Chocolate Little Layer Cake Recipe

Name: Chocolate Little Layer Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 110 min
Ingredients: Solid shortening for greasing pans; 3 cups sugar; 3 ½ ounces unsweetened baking chocolate (see notes); 10 ounces evaporated milk; ½ cup butter; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 cup butter; 1 ½ cups sugar; 6 eggs; 3 ½ cups self-rising flour (sifted); 1 ¾ cups water; 1 teaspoon vanilla

This southern heritage Chocolate Little Layer Cake consists of tiny layers baked individually and topped with boiled chocolate icing.

4.7 from 122 votes

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Jump to Recipe

Part cake and part confection, this heritage recipe for Chocolate Little Layer Cake is made by home cooks throughout southwest Georgia. The cake consists of tiny yellow layers baked individually then filled and topped with old fashioned boiled chocolate icing.

I really love the way technology connects us. It makes it possible for us to share special recipes like this Chocolate Little Layer Cake beyond our closest circle of friends and family What we used to do through cards and letters, newspaper and magazine clippings, or simply by word of mouth, we can now accomplish within seconds.

Just a quick internet search and virtually any recipe ever thought of appears on your screen. I’m even more grateful that technology is helping us to preserve our old heritage recipes like this beautiful little layer cake.

📋 A Heritage Recipe

These beautiful multi-layer cakes have, for as long as I can remember, always been a part of family reunions, church dinners, and most holidays in the southwest corner of Georgia where I grew up. You might think at first glance that they’re standard cake layers that have been split and filled, but they’re not. Not at all. Each little thin layer is baked separately.

To make it even more different from traditional layer cakes, it’s iced with warm boiled chocolate icing while the layers themselves are still warm. Totally goes against the conventional method, doesn’t it?

Years ago, Kim Severson of the New York Times did a story on these little layer cakes. I had the pleasure of hearing Kim speak once at food blogging conference. She’s a very accomplished food writer and has received numerous accolades, including several James Beard Awards.

In her NYT story, she talked about how the cakes were made only in one area in Alabama and on Smith Island near Maryland. Well, I can assure you that they are part of the fabric of at least one small southwest Georgia town as well :-)

In the small town where I grew up, lots of ladies make these cakes for a little extra income on the side. They come in two versions – chocolate or caramel. Some of them make a fairly brisk business of it, especially around Christmas.

Way back when, the thin layers for these cakes were made by cooking each layer in a hoecake pan or iron skillet on top of the stove, but now most everyone cooks the layers in the oven. It just goes faster when you can bake three or four layers at one time, you see.

If you’re really experienced with little layer cakes, you can get as many as fourteen layers from your batter. I usually get about ten. I need to practice more. If you’ve never made this cake before, aim for about seven layers your first time and gradually increase as you improve your technique.

😎 A Modernized Recipe For You

The original recipe that I have for little layer cakes is so typical of old-time recipes. It assumes that the cook pretty much knows what to do and only the bare essentials are given.

For instance, the instructions for making the batter read “Mix well. Grease 8″ pans with Crisco. Put 2 large cooking spoonfuls in each pan. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes.” That’s it.

And the instructions for the boiled icing are “Place over low heat until all is dissolved. Do not boil. Be sure all sugar is melted.” Well, alrighty then!

In the recipe below, I’ve tried to re-write and modernize the instructions a bit for you.

❤ Why You’ll Love This Recipe

The delicious and unique boiled chocolate icing.
Tastes great and is easy to make once you get the idea.
It’s a very old, sentimental part of southern foodways.

🥘 Ingredients You’ll Need

All ingredients needed to make chocolate little layer cake.

This post contains affiliate links. Lana’s Cooking is reader supported and earns a tiny commission at no extra cost to you when you shop from our links.

Granulated Sugar – This is just plain old white sugar. We tend to use Dixie Crystals in the south.
Baking Chocolate – It’s really important to use the right kind of chocolate for this recipe. You’ll need to purchase Baker’s Premium Unsweetened Baking Chocolate which produces the distinctive look, texture, and taste required for this recipe.
Evaporated Milk – Be sure you’re buying evaporated milk NOT sweetened condensed milk.
Butter – Like most old-fashioned southern cooks, I use salted butter in everything including this recipe. I can’t remember the last time I purchased unsalted butter.
Vanilla Extract – Use a quality extract such as McCormick’s.
Eggs – The fresher the better.
Self Rising Flour – Southerners love our White Lily flour for any type of baking. It’s made from soft winter wheat and produces very tender baked goods.

You’ll find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe at the bottom of this post.

🥄 How to Make Chocolate Little Layer Cake

Prep the Pans and Ingredients

Before starting your baking, make sure to have all the ingredients at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and go ahead and prep several 8-inch cake pans with shortening and set them aside.

👉 PRO TIP: How many layers you bake at once depends on how many pans you have and can fit into your oven without them touching. Some people use disposable cake pans for this, but I don’t see the need. I just wipe the pans out and re-grease between each set of layers.

Make the Icing

Unlike other cakes, you actually start your little layer cake by making the icing first.

Place a large, heavy-bottomed pan over medium-low heat. The heat should be barely medium-low. If in doubt, go lower.
Add the sugar, baking chocolate, evaporated milk, butter, and vanilla all at once. Cook until the sugar is completely dissolved, stirring occasionally. It is important that the icing does not boil and that you make sure that the sugar is completely dissolved so that no grainy texture remains.

Make the Batter

Meanwhile, make the batter. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs all at once and beat until well incorporated. Add the flour and water alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Mix in the vanilla.

👉 PRO TIP: The batter will appear to be curdled after each addition of water – this is normal.

Bake the Layers

Pour approximately 3/4 cup batter into each prepared pan. Smooth the batter to the edges.
Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the layers are barely golden on top. Remove from the oven and turn out onto cooling racks.
Clean the pans, grease them, and repeat baking.
When the second set of layers goes into the oven, begin icing the first set.

Frost the Layers While Warm

Place a still-warm layer on a cardboard round set on a cooling rack inside a baking sheet. Spread 1/4 cup of icing on the layer smoothing it gently to the edges. Top with the next layer and repeat.

👉 PRO TIP: Note that the icing will be thin and fairly runny. It will drip down the sides of the layers. This is to be expected. Any excess icing should be scraped up and returned to the pan and all of it used in icing the cake. This is why I strongly recommend doing the icing of the cake on a cooling rack set inside a baking pan.

When all the layers have been stacked and iced, spread the remaining icing over the top and sides of the cake. If the icing becomes thick, return the pan to very low heat until it returns to spreading consistency.
Smooth the icing around the sides of the cake, but realize that the contours are supposed to be visible on the outside of the cake.

🔀 Variations

Many cooks around my hometown also make this cake with a caramel icing. I don’t have the original caramel icing recipe, but the version I use for my Southern Caramel Layer Cake should work well.
I’ve also seen commercial versions of the little layer cake done in coconut, red velvet, and even lemon. I prefer the chocolate and caramel versions.

🍽 What to Serve With Chocolate Little Layer Cake

This cake is the perfect dessert for practically any occasion. I’ve served this for Sunday night family dinner, birthday parties, family reunions, and even bridal showers. It’s the perfect ending to a traditional southern meal of country fried steak, old fashioned green beans, fried okra, cornbread, and a fresh cucumber salad!

🍚 Storage

Store the cake in a covered container at room temperature for three or four days.

This cake freezes very well. To freeze, wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap followed by a layer of aluminum foil. Place the wrapped cake in a freezer container and freeze for up to three months. Allow the frozen cake to thaw in the refrigerator overnight before serving.

Servings of sliced cake on individual plates.

❓ Questions About Chocolate Little Layer Cake

My icing is runny and I can’t spread it on the cake! Help!

As mentioned in the post, this icing is really thin and runny. It’s not the consistency that you usually think of for icing. The way I handle it is by placing a wire cooling rack inside a baking sheet and setting my layers on that to start. As I add icing, it drips off into the baking sheet. Keep scraping it up and adding it back to the pan. You’ll eventually use all the icing.

My icing is grainy! What did I do wrong?

There are a few reasons that the icing can turn out grainy. A few tips are to make sure you have all the ingredients at room temperature before you start and to make sure all the sugar is completely dissolved.

I’m having trouble keeping my cake layers from sliding. What can I do?

The best way I’ve found to keep the layers from shifting is to insert two or three very thin bamboo skewers when you get about halfway up the stack. Keep layering and frosting and cut your skewers off before you put the last layer on so they don’t show on the outside.

🧾 More Popular Cake Recipes

Have you tried this recipe? I’d really appreciate you giving it a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card or in the comments section.
AND REMEMBER TO SIGN UP FOR MY FACEBOOK GROUP.
If you’d like to hang out with me and lots of other online Southern Comfort Food lovers, make sure to join my FREE P R I V A T E Facebook group.

📖 Recipe