If you love chocolate cake, this is the post for you! Chocolate cake is one of the best comfort foods there is. I’ve tasted many over the years, but my all time favorite was one I had growing up. I’ve spent years trying to duplicate the moist, nostalgic cake from my childhood. I noticed that nearly every chocolate cake recipe on the internet is a variation of the century-old recipe from the Hershey’s Cocoa tin. I think many people have passed it down as a family recipe, each grandmother adding her own personal touch. Even some celebrity chefs have claimed it as their own. It’s an easy, delicious, moist recipe and its popularity is well deserved. You can tweak the flavor additions a bit to make it your own too. It’s a recipe that’s hard to mess up.
This cake is topped with the ultimate silky, smooth, deeply chocolate frosting. I developed this recipe mostly because I couldn’t find a chocolate frosting recipe that didn’t taste gritty and/or look speckled from the cocoa powder. Swiss meringue buttercream with melted chocolate added is one alternative. But, while it is smooth, silky and perfect for piping, it’s missing that deep chocolate richness. Another option is chocolate ganache. It looks rich and creamy in those viral videos, but it’s a little too rich and overpowering to use as frosting in my opinion.
I think this frosting is the one! It has the best of both worlds, velvety but not too rich. You’ll notice that this frosting contains maple syrup. The syrup gives it a very subtle maple flavor in the background, but mostly, it helps to make the frosting silky and gives it shine. You can adjust the sweetness level of the frosting by choosing the chocolate you prefer. I used bittersweet chocolate, which I think is just right. This recipe makes enough frosting to frost a 2-layer 6-inch cake. You can easily double the recipe for larger cakes.
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2 layer 6-inch cake
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- 1 1/8 cup (5 1/8 oz or 145g) all purpose flour, sifted Plus more for dusting pans
- 1/2 cup (1 1/2 oz or 45g) unsweetened dark cocoa powder, sifted Plus more for dusting pans
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 1/3 cups (9 1/4 oz or 262g) sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2/3 cup (5 1/4 or 155ml) buttermilk
- 1/3 cup (2 1/2 oz or 74ml) vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup (5 1/4 oz or 155ml) hot coffee or espresso
- 1/2 cup (5 oz or 148ml) pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons water
- 3/4 cup (2 3/8 oz or 67g) unsweetened Dutch process or dark cocoa powder, sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder optional
- 1 1/4 cups (10 oz or 283) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup (4 oz or 113g) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 8 oz (or 227g) dark, bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped *not chocolate chips
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
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- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the bottoms of two 6-inch cake pans with parchment paper. Grease the insides and dust with a mixture of equal parts flour and cocoa powder. Wrap the cake pans with damp cake strips if you have them.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the sugar and stir util well combined.
- Combine the the egg, egg yolk, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Whisk lightly to combine.
- Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix on low speed with an electric mixer, until combined. Stop the mixer. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl with a spatula. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 30 seconds.
- Add the hot coffee and stir until well combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans, dividing batter evenly between the pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 25-28 minutes without cake strips or about 28-32 minutes with cake strips.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes then remove the cakes from the pans and transfer to a cooling rack.
- Trim the cake layers to your desired thickness, from 1-inch to 1 1/2-inches thick. Fill and frost with chocolate buttercream frosting.
- In a small saucepan over low heat, whisk together the maple syrup, water, cocoa powder and espresso powder until smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Melt the chocolate in a medium bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to lukewarm.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer at medium speed, until smooth and light in color. Add the powdered sugar and salt and continue beating until smooth and well combined.
- Gradually add the the cooled maple syrup mixture and beat on low speed until combined.
- Stir in the melted chocolate until well combined. Smooth out any air bubbles by stirring gently with a rubber spatula.
*For smoothest results, use chopped bar chocolate and make sure chocolate is completely melted. Do not use chocolate chips. Chocolate chips do not melt completely and can make your frosting lumpy.
Hi,im mira from bali.
I would like to know ,what brand of butter are you using for makaing a cake?
Hi Mira,
My favorite brands of butter to bake with are Land O Lakes or Plugra
Hi there, This Choco Cake Recipe sounds Delishhhh! I would Luv to Use Coconut Oil as a Substitute for the Vegetable Oil, Would that be OK to do?
Thanx 😊
Hi Avalon, yes you can substitute coconut oil for the vegetable oil.
It looks delicious. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Thank you!