Chocolate cake recipe – Did you ever dream of baking the best chocolate cake? I did and my dream came true when I tried this recipe for the first time years ago. This super delicious, moist & rich chocolate cake has never failed to amaze my family & friends.
This best chocolate cake recipe is simple & easy to follow even by a beginner. It is a one bowl cake that just needs a whisk, no mixer needed except for the frosting.
This recipe uses 1 egg which helps the cake to rise & keep it moist. If you do not eat eggs, then you can check this moist Eggless chocolate cake.
I have baked this cake in a oven. If you do not have a oven you can also bake it in a cooker or a heavy bottom pot following this post on Cooker cake recipe.
The following tips will help you to adapt the recipe to different pan sizes.
Tips on chocolate cake recipe
1. I have baked this cake in two 6 inch round pans as I do not prefer to cut my cake to layers. If you do not have 2 pans then you can bake it in a single 7 or 8 inch round pan. To make it a layered cake you will have to cut the cake to 2 layers and then frost.
2. This recipe cannot be halved but can be doubled to make a 2 or 3 layers 8 inch cake.
3. The recipe can be used to make 12 cupcakes.
4. Do adjust the baking time depending on the pan size used.
5. I have made chocolate buttercream frosting which needs a stand or hand mixer. If you do not have one, you can also beat the mixture using a whisk but it is a bit of arm work.
6. You can also make a simple chocolate ganache instead of buttercream frosting or spread some melted chocolate over the cake. This needs no mixer & you can bake the entire batter in a single pan.
More Cake recipes
Biscuit cake
Banana cake
Butter cake
Chocolate sponge cake
Chocolate banana cake
Chocolate cake recipe
Chocolate cake
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
Dry ingredients for chocolate cake recipe
- ¾ cup + 2 tbsp flour or 112 grams (all-purpose flour or wheat flour)
- ¼ cup + 2 tbsp cocoa powder or 34 grams (6 tbsps)
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 1 cup sugar (organic)
Wet ingredients
- 1 egg
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ cup oil – 4 tbsps (I used virgin coconut oil)
- 1 to 2 tsp vanilla extract or powder as needed
- ½ cup boiling hot water
For chocolate buttercream frosting (optional)
- ½ cup butter unsalted (soft but cold)
- 1¾ cup powdered sugar or confectioners sugar
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1½ tbsp milk or whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
How to make the recipe
Preparation for chocolate cake recipe
- Grease and line 2 – 6 inch cake pans or 1 – 7 or 8 inch pan. Preheat the oven to 175 C for at least 15 mins.
- Sieve together flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda to a mixing bowl.
- Add sugar to the bowl. Give a good stir until well combined.
How to make chocolate cake
- Make a well in the center of the bowl. Pour egg, oil, vanilla extract & milk. Whisk together all the wet ingredients. Then mix wet and dry together until just combined and no lumps appear.
- Pour boiling hot water and whisk until all the water is absorbed by the batter. The batter is runny at this stage.
- Pour this to the cake pans. Tap the pans gently twice to the counter.
- Bake at 175 C for 28 to 30 mins or until the tester inserted comes out clean. Please adjust the timing as it depends on the oven.
- Cool the cake in the pans on a wire rack for 10 mins. Invert to a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.
Making chocolate buttercream frosting
- Ensure butter is soft yet cold. Beat it until light & creamy for 2 mins. Then add the rest of the ingredients except milk. Beat until smooth, light and creamy. If the frosting is too thick add milk and beat. If it becomes runny, just add more powdered sugar.
- Refrigerate for a while and spread on the cake. For more details watch the video.
- Refrigerate and use up the chocolate cake with in a week.
Video
NUTRITION
Notes
Recipe source : Hersheys
Preparation for chocolate cake recipe
Preheat the oven to 175 C or 350 F for at least 15 mins.
1. Grease and line 2 – 6 inch cake pans. You can also make a single layer cake in a 7 or 8 inch pan.You can also just grease and dust with some flour or cocoa.
2. Place a sieve over a mixing bowl. Add flour.
3. Add the rest of the dry ingredients – cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sieve them all.
4. Next add sugar.
5. Mix everything very well until uniform. Make a well in the center.
How to make chocolate cake
6. Heat half cup water in a pot.
7. Pour milk, egg, oil and vanilla.
8. Whisk the wet ingredients first. Then whisk together wet and dry ingredients just until combined. Do not over mix.
9. You will have a slightly thick batter at this stage.
10. Quickly pour the hot water to the batter. The water must be very hot.
11. Immediately whisk the batter just until the water is absorbed and the batter looks uniform. Batter is very runny at this stage.
12. Pour this to the pans. Tap the pan to the counter 2 to 3 times.
13. Bake for 28 to 30 mins or until the tester comes out clean. Please adjust the timing depending on the oven and pan sizes. If baking in a 7 inch pan you may need to bake upto 35 to 38 mins. Cool the pans on a wire rack for 10 mins.
14. Then invert to a cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.
Frosting chocolate cake
15. Please follow the recipe card to make the frosting. I have shared below quick tips on how to frost the cake.
16. Spread a tsp of frosting in the center of the cake board or cake stand. Place 4 parchment papers on all 4 sides such that they don’t touch the frosting. Place the cake on the parchment paper. The center of the cake has to be on the frosting that was spreaded. Begin to spread the frosting with a spatula. Even out for smooth surface. Place another cake and repeat the frosting. Then frost on the sides. Smoothen the sides as well with the spatula.
17. I just used some choco chips and sprinkles on top. Then remove the parchment paper gently.
Slice the chocolate cake.
Srishti says
Hi Swasthi
Thanks a lot for sharing this recipe. I am a beginner and I found this one pretty easy to make.
I just faced one problem. My cake came out nice st the top half but the bottom half it seems did not rise and hence was rubbery, chewy. I would really appreciate if you could tell me what could have I done wrong?
Thanks
swasthi says
Hi Srishti,
You are welcome. What is the size of your pan and which oven & setting did you use? If possible mail me a closeup shot of the sliced cake. I can tell you exactly what would have gone wrong. The problem can be due to over mixing the batter, oven settings or using a smaller pan. You can find my email id in my about page on the menu bar.
Vasanta says
Hi Swasthi, I would like to prepare this cake without the egg, can you recommend a substitute please?
swasthi says
Hi Vasanta,
You can check this eggless chocolate cake
Tanusree says
Hi Swasthi
Today I have prepared chocolate cake. Actually I halved the chocolate cake recipe, combined with half butter cake batter and tried marble cake. With the other half of chocolate cake mix I have prepared cupcakes with a generous topping of blanched almonds.
Cupcakes came out flawless. But marble cake got a good crack on top which spoiled the floral motif on it. In my previous attempts of making other cakes I had cracks on top too but that didn’t make much difference as all were plain. But this time I felt I need to work on this. Please let me know how to prevent the cracking. On the other hand taste and texture wise all cakes were awesome.
Thanks in advance.
Tanusree
swasthi says
Hi Tanu!
You are most welcome. I am extremely sorry for the late reply.
Regarding the marble cake it is always good to use the same batter for the choco and the vanilla. Use the butter cake batter and add in some cocoa to 1/3 portion of the same batter. This gives the best marble cake.
Here are the most common reasons for cracks on the cakes
1. Oven being too hot. To resolve this Just reduce the temperature by 10 Degree C and try. You can also calibrate your oven to correct any temperature issues.
2. If the pan is small then the resulting cake would have lot of cracks. In the other words too much batter in a small pan can cause this. So try to match your pan size (including the shape) that is called for in the recipes. If you do not have the same shape or sized pan mentioned in the recipe, then simply check online for another pan that suits. type in ” Cake pan size conversion” in google search. Also do the same for timings and adjust the baking time.
3. Too much flour in the batter can cause cracks – mostly due to improper measuring.
In your case I feel the oven should have been too hot causing the cracks. Usually the results are much better in smaller oven when baked at 160 to 170 C. Hope these help.
I usually take 1 to 2 days time to publish and reply the comments as I do the blog work only during my free time. As I juggle between the kids, family and the blog I end up feeling sorry with late replies. Sorry again! Thank you so much for understanding! Hope your kids are enjoying all the mummy’s bakes.
🙂
Tanusree says
Hi Swasthi
You’re not late. Don’t feel bad about that. We are actually thankful to you for your patient respond to all of our queries.
In fact I have unknowingly sent the same message twice. Sorry about that.
Yes, I did some mix and match with butter cake and chocolate cake recipe and tried to keep the consistency of the vanilla batter and chocolate batter same. Quantity of APF was all correct. Pan was of correct size too. I have purchased a few to suit your recipes 😀. Hence the temperature must be the culprit. I bake in a Samsung convection oven with 180 degree temperature . Can’t make it lesser than that. In that case how can we achieve 160-170 degree result?
Please take your own good time to reply dear. No hurry..
Indulging myself in making sweets and icecreams in coming Dussera.
Happy holidays!!
swasthi says
Hi Tanu!
You are welcome! No problem about posting the message twice. If you can’t reduce the temperature then try loosely covering the cake pan with a foil. I usually do this for some cakes but when the cake is half baked. I guess the same should work here. Don’t wrap the tin just place the foil over the tin.
Thank you so much!
Wishing you all a very Happy Dussera!
Have a great time!
Tanusree says
Hi Swasthi
Today I have prepared chocolate cake. Actually I halved the chocolate cake recipe, combined with half butter cake batter and tried marble cake. With the other half of chocolate cake mix I have prepared cupcakes with a generous topping of blanched almonds.
Cupcakes came out flawless. But marble cake got a good crack on top which spoiled the floral motif on top. In my previous attempts I had cracks on top too but that didn’t make much difference as all were plain. But this time I felt I need to work on this. Please let me know how to avoid the cracking. Otherwise taste and texture wise all cakes were awesome.
Thanks in advance.
Tanusree
Tanusree says
Hi Swasthi,
A very good morning to you. My next attempt is this chocolate cake. After going through the recipe card followed by the video I felt that the consistency of this cake batter is much lighter than the butter cake I made earlier. It’s more runny. Am I right? Wanted to clarify before my attempt, so that I won’t have to panic in the middle.
Any plan to add a few savoury breads!
That would really help to keep the blood sugar level under control in my recent uninterrupted process of baking 😀
swasthi says
Hi Tanu,
Very Good morning!Yes the consistency is very runny. Just want to share with you incase you want to make a quick frosting, I have another chocolate sauce recipe here which goes very well with this cake. Hope you all enjoy the cake. I plan to share some sourdough savory breads. But I am super slow in sharing new recipes.
🙂
Agustin Perez says
I made this chocolate cake and it was delicious.
Just one question: Can I double all the ingredients to make an 8 inches cake?
How do I adjust temperature and cooking time?
Thanks in advance for your reply.
swasthi says
Hi Agustin Perez
You are welcome. Yes the recipe is developed for a single 8 inch cake. So you can double and make 2 – 8 inch cakes. It should take about 32 to 35 mins. No changes in the temperature.
Hope this helps.
Lebogang says
I love it
swasthi says
Thank you
Brewer says
It’s more brownie like than cake; a fluffier, less dense brownie. I was ok, I may try it again, it was easy and quick. Next time, I’ll use olive oil instead of butter and see if it’s better.
swasthi says
Hi Brewer,
Thanks for trying.
Ritasharma says
I love this chocolate cake. Thank you so much for this sharing post.
swasthi says
Hi Rita,
You are welcome. Thanks for rating the recipe
Sony says
Hi
Thanks again for the recipe. This seems to be a great recipe even for beginners like me. Mine turned out under cooked at the bottom. I had used a 7″pan. How do i improve this the next time?( I had preheated the oven and baked for the time prescribed in the recipe. )wondering what i missed🤔
swasthi says
Hi Sony,
You are welcome. I just understand the cake needs to be baked a little more. The timings mentioned in the recipe are near approximations. Each oven is different & one may take a little longer than the other to bake. Once you understand your oven well you will know how to adjust the timing. Before taking it off the oven, always test the cake with a skewer if it is done. The skewer must come out clean without any batter stuck on it. This indicates whether or not the cake is cooked fully. Hope you got it. Thank you.
Harishma harish says
Mam tried this recipe today…It came very good…superb texture and it was delicious…
swasthi says
Hi Harishma
Thank you so much for trying. Glad to know it came out good.
Carol says
Iyummy! I made cupcakes with this recipe and turned out Super delicious 😋. Thank you so much
swasthi says
Hi Carol,
you are welcome. Thanks for trying. Happy to know they turned out good.
Punam Paul says
December is the season for cakes and this seems too much delicious I will surely cook it on Sunday.
swasthi says
Hi Punam
Thanks for rating the recipe. Yes try it. I am sure you will love it
🙂
Janice says
I tried this cake and it turned out to be super delicious and moist cake.Thanks for the receipe
swasthi says
Welcome Janice
Glad you liked it.
Kate says
Dear swasthi
Thankful to you for the detailed instructions. Mine turned out beautiful even without frosting. I sprinkled some cho chips but sunk down as the batter is too runny. Will be making this again
swasthi says
Hi Kate
You are welcome. Thanks for trying.
Madhurima says
Tried it. But got a thin crust on TOP. Why? I used wheat flour. The cake tasted yummy
swasthi says
Hi Madhurima
Thanks for trying. A crust can form if the cake is over baked or if the pan too small for the batter. With this recipe the cake top should be moist. Not sure if you have over baked. Even the pan size could be a issue. A little research from your side should help you to fix it.