Classic Chocolate Cake Recipe - Mashed

To make the cake, you need your standard cake stuff. The dry ingredients are flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, while the wet ones are eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla, and coffee. For the frosting, you'll also need butter, powdered sugar, and whipping cream.

There are a couple of easy swaps you can make if you don't have all of the ingredients on hand. For one thing, it's super-easy to DIY your own buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of lemon juice or plain white vinegar to regular milk. For another, you don't need to open a carton of whipping cream for the few tablespoons needed in this frosting as Morone tells us "You could use half and half or milk in the frosting, instead." In fact, one benefit of making this switch is that you'll get to use a little less (try maybe 2-3 tablespoons to start) because both of these options are thinner than heavy cream.