This easy chocolate cake recipe is the one I've made hundreds of times as a professional baker and still reach for every single time. One bowl, everyday pantry ingredients, and two professional techniques give you naturally flat layers and deep, rich chocolate flavor that most scratch cakes completely miss. Pair it with my chocolate fudge frosting and it's the only chocolate cake recipe you'll ever need. For a classic alternative, try my easy vanilla cake recipe using a similar method and the same results.
Quick Glance at This Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe
- Recipe Name: Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe
- Why You'll Love It: One bowl, naturally flat layers, and a deeply chocolatey flavor that most homemade cakes never achieve - foolproof for beginners and impressive enough for any celebration
- Time and Difficulty: 10 minutes prep + 30 minutes bake / Easy
- Main Ingredients: All-purpose flour, cocoa powder, buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs, and hot coffee
- Method: Mix all ingredients in one bowl, pour into two 9-inch cake pans, and bake at 335°F for flat, even layers every time
- Texture and Flavor: Moist, fudgy, and deeply chocolatey with a tender crumb that stays soft for days
- Quick Tip: Bake at 335°F instead of 350°F for naturally flat layers with no leveling required
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Why This Recipe Works Every Time
Most chocolate cake recipes fail the home baker in one of three ways: they dome up in the middle, they dry out by the next day, or the chocolate flavor is flat and disappointing. My one-bowl chocolate cake recipe fixes all these problems!
- 335°F instead of 350°F: Lower heat means the edges and center of the cake bake more evenly. You get a flatter, more level cake without having to slice off the dome. Useful, especially if you're stacking layers.
- Oil instead of butter: Butter is solid at room temperature, which means it firms up as the cake cools. Oil stays liquid, keeping every bite moist even the next day. If you've ever had a chocolate cake that tasted great warm but dry the next morning, butter was probably the culprit.
- Buttermilk tenderizes the crumb: The acidity in buttermilk reacts with the baking soda and gently breaks down the gluten network in the flour. The result is an exceptionally soft, tender texture that holds up well even after refrigeration.
- Hot coffee blooms the cocoa: When hot liquid hits cocoa powder, it unlocks flavor compounds that stay dormant in dry cocoa. This is called 'blooming,' and it's the same reason a good cup of coffee smells more intense when first brewed. You won't taste the coffee - you'll just taste more chocolate.
This is my go-to birthday cake recipe, especially served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I fill this two-layer cake with a classic chocolate buttercream frosting, made with powdered sugar and cocoa powder, but if you really want to go all-in on chocolate flavor, my chocolate fudge frosting or American buttercream is the move. Either way, you can't go wrong.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reader Review
This is my families favorite chocolate cake. It's the only recipe I use for baking a cake and cupcakes. It's the best chocolate cake!
- Michele
Easy Chocolate Cake Ingredients
One of the best parts about this recipe is its simplicity. By using basic ingredients that you likely already have in your pantry, we'll create a moist, fudgy, and downright irresistible chocolate cake.
- All-purpose flour provides the structure for this cake. Unlike more delicate cakes that require cake flour, this recipe is specifically formulated to work with all-purpose flour, and the buttermilk tenderizes the crumb enough that you won't notice the difference. Measure by weight for the most consistent results, or spoon and level if using measuring cups.
- Granulated sugar and brown sugar are both used here. Granulated sugar adds sweetness and structure, while brown sugar adds moisture and a subtle molasses depth that rounds out the chocolate flavor. Do not substitute all white or all brown sugar as the ratio is intentional.
- Baking powder and baking soda work together to leaven the cake. Baking soda reacts immediately with the acidic buttermilk, while baking powder provides a second rise in the oven. Both are needed for the right texture and lift.
- Hot Coffee: The secret ingredient to the best chocolate cake! Believe it or not, coffee actually accentuates the flavor of chocolate, and also helps rehydrate the cocoa powder, keeping the cake moist. Don't worry, you don't taste it at all. If you don't want to brew coffee, you can also use hot water and espresso powder, or replace it with hot water. You can also use this method to make an eggless chocolate cake.
- Eggs provide structure and bind the batter together. Make sure they are at room temperature before mixing so they incorporate smoothly and don't cause the batter to seize. To make this cake egg-free, substitute each egg with a commercial egg replacer or an equal amount of unsweetened applesauce.
- Cocoa Powder: I use and recommend Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder because it's widely available and is the flavor that most people enjoy for their chocolate cake. Feel free to use whatever cocoa powder you enjoy.
- Buttermilk: Another secret ingredient I use for amazing flavor and making cakes extra moist. If you don't have any buttermilk, you can make a substitute using 1 cup of milk and 1 Tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice. The acid in the buttermilk helps break down the gluten in the all-purpose flour for a super soft texture. Try this white velvet cake using buttermilk next!
- Vegetable Oil: This keeps the texture of the cake nice and soft and moist but you can use any neutral oil that you have on hand, even olive oil!
- Vanilla extract rounds out the chocolate flavor. Use a pure vanilla extract for the best results.
Ingredient Tip: For baking, it's key that refrigerated items are at room temperature before mixing. Here are some room temperature ingredient hacks you can use when baking.
See the recipe card for the full list of ingredients with quantities.
Easy Chocolate Cake Step-By-Step
To get started, brew your hot coffee or prepare your boiling water, preheat your oven to 335ºF, and prepare two 9" cake pans with some cake goop, my homemade pan release, or use whatever type of pan release you like.
- Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on low 5 seconds just until combined. Then, add the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Scrape down the bowl and add in the hot coffee, and mix just to combine.
- Divide the cake batter evenly between two 9" round pans. To ensure even layers, weigh the batter in pans after pouring it in and adjust as needed.
- Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Tap the pan once after baking to release the steam and reduce the shrinking of your cakes. Cool the cakes in the pan for about 15 minutes. Invert the cakes onto wire racks to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting Ideas: After the cakes cool, it's time to bring out your creativity. I frosted my cakes with a simple chocolate fudge frosting, but this cake pairs perfectly with cream cheese frosting or a whipped chocolate ganache.
- To make the frosting, microwave the chocolate chips, corn syrup, milk, and vanilla in a heatproof bowl in 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until fully melted and smooth. Set aside to cool until barely warm. Beat the butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt with a stand mixer or electric hand mixer for about 1 minute until light and fluffy. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and mix until smooth.
- Place the first layer of cake onto your cake platter. If you have a big dome on your cake you can trim it down with a serrated knife to make the top flat.
Frosting too stiff or too soft? Temperature is the culprit. Warm it in the microwave for 10 seconds and stir to loosen it up, or pop it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm it up. It's more forgiving than it looks.
- Put a big dollop of your fudge frosting onto the cake layer and smooth it out with an offset spatula. Place the second layer of cake on top.
- Cover the whole cake in a layer of frosting. I use my offset spatula (or a spoon) to make swirls into the surface for the perfect-looking dessert. Add a few chocolate chips to the top to finish it all off. If you want to add an extra special finishing touch, consider adding one of my easy chocolate decorations.
Top it with a modeling chocolate bow or flower for a stunning finish.
Expert Tips
- Cool Completely: Let your cake layers cool completely before frosting. If you're short on time, place them in the freezer for about an hour to speed things up - this actually makes the layers firmer and easier to work with.
- Weigh Vs Measuring Cups: Use a kitchen scale to measure ingredients for the most consistent results. If you don't have one, you can use measuring cups. Watch my video on how to measure correctly with measuring cups. LINK TO VIDEO???
- Cake Decorating Tools: You don't need a lot of cake decorating tools, but an offset spatula, bench scraper, and turntable will make frosting dramatically easier. You can find inexpensive sets online or at most craft stores.
- Make the Frosting Ahead or Storing: The frosting can be used immediately or stored at room temperature (covered) for up to 3 days. For longer storage, keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Beginner Bakers: If you need more information on how to decorate a cake for the first time, you can follow my easy tutorial on how to make your first cake.
- Storing Leftovers: Store leftover cake covered at room temperature for up to 3 days. If your kitchen runs warm or you need to keep it longer, refrigerate it in an airtight container for up to 5 days - just bring it to room temperature before serving for the best texture. Individual slices can also be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 3 months.
- Moist Chocolate Cake: If you want your cakes to be super moist, you can add an extra ounce of oil to the batter.
- Egg-Free Option: To make your easy chocolate cake recipe egg-free, use a commercial egg replacer like King Arthur egg replacer or sugar free applesauce instead of the eggs.
Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe FAQs
You don't need much - an offset spatula, a bench scraper, and a turntable are all it takes to get a clean, professional-looking finish. If it's your first time, follow my step-by-step tutorial on how to decorate your first cake for a walkthrough of the whole process
Yes! This cake is actually better made one day ahead. Bake the layers, let them cool completely, then wrap each layer tightly in plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. The moisture redistributes overnight, making the crumb even softer. Frost the day you plan to serve it, or at most the day before
A sunken center is almost always caused by one of three things: the oven temperature was too high, the baking soda or baking powder had expired, or the batter was overmixed after the hot coffee was added. Check your oven temperature with an oven thermometer, verify your leavening is fresh before you start, and mix just until combined after adding the hot liquid.
Absolutely, this cake freezes beautifully. Wrap unfrosted layers tightly in plastic wrap, then in aluminum foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, still wrapped to prevent condensation. You can also freeze a fully frosted cake. Freeze it uncovered for one hour until the frosting is firm, then wrap tightly and freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
Dry cake is almost always caused by overbaking, too much flour, or the wrong fat. Check your oven temperature with an oven thermometer - many home ovens run 25 to 50 degrees hotter than the dial says. Measure flour by weight if possible; a packed measuring cup adds significantly more flour than the recipe intends. This recipe uses oil rather than butter specifically to prevent dryness, so if you substituted butter that may also be the culprit.
You can tell your cake is finished baking when the center springs back lightly when touched. Another reliable test is inserting a toothpick into the center-if it comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs, the cake is ready. You may also notice the edges starting to pull slightly away from the sides of the pan, which is another visual sign that the cake has finished baking.
Most cakes bake for about 30-40 minutes, depending on the pan size, but it's best to rely on these visual cues rather than the clock alone.
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Recipe
Equipment
- 2 9" cake pans
Ingredients
Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 cup cocoa powder Hershey's
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup hot coffee or hot water
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 2 cups chocolate chips
- ½ cup corn syrup
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanila extract
- 2 cups unsalted butter softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 1 cup cocoa powder sifted
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Easy chocolate cake instructions
- Heat oven to 335ºF and prepare two 9" cake pans with cake goop or another preferred pan release
- Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on low 5 seconds just until combined.
- Add in the eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Scrape the bowl.
- Turn the mixer down to low and add in the hot coffee and mix until just its just combined.
- Pour the batter into your prepared cake pans.
- Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool the cakes in the pan for about 15 minutes (or until the pan is barely warm to the touch) then invert onto wire racks to cool completely before frosting.
Chocolate Buttercream Instructions
- Combine the chocolate chips, corn syrup, milk, and vanilla in a heat proof bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir and then heat in 10-second increments and stir until it is fully melted and smooth. Let the chocolate mixture cool until it's barely warm.
- Mix the butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer on low speed with the paddle on high speed for about 1 minute until light and fluffy. You can also use a large bowl and an electric mixer if you prefer.
- Add the cooled melted chocolate mixture to the butter mixture and mix until it is smooth and fluffy.
- The frosting can be used immediately to frost a cake or put into a piping bag for decorations.
- Cover it with plastic wrap and store it at room temperature for 3 days. If you plan to keep it longer, keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer.
Video
Notes
- Bake at 335°F instead of 350°F for naturally flat layers that don't need to be leveled.
- Make sure all refrigerated ingredients are at room temperature before mixing for the smoothest batter.
- Add the hot coffee last and mix just until combined. Overmixing at this stage will toughen the cake.
- Weigh your batter between the two pans for perfectly even layers.
- The cake layers are done when a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs, not completely clean.
- Cool completely before frosting. Short on time? Wrap the layers and freeze for 30 to 60 minutes instead.
- For an extra moist crumb, add one additional ounce of oil to the batter.
- Substitute each egg with a commercial egg replacer or unsweetened applesauce for an egg-free version.
- Store frosted cake at room temperature for up to 3 days or refrigerate for up to 5 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.
- Unfrosted cake layers can be wrapped tightly and frozen for up to 3 months.
Corneluis says
Hi, love your strawberry cake. I have made it 4 times! Every slice was amazing. I need help in the 1st 3 ingredients for the chocolate cake above.
10 oz AP flour 2 cups
14 oz granulated sugar 2 cups
4 oz natural cocoa powder like HERSHEYS 1 cup
The measurement in the front doesn't match the measurement at the end of the line. Which is correct?
Elizabeth Marek says
Hi there. These are correct. 1 cup of flour weighs 5 ounces. 1 cup of sugar weighs 7 ounces. This is why we use a scale. Different ingredients weigh different amounts.
Monica says
GREAt Day! Can you use melted butter instead of veg oil?
Elizabeth Marek says
You can but it won't taste quite as moist
Kimberly says
Okay, I feel like a dummy asking. Are heavy cream and heavy whipping cream interchangeable? I can only find one (heavy whipping cream) in my grocery store and googling comes up with conflicting information.
My soon-to-be 15 yr old’s birthday request was a chocolate and yellow stacked cake! Looking forward to baking your cake recipes this weekend. 😁
Elizabeth Marek says
For this purpose yes they are
Abbey Burke says
Hiya I’m from the uk do you use self raising flour or just plain four ??
The Sugar Geek Show says
UK has cake flour, google shipton mills cake and pastry flour
Hanako says
Hello Liz 🙂 Avid fan here 🙂 Can you make the measurements into grams? I am so poor at numbers and we are used to use grams here in Norway 🙂 pretty pretty pretty please 🙂 thank you so much 🙂
The Sugar Geek Show says
Just hit that metric button under the ingredients and you got grams 🙂
Julie G says
This is an excellent recipe! My cakes baked up nice and high, and were flat on top which is perfect. I actually forgot to grease the pans (!) but had luckily put parchment in the bottom. After cooling in the pans for 15 minutes, I just gave the pan a shake and they came right out. Whew! Used your Ermine Frosting and have a delicious dessert! Beautifully, moist chocolate cake with a perfect frosting.
The Sugar Geek Show says
Yay! I'm so glad!
Jess says
I just made this recipe yesterday and turned it into cupcakes. I loved how it was all in one bowl and there was no reverse creaming method. Also I love how you included the measurements in cups because I was making so many cakes that day that I was way to lazy to weigh my ingredients. I baked my cupcakes for exactly 16 minutes and then removed them and just left them in the baking tray so that I wouldn't overbake them. They turned out perfect. They sunk a little bit in the middle but not much and they were going to get covered in icing anyways so it didn't matter to me. This batch made a lot of cupcakes. 24 regular sized and I think I also got about 22 mini sized as well. I paired this along with your easy chocolate butter cream and it was delicious.
Angel Marie says
What can I use instead of buttermilk?
The Sugar Geek Show says
You can replace 8 ounces of buttermilk with 8 ounces of regular milk plus 1 Tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice. Stir to combine and wait until it thickens then add it in. Adjust the amount of milk and vinegar according to the recipe
Laurie says
How can I adjust the cake recipe for two 6x2 round cake pans? I’d like to make it for Valentine’s Day. When I make regular-sized cakes, I always give away a huge hunk and I’d like to avoid that.
The Sugar Geek Show says
I would cut the recipe in half
Saira says
Hi liz if I do not have natural cocoa powder only deutch processed ones do I need to make any alterations to the recipe.? . I live in tbe uk and most powders are alkaline...
Really want to make this asap x
The Sugar Geek Show says
You can substitute, here is an article for more info https://sugargeekshow.com/dutch-processed-cocoa-powder/
Renee says
Hi, if I want to add melted chocolate to the recipe, how much quantity would be suitable?
The Sugar Geek Show says
I typically add 8 ounces of melted and cooled chocolate
MEGHAN says
I have a question! When I make chocolate cupcakes I usually make a doctored cake mix but just before going in the oven I add a tsp sized ball of chilled ganache and bake. Is this possible with scratch cake recipes or will it mess up the baking process? I'm trying to reworks my favorite combinations into scratch recipes. Thank you!
The Sugar Geek Show says
I don't think that will work for scratch recipes but you should give it a try! I've never heard of that 🙂 Might be a new technique that's all you 😀
lina o says
hello, thank you for sharing this recipe I just want to ask if I could use this cake for tiering. thank you ?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Yes you sure can
Jenny says
Does this cake hold well under fondant?
The Sugar Geek Show says
sure does!
Jenny says
It worked GREAT under fondant!! Thank you so much!!
Shaneik says
Hey just come across this video and your channel and I LOVE IT!!! If am using 9 inch pans does the quantity of the ingredients remain the same?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Yes but your cake layers will be slightly shorter