This is a really easy yet exceptional Chocolate Cake that truly tastes of chocolate. The crumb is beautifully tender and moist, and it keeps for up to 5 days. It requires no beater, just a wooden spoon.
Frost generously with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting for a terrific birthday cake or chocolate ganache for a luxurious rich option. For a richer, fudgier chocolate cake, try this Chocolate Fudge Cake. The ultimate glaze to impress, however, is without a doubt Chocolate Mirror Glaze…..
This is the Chocolate Cake
If you’ve been reading for a while, you know that sometimes I get real stubborn about doing certain things the “right way”. And there’s also a time and a place for shortcut recipes and quick dinners.
Then there’s recipes like this Chocolate Cake which tick all the boxes – it’s easier than the way I’ve been making everyday cake for most of my life, and the results are better.
You’ll love how it really does taste of chocolate even though it’s only been made with cocoa powder (the secret is to add boiling water – it makes the chocolate flavour “bloom”).
You’ll love how tender the crumb is, and how it stays moist for 4 to 5 days.
You’ll love how the cake can stand on its own so you could just dust it with icing sugar then serve slices with dollops of cream on the side. Though of course, smothering it with frosting never hurts….
This is the famous Hershey’s Chocolate Cake recipe which I tried on the recommendation of Michelle from the Brown Eyed Baker (one of the first places I go in hunt for baked goods). I tried it without massively high expectations, because I thought “how much better can this be than the usual, being such a simple recipe?”
I love being proved wrong when it comes to food. So wrong in fact, that even though I tinkered with the recipe multiple times, I landed right back where I started using the recipe exactly as written.
I truly think this might be the only recipe on my entire website that I’m publishing from another source without changing the ingredients at all. It’s unheard of! But to me, it’s perfect as it is. I don’t see myself using any other recipe for an everyday Chocolate Cake, ever again.
Incredibly quick and easy
It’s astonishingly quick to make the batter, with all the ingredients mixed up in one bowl using a whisk.
There’s no need to cream butter like the usual recipes because this one is made with oil which is the reason why this cake is beautifully moist. No more dry chocolate cake! 🙌🏻 (Also means this is more forgiving than most, having once accidentally left it in the oven for 15 minutes longer than necessary and it still wasn’t dry).
I’m publishing this recipe as part of the Easter Recipes posted yesterday! So here it is, dolled up for Easter. The same cake in the photos above, the same frosting, topped with speckled Easter eggs, baby chicks (both from Woolworths in Australia), and a chocolate basket. I’ve provided directions in the notes of the recipe for how I made that chocolate basket (hint – it involves a balloon…).
My everyday Chocolate Cake
Easter aside, I call this my everyday Chocolate Cake because it’s just that – my new favourite to make for any occasion. There will be times that call for a mud-cake like Fudge Cake made with both cocoa powder and melted chocolate. There will be times that call for intensely dark chocolate cakes. There will be times that you need / want the nutty brownie-like Flourless Chocolate Cake. And there will be times you’re after one that’s light-as-air, a delicate chiffon cake.
This one is for all the other times when you just want a great, classic Chocolate Cake. Which in my world, is 80% of the time! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups plain / all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder , unsweetened (Note 2)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda (bi-carb soda)
- 2 cups white sugar (Note 1)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs (~55-65g / 2 oz each)
- 1 cup milk (low or full fat)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil (or canola)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 1 1/2 batches Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (slide scaler on recipe)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C°/350°F (160°C fan). Read Note 4 regarding shelf positions.
- Grease 2 x 22cm/9" cake pans with butter, then line the base. (Note 3 re: springform pans and other pan sizes).
Batter:
- Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl. Add Sugar and salt. Whisk briefly to combine.
- Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Whisk well to combine until lump free – about 30 seconds.
- Add boiling water and whisk to incorporate. The batter is VERY thin (see video).
- Pour batter into cake pans.
Baking:
- Bake for 35 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. See Note 4 regarding cook time if pans are on different shelves.
- Cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks upside down (Note 5).
- Cool completely before frosting. I frosted the cake with my Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (scale recipe up by 50%).
Recipe Notes:
- bundt pan – 50 minutes
- single 22cm/9″ pan – 40 to 45 minutes
- 2 x 20cm / 8″ pans – 38 minutes
- 3 x 20cm / 8″ pans – 25 minutes
- 33 x 22 x 5 cm / 13 x 9 x 2″ rectangle pan – 35 – 40 minutes
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Dozer vs tiny toy chick.
Chick won.
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If I used dutch processed cocoa powder, will I get the same rise as regular cocoa powder?
I love this recipe and can manage to pull this off 98% of the time (the last one went a bit weird, no idea why!) I now love baking because of you Nagi!
I’d love to make this into a beetroot chocolate cake – no idea where to start though! Any tips?
Hi Nagi, I really love this chocolate cake, awesome recipe!, thank you!
This is my second cake I’ve made by you. I find your techniques interesting and your detailed instructions fantastic! I changed 1 component though. Instead of plain boiling water I used coffee. The result did not taste at all like coffee but I have found in other chocolate cakes that coffee gives a nuanced depth of earthiness. I frosted with a honey buttercream and decorated with chocolate buttercream piping. I use both honey & lemon in my vanilla buttercream for a whisper of floral earthiness. This cake is excellent standard birthday party chocolate cake. Very moist and not too chocolaty. Brava
Could I mix this in layers with your best vanillla cake recipe?
Definitely THE chocolate cake. You made my boyfriends birthday with this cake! The cake is so beautifully light and fluffy and very very easy to make. Thank you Nagi!
Delicous. Made GF for my coeliac daughter. Turned out really well. Thanks for your recipes Nagi.
Did you just do a plain sub with the flour for gf flour?
Love this cake it’s my go to.. although I have adapted it- I use oat milk, 1/3 cup sugar, as I have no self control on portion sizes and I like it less sweet.. , and add 1 tablespoon of coffee for a intense chocolate flavour. Turns out great every time!
Question! Has anyone made it without eggs? My son is allergic so I now need to adapt it..
We make without eggs all the time – substitute 1/2 cup of blended silken tofu for the 2 eggs. We hse the macro woolworths silken tofu and works great.
This cake was amazing. Thank you so much. I have been trying to make my cakes moist and this is the first recipe that came out perfectly. Yummy.
I would love to try this but the vegetable oil – (eek!) has anyone tried this with butter or extra virgin olive oil or anything else? Just really don’t want to use vegetable oil in my cooking! Thanks!
I’m wondering this too? Did you try with olive oil?
Yes, I use a very light olive oil (Hojiblanca) for all my cakes that require oil. Delicious. Butter mlleaves cakes dry unless eaten fresh. Oil keeps the cake moist eith a lovely crumb. Try it! Such a surprise to me too as to how good the cakes are with oil instead of butter!
Literally the best chocolate cake recipe I’ve ever tried! Typically all my cakes fall, flatten and flop, (and a dense rich choc cake is not my style) but this cake *chefs kiss* it is light, fluffy, as if it was a chocolate cloud that won’t fall or fail! Stays moist for a good couple of days to prolong the savoured cake which is incredible! Thank you for sharing this beautiful delectable dish
This recipe needs to come with a warning… It’s addicting!!! Best cake I’ve ever had in my LIFE and it came from my kitchen. I just started baking so it’s awesome that I was able to make this so well. I did add some raspberry between layers and omg it just MADE this cake against the chocolate.
Nagi, you’ve knocked it out of the park again – BEST chocolate cake recipe EVER! Made it for a family bbq and received a 5 star rating from everyone. I only put a modest layer of simple icing on the top but it was enough as the cake itself was so light and moist. Definitely going in my ‘recipe tin’.
Awesome recipe as always! It’s my go-to chocolate cake. I have a question about the cocoa though. My understanding is that bicarb needs an acid to react with, and in chocolate cakes that’s the cocoa. If the cocoa is Dutch-processed, though, it’s been alkalised, so has lost that acidity. I use regular cocoa powder so I don’t know, but wouldn’t using Dutch-processed leave it tasting of bicarb and not rise any more than with just baking powder?
Thank you so much for this comment. I used dutch cocao and maybe this is why my cake tasted so strongly of bicarb.
I found a whole article on cocoa vs dutch process cocao in baking which explains the difference along with pictures of the results here:
https://www.seriouseats.com/difference-dutch-process-natural-cocoa-powder-substitute
Perhaps I will retry this recipe with normal cocoa, or stick with dutch and add some lemon juice.
I was wondering if this can go in a mini bundt pan?
This is by far the most tasty and easy choco cake recipe I have ever made. I’m not a baker, my cakes always flop, but this was great. Super simple easy ingredients and so many compliments from the cake taste.
Great recipe which I’ve used many times for cakes and also cupcakes. For anyone wondering if SR flour would substitute well, I have tried it using self raising flour as I ran out of plain flour with baking powder & baking soda and it didn’t work; I simply could not get it to cook all the way through.