Layered Ho Ho Cake

6 layers of homemade chocolate cake, fluffy white frosting and thick chocolate ganache make up this grown up ho ho cake. Dessert never tasted so good!

Layered Ho Ho Cake Recpie

My dad had a work party at our house last week, and I was excited to be in charge of making a few desserts for it. Well, a couple of desserts turned into about 3 dozen cookies and 2 colossal cakes. I was baking all morning getting things in the oven, icing cakes, and rolling cookies into balls and then in sugar. Whew! Talk about a long morning!

One of my favorite parts, though, was to make this beautiful Layered Ho Ho Cake. It’s pretty simple for a 3 layer cake. The hardest part, I thought, was trying to pour 1 recipe of cake batter into 3 pans. Which isn’t that hard, but the perfectionist in me wanted the cake layers perfectly even.

I didn’t succeed in getting them perfectly even, so one layer is thicker than the other two. But in the end,when this beauty is iced and your mouth is drooling from all of that chocolate, no one notices.

I don’t know any kid that doesn’t like Ho Ho’s. And maybe even any adult, for that matter.  Right now I’m being homeschooled, but as soon as I saw these chocolate rolls, it took me back to my school lunchroom days.  They were one of my favorite desserts for my mom to pack for me. I love homemade cookies and all, but you have to admit, a Swiss Cake Roll once and a while isn’t that bad.

Actually, it’s amazingly good.

For the chocolate cake in this recipe, I used the same recipe that I used for my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cake. This time, though, I used a cooked frosting recipe  that will taste just like the ho ho filling that you love.

And what goes on top? A thick layer of chocolate ganache, which is simply melted chocolate chips and heavy whipping cream.

Store this cake in the fridge if you are not eating it right away.  I removed the ho ho cake from the fridge about an hour before we were going to eat it.  We all actually liked the cake better on the second day. The layers seemed to settle together.

On the second day, though, I didn’t put it back in the fridge and, because the cake was cut, it all ended up sliding apart.  The ho ho cake was a mess, but let me tell you…it was one goooood mess.

If you’ve got leftovers, store them in the fridge in order to keep it neat and tidy.

Ho Ho Layer Cake

4.58 from 21 votes

6 layers of homemade chocolate cake, fluffy white frosting and thick chocolate ganache make up this grown up ho ho cake. It's a grown-up version of your favorite lunchroom snack.

Servings 12

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

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Ingredients

 

US Customary - Metric

Chocolate Layer Cake:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large large eggs room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup freshly brewed strong hot coffee

Creme Filling:

• 11/4 cups milk
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening

Chocolate Ganache

• 12 ounces chocolate chips
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 round 9-inch cake pans.
• For the cake, put flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and mix well.
• In a stand mixer, mix the buttermilk, oil, eggs, vanilla together. Slowly add in the mix of dry ingredients while the mixer is on low. Add the coffee and make sure everything is combined. Batter will be very thin.
• Divide the batter evenly into the three prepared pans and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
• Turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack. While the cakes are cooling, make your filling.
• For the creme filling,combine the milk and flour in a saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. It should get to be the consistency of runny pudding, which will take about 10-15 minutes. Remove the mixture from the heat. It will continue to thicken as it cools. Press plastic wrap down on top of the flour mixture while it is cooling so it does not form a "crust" on top. Cool to room temperature.
• While this is cooling, cream together the rest of the filling ingredients: the sugar, butter and shortening, on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the cooled flour & milk mixture and beat on high for 7 minutes.
• Spread this filling between the cooled three layers of cake. Now it is time to add your chocolate ganache! Put your chocolate chips in a bowl. Set aside. Heat heavy cream in a saucepan on medium/high until it comes to a boil. Watch it closely and stir often so it does not scald. Once it is very hot and near boiling, remove it from the heat and immediately pour it over the chocolate chips. Cover the bowl with a lid or plate and let the it sit for 3 minutes. Then, stir until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Allow it to sit for about 20 minutes until the ganache thickens a bit.
• Once your ganache is ready, pour it over the top of your layer cake. Use a spoon to spread it out towards the sides of your cake so it runs down a bit on the sides.
• Decorate the top with Swiss Cake Rolls, if desired!
• Store this cake in the refrigerator.

Video

Notes

The calories shown are based on the cake being cut into 12 pieces, with 1 serving being 1 slice of cake. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate.

Nutrition

Calories: 759kcal | Carbohydrates: 89g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 43g | Saturated Fat: 25g | Cholesterol: 90mg | Sodium: 530mg | Potassium: 265mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 67g | Vitamin A: 760IU | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 163mg | Iron: 2.3mg

Author Julie Clark

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Calories 759

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