The Best Chocolate Cake
This is the best, easiest, chocolate cake ever! Hundreds of people have made it and declared it the best-ever for a reason…because it is!
Smothered Pork Chops.
Yellow Cake.
Frosting.
Spare Ribs.
Chocolate Cake.
Cream Cheese Coffee Cake.
Any idea what all of the above items have in common?
Well, just between you and me, they are currently on my list (among several others) of recipes I’m searching to find the PERFECT version of. The Best Of, if you will.
(Update: I’ve actually found best-ever versions of some of those! Smothered Pork Chops and Yellow Cake are off the list!)
There are many things (like Indian food and pasta dishes to name a few) that I’ll probably always try different versions of just for the fun of it, but my “search” list includes recipes I want to know are the best so I can turn to them when the time arises and know they will not fail me.
And wouldn’t you know that this week, I’m able to cross off TWO of them! The magical frosting that still visits my dreams was detailed yesterday and now today I’m letting you in on the best chocolate cake I’ve ever made.
I first made this cake nearly eight months ago for my son’s birthday but wanted to make it several more times to ensure it really is the best. And it is!
Hands down, it beats any other homemade chocolate cake I have ever made. Moist (unbelievably so!), dense with chocolate flavor but with a perfectly light and tender cake crumb, and with the perfect balance of sweet and rich chocolate, this cake was taken to new heights slathered in my new favorite frosting.
So perfect and so decadent and delicious, this is the only chocolate cake I need to worry about from here on out.
Actually, I probably should be worrying more about the effect of this chocolate cake on my thighs. Ignorance is bliss, I say.
One Year Ago: Oatmeal Pancake Mix
Two Years Ago: Chicken Tikka Masala
Unbelievable Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups (106 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 ½ cups (355 g) all purpose flour
- 2 ½ cups (530 g) sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
- 2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
- 1 ¼ cups warm water
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, making sure the baking rack is in the middle of the oven. Prepare two round 9-inch cake pans by cutting out a piece of parchment or wax paper to line the bottom of the pan. Grease the pans, place the parchment or wax paper in the bottom of the pan and lightly grease again. Dust the pans with flour (or cocoa powder if you don’t want the white dusting on the finished cakes). Set the pans aside.
- Using a fine mesh strainer, sift together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add the eggs, yolk, warm water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Mix on low speed (with a handheld mixer or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer) until smooth, about 3 minutes.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake the cakes for about 32-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Do not overbake! Remove the pans from the oven and set the pans on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Gently run a thin knife around the edges of the pans and unmold the cakes, removing the parchment paper liners from the bottom of the cakes. Let them cool completely, top sides ups, on a wire rack.
- Trim the tops of the cake layers with a long serrated knife to make them level. Frost as desired (I highly recommend this life-changing frosting).
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Martha Stewart Living The New Classics
This makes an XL cake. I put 3 cups of batter in each 9 in round cake pan (1/2 &1/2) – this was all the batter. No problem with spillage at all. However, it did not fit under the dome of my cake stand. I really don’t want this post to sound like a complaint, just awareness. I made this for for a birthday cake; I’m not new to baking and have used this stand for years & never had this happens before.
I put recipe together as per the recipe. I could see it was too much for 2 each 9″ cake pans, so I put a large sheet under the two cakes. Each boiled over and made a huge mess, fortunately, I had the sheet pan underneath to catch about 90% of the over flow!
I tried your newer The Best Chocolate Cake recipe, both pans came out great. However I feel the initial recipe required 3 each 9″ cake pans. Keep up the good work!!
I made Jumbo Cupcakes using this recipe. I halved the recipe and I made 8 Jumbo Cupcakes. We really love this chocolate cake recipe! I have made it several times and it is always so moist and delicious! I frosted them with Perfect Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and they are excellent! I will be taking them to work in the morning to share with my friends! Sharing is so fun! Thank you for sharing your recipe!
This cake is magical!!! I was careful cos d baking soda and baking powder measurement made me understand that it was going to riseee. So i used se for cup cakes, the cupcakes got ready first, tasted it and it was amazing and so airy soft, the cake too came out nice but one have to carefully handle cos it was sooo soft. This is the very best
I don’t comment often, but I have been a long time fan of all your recipes. You never fail me with amazing food. Is this still your favorite vanilla frosting? I love your chocolate frosting, but I’m looking for specifically a yummy vanilla frosting for a birthday cake I’m making for one of my kids (I might need to dye the frosting). Thanks for your help!
I do still very much love that magical buttercream frosting – it has a unique taste (very buttery) but it delicious. I also love this vanilla buttercream. It’s more basic, but very delicious!
https://www.melskitchencafe.com/perfect-vanilla-buttercream-frosting/
Did you use natural or dark Dutch processed cocoa?
I use natural unsweetened cocoa powder
This cake is too amazing! Easy as a box mix but a million times tastier. I uses a 9*13 pan and my name time was 42 minutes. Came out perfectly. Tons of praise from the birthday party guests. I paired it with a simple white buttercream. Highly recommend this one!
Best cake I ever made!!! Moist and very flavorful, my family and friends loved it!!!
This is one cake I’ve eaten in my lifetime that earned its name, Unbelievably Delicious. I had no problem with over-rising using 9-inch pans. Heeding Mel’s advice not to over bake, I left in the oven for only 30 minutes and that was plenty of time in my oven at 350 degrees. I also made the Vanilla Buttercream frosting recipe Mel recommended and used the cream cheese substitution for part of the butter. Like Mel, I don’t like overly sweet desserts and this cake and frosting combination was perfect in that regard. My whole family loved it!
Can plain yogurt perhaps thinned out with whole milk be substituted for the buttermilk in this cake; or will it have negative effect on the cake texture?
I’ve used half sour cream/half milk for the buttermilk and it’s worked fine, so half yogurt/half milk would probably work, too.
Does this chocolate cake need to be refrigerated once it’s frosted?
Also , can it be made a day ahead?
If I make it ahead of time, I bake it, let it cool, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze.
If it’s being served within a few hours, it’s fine at room temperature, otherwise I refrigerate.
This cake was so much better than a mix, and almost just as easy! We’ll be making it again. We took it to a family function and it was devoured!
I made a couple chocolate cakes and had several taste testers of different ages (2-67) and hands down (as in unanimous) this was the favorite. In fact I had two chocolate cake haters say that they now like chocolate cake. I baked it in two 8” pans that were 3” deep, so I had to bake them longer, but they didn’t come anywhere close to overflowing. This cake is SUPER moist as others have commented.