoonful of frosting.
- Level the cakes with a large serrated knife and discard the cake pieces.
- Brush off excess crumbs.
- Add the first layer of the cake to the cake stand.
- Top with 1 cup of frosting, spread evenly.
- Top with second layer of cake.
- Top with 1 cup of frosting, spread evenly.
- Add 1 cup of frosting, coating the outside of the cake.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow to harden.
- Frost the cake with half the remaining frosting.
Chocolate Drip:
- Add the chocolate chips to a glass bowl with the heavy cream.
- Microwave for 1 minute.
- Let sit for 3 minutes, then whisk well until creamy and smooth.
- Let sit for 5 minutes to cool (this will prevent chocolate from running too far).
- Add to a squeeze bottle and from about a half inch from the top of the cake start squeezing in about ½ tablespoon increments around the cake.
- Note: For a more authentic and natural look, do a bit less or more alternating. Note how far it is running down the side then adjust more or less to get about ⅓ of the way down the cake.
- Once you’ve created the pattern around the cake squeeze the remaining ganache over the middle of the cake evenly and spread with an offset spatula to make an even chocolate layer.
- Let cool and harden for 10 minutes.
Nutrition
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Chef’s Note
To make the perfect drips, I’d recommend using a plastic squeeze bottle. Add a test drip first and see what happens. If it’s flat and runs too fast, the ganache likely is too hot. But, if the drip is too thick, you may need to reheat the chocolate and add more cream. This is why doing a test drip is important because you can easily remove one and start over.
Can I make Drip Cake in advance?
Yes, you can make the cake up to 2 days in advance and keep it in the fridge. You can also store the cake without the drip and keep the leftover ganache separately. Then add the drip right before serving.
How to Store
- Serve: Be sure to let the Chocolate Drip Cake recipe set before slicing and serving.
- Store: To keep the cake fresh, you can store it in the fridge for up to 2 days. I’d avoid covering it in plastic wrap since you don’t want to smudge the chocolate drip. It’ll work better to carefully tent in foil or add a cake dome. Let the chilled cake come to room temperature before serving.
- Freeze: You could also carefully seal and freeze the cake recipe for up to 3 months.
Variations
- Types of chocolate: Instead of the original semisweet chocolate drip, you can use other varieties of chocolate, depending on your preference. For a sweeter option use milk or white chocolate chips. Or, if you want dark chocolate ganache, use dark chocolate chips or a chopped dark chocolate bar to melt.
- Colored drip: If you want to make a different colored drip, you can add food coloring to white chocolate ganache, or, use candy melts. You can find all different color candy melts at baking supply stores to make the cake match any occasion.
- Triple Chocolate Drip Cake: Instead of making a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, you could make our moist Chocolate Cake Recipe with chocolate frosting. The extra chocolate layers are perfect for any extreme chocolate lovers in your life. To make the drip still stand out from the cake, you could use the white chocolate ganache instead of regular chocolate on this version.
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