The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe – One-bowl chocolate cake that’s simple, fast, and delicious! The gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free choices have been updated.
Perfect instructions for making chocolate cake. Ever? Many chocolate cake recipes boast that they are the greatest. Oh, I see. Everyone at the table agreed after just one mouthful that this was the finest chocolate cake they’d ever had. It was rich, delicious, and topped with chocolate icing.
So as for my house, this chocolate cake recipe now holds that honor.
As the compliments continued, I didn’t begin to tell them how easy it was to make.
When they complimented me on the cake, I smiled and thanked them despite the fact that it was one of the simplest I’d baked in a long time.
The praises kept flowing as we proceeded to eat the cake and sip the coffee or cold milk.
Then others began asking for the recipe.
When people ask for the recipe and tell you what occasion they want to serve it at, you know they genuinely enjoy what you’ve created.
As a cook, that really is one of the highest compliments you can receive – well, at least in my book.
The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe Ever
It’s encouraging to know that the cake held up just as well after the final taste as it did at the beginning.
One other thing going for this dish: Actually, you can whip up the cake batter in a bowl without breaking out the stand mixer. This is the kind of food my grandmother would have loved to prepare in her little kitchen with only a whisk and a bowl, and I’m sure she would have appreciated doing so. And I have no doubt that the outcome would have been excellent.
I’m not going to kid you, this makes a very rich, moist chocolate cake recipe. So if you are a faint of heart chocolate cake person, this is not the cake for you.I made a lot of adjustments to the Old Fashioned Hershey’s recipe by trying out cake after cake until I got it exactly right, but it was well worth it in the end. The evidence was in the strewn remnants of food on the plate.
Ingredients
For this chocolate cake, you’ll need the following ingredients.
- all-purpose flour
- sugar
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- baking powder
- baking soda
- salt
- espresso powder – I give more information on the espresso powder below
- milk – you can also use buttermilk, almond milk, oat milk, or coconut milk
- oil – you can use vegetable, canola or melted coconut oil
- eggs – when baking, I like to use room temperature eggs
- vanilla extract
- boiling water
Step-by-Step Instructions
Prep. Preheat the oven to 350º F. Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by spraying with baking spray or buttering and lightly flouring.
Whisk dry ingredients. Add flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk through to combine or, using your paddle attachment, stir through flour mixture until combined well.
Mix in wet ingredients. Add milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter until well combined.
Bake. Distribute cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center of the chocolate cake comes out clean.
Frost. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, remove from the pan and cool completely. Frost with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.
ESPRESSO POWDER
One of the ingredients that really made this cake recipe come to life, in my opinion, was the addition of espresso powder in both the chocolate cake and in the chocolate frosting.
There’s a lot you’re missing out on if you haven’t tried adding some espresso to your chocolate baking projects yet.
I now consider espresso to be a necessary component of my spice rack because of its ability to intensify tastes in a manner similar to that of vanilla extract.
Although espresso powder is widely available in stores and may even be purchased online if your local market doesn’t carry it, my regular usage has caused my supply to deplete and increase in price. Since I began producing my own espresso powder, I haven’t bought it again. The stuff is convenient to have on hand and quite simple to prepare.
Believe me when I say, it is very much worth the effort to have just for those times you are baking with chocolate!So, if you have a buddy who loves chocolate cake, I highly recommend that you bake them this one. This is the kind of thing that would put a smile on their face even if they were already having a good day. Sharing this chocolate cake with them is a wonderful way to celebrate if they’ve had a good day.
How to Make Ahead and Store the Homemade Chocolate Cake:
You may bake the cake and frost it with chocolate buttercream in advance. Once the cakes have cooled fully, individually wrap each layer in plastic wrap, and store them in a gallon-sized zip-top freezer bag. You may store the cake layers in the freezer for up to a month.
Just take it out of the freezer and let it defrost in the fridge, wrapping and all, before you frost it. Frost the cake when it has fully defrosted.
Keep the cake out on the counter at room temperature. A cake dome is my preferred method of storage to maintain cake’s freshness.
Chocolate Cake Modifications You May Be Interested to Know About:
Note that I have updated the recipe to include some additional ingredients that I have tested through the years. I have found that this chocolate cake is even more versatile than I originally imagined! I’ve listed some of the modifications I’ve tested that I think may be of interest to you.
As a Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Recipe:
To make the cake as a gluten-free chocolate cake recipe, I’ve successfully used an equal amount of gluten-free flour in place of the all-purpose flour listed in the recipe.
As a Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake Recipe:
To make the cake a dairy-free chocolate cake recipe, I’ve used almond milk as well as coconut milk in place of the dairy. While not dairy-free, I’ve also used buttermilk in place of the milk with great results.
As an Egg-Free Chocolate Cake Recipe:
To make the cake an egg-free chocolate cake recipe, I’ve used 2/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce in place of the 2 large eggs in the recipe. You will note that you may have to bake the cake just a few minutes more. Be sure to check with the skewer for doneness.
I’ve also used Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer with great success.
To Use Butter and Other Oils:
I have tested the chocolate cake recipe with additional oils, as well as butter. I’ve tested using an equal amount of melted coconut oil to the vegetable oil called for in the recipe. I’ve also tested using the same volume of melted butter in place of the oils in the chocolate cake. While it does make the cake texture slightly different, it is still delicious and worth trying if you’d prefer to use butter in place of oils in your chocolate cake.
Whew! See what I mean! This is the chocolate cake of everyone’s dreams, I think!
