
Chocolate Cake Recipe
This can be a very easy but distinctive Chocolate Cake that actually tastes of chocolate. The crumb is superbly tender and moist, and it retains for as much as 5 days. It requires no beater, only a wood spoon.
Frost generously with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting for a terrific birthday cake or chocolate ganache for an opulent wealthy possibility. For a richer, fudgier chocolate cake, do that Chocolate Fudge Cake. The last word glaze to impress, nonetheless, is indisputably Chocolate Mirror Glaze…..

For those who’ve been studying for some time, you realize that generally I get actual cussed about doing sure issues the “proper approach”. And there’s additionally a time and a spot for shortcut recipes and fast dinners.
Then there’s recipes like this Chocolate Cake which tick all of the containers – it’s simpler than the way in which I’ve been making on a regular basis cake for many of my life, and the outcomes are higher.
You’ll love the way it actually does style of chocolate regardless that it’s solely been made with cocoa powder (the key is so as to add boiling water – it makes the chocolate flavour “bloom”).
You’ll love how tender the crumb is, and the way it stays moist for 4 to five days.
You’ll love how the cake can stand by itself so you would simply mud it with icing sugar then serve slices with dollops of cream on the facet. Although in fact, smothering it with frosting by no means hurts….

That is the well-known Hershey’s Chocolate Cake recipe which I attempted on the advice of Michelle from the Brown Eyed Baker (one of many first locations I am going in hunt for baked items). I attempted it with out massively excessive expectations, as a result of I assumed “how a lot better can this be than the same old, being such a easy recipe?”
I like being proved improper on the subject of meals. So improper actually, that regardless that I tinkered with the recipe a number of occasions, I landed proper again the place I began utilizing the recipe precisely as written.
I really assume this could be the one recipe on my complete web site that I’m publishing from one other supply with out altering the elements in any respect. It’s extraordinary! However to me, it’s good as it’s. I don’t see myself utilizing some other recipe for an on a regular basis Chocolate Cake, ever once more.

It’s astonishingly fast to make the batter, with all of the elements blended up in a single bowl utilizing a whisk.
There’s no have to cream butter like the same old recipes as a result of this one is made with oil which is the explanation why this cake is superbly moist. No extra dry chocolate cake! 🙌🏻 (Additionally means that is extra forgiving than most, having as soon as by accident left it within the oven for quarter-hour longer than crucial and it nonetheless wasn’t dry).

I’m publishing this recipe as a part of the Easter Recipes posted yesterday! So right here it’s, dolled up for Easter. The identical cake within the images above, the identical frosting, topped with speckled Easter eggs, child chicks (each from Woolworths in Australia), and a chocolate basket. I’ve offered instructions within the notes of the recipe for a way I made that chocolate basket (trace – it includes a balloon…).

Easter apart, I name this my on a regular basis Chocolate Cake as a result of it’s simply that – my new favorite to make for any event. There might be occasions that decision for a mud-cake like Fudge Cake made with each cocoa powder and melted chocolate. There might be occasions that decision for intensely darkish chocolate truffles. There might be occasions that you just want / need the nutty brownie-like Flourless Chocolate Cake. And there might be occasions you’re after one which’s light-as-air, a fragile chiffon cake.
This one is for all the opposite occasions while you simply need an important, basic Chocolate Cake. Which in my world, is 80% of the time!

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
- 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).
- 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.
- 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%).
Notes
1. Sugar – I use caster / superfine out of habit for all baking recipes, but regular is ok too.
2. Regular cocoa powder works just fine here, but dutch processed will make it a slightly more intense chocolate flavour. I use regular for this cake.
3. SPRINGFORM PAN (important): Even the best ones are not 100% leakproof so with very thin batters like with this cake, you will get a small amount of leakage. The best way to combat this is to “plug” the space where the sides meets the base with butter, and place a tray on the bottom of the oven to catch drips (don’t put cake pans on the tray, it affects heat circulation).
OTHER PANS (use same oven temp per recipe):
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
Quick way to make cake pan liner for base: take a piece of baking paper and fold in half, then quarters, then keep folding so it’s a small long triangle. Line up the pointy end with the middle of the cake pan, then snip the end off at the edge of the cake pan. Unfold and voila! A near perfect round cake pan liner that fits your pan perfectly!
4. BAKING / SHELVES – If your oven is large enough for both cake pans to be on one shelf, place the shelf in the middle of the oven. If it’s not large enough, put one shelf 1/3 of the way down the oven, then the next shelf below it (check to ensure cake pan fits). If cakes are on separate shelves, take out the top one at 35 minutes per recipe, then move the bottom one up to the top shelf and bake for a further 5 minutes.
5. I turn the cakes out upside down so the flat base becomes the surface used for frosting. Flat surface just looks nicer when you cut into the cake! This cake comes out pretty level, but if you want to be extra neat, feel free to level the cakes using a serrated knife.
6. EASTER DECORATIONS as pictured in post and in the Easter Recipes post: baby chicks $2, speckled chocolate eggs and shredded paper all from Woolies. Chocolate basket made as follows: blow up balloon to the size you want the basket to be, place with tied end down in a rice bowl or something it fits in. Melt baking chocolate in microwave (about 1/2 cup chips/buttons), then transfer into small ziplock bag. Snip corner, then drizzle chocolate over exposed half of balloon. Let set in fridge, then carefully release air from balloon. Voila! Chocolate basket! Fill with shredded paper, eggs and chicks. (PS. Looking for a non-choc cake? Try this pastel blue Easter Cake, also charmingly topped with Easter eggs)!
7. STORAGE: Keeps in an airtight container for up to 5 days and is still lovely and moist. Refrigerate if frosted and it’s very hot where you are. Freezing not ideal because it’s such a moist cake that it makes the crumb a bit wet so while it still looks like cake, when you eat it the texture is almost like chocolate pudding cake. Still tasty, just not as cakey as it should be.
8. DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, different measures – This recipe will work with cup measures whether you are in Australia, US, Canada or anywhere else in the world (except Japan, please use weights provided).
Measuring cup sizes in the US and Canada are slightly different to the rest of the world, including Australia. While for most recipes, the difference is not enough to affect the outcome of the recipe, for baking recipes, it can mean the difference between success or an epic fail. I always test my cakes and cookies using both Australian (rest of world) and US cups to ensure it works for both. Usually it’s fine, such as this Chocolate Cake (either recipe has enough flex and/or difference is relative across the ingredients). If not, I provide ingredient measures for different countries (such as these Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies).
9. Nutrition is per serving, cake only, assuming 12 servings.