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Chocolate Cake

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Chocolate Cake! Looking for a one bowl chocolate cake recipe? Here it is! Moist, fudgey and easy to stack and serve. My chocolate cake recipe is the most decadent chocolate cake youโ€™ll ever have. And itโ€™s so simply to make! Just a note, this recipe doesnโ€™t use oil because it has a higher amount of butter than my vanilla cake recipe. If youโ€™re looking for a butter free chocolate cake recipe, check out my vegan chocolate recipe! Itโ€™s just as amazing. Iโ€™d go as far as saying itโ€™s even better!

Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake

Simple, easy to make and moistchocolate cake with chocolate flavored American buttercreamfrosting.

Serves 20

4.7 from 20 votes
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Prep: 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total: 3 hours
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Calories: 313kcal

Ingredients

Cake

  • 2 cups / 350 g all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/4 cups / 450 g granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup / 100 g cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp / 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp / 1 tsp fine salt
  • 1 1/2 cups / 350 g unsalted butter
  • 4 large / 4 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups / 350 ml whole milk

Frosting

  • 3 batches hocolate-flavored American or Swiss meringue buttercream frosting


Instructions

Frosting

  • 3 batches chocolate-flavored American or Swiss meringue buttercreamfrosting.

Cake

  • Please note: To make the 6 layered cake you see pictured; youโ€™ll
    need to double the cake recipe only. All other measurements are
    enough to fill, crumb coat and finish decorating the cake.
  • Preheat a fan-forced oven to 140ยฐC / 275ยฐF or a conventional oven to 160ยฐC / 320ยฐF. Spray three 20 cm (8 inch) cake tins with oilspray and line the bottoms with baking paper. Set aside.
  • Add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt to a
    large mixing bowl and mix with a hand mixer until well combined.
  • Next, add the softened butter and mix on low speed until the batterreaches a crumbly, sand-like texture. Next, add the softened butter and mix on low speed until the batterreaches a crumbly, sand-like texture.
  • Add the eggs and milk and mix again on low speed until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Scrape down the side of the bowl andmix for another 20 seconds. Itโ€™s at this point that you can add anyadditional flavourings or food-gel colourings to the batter.
  • Divide the cake mixture between the three tins. I find that using an ice-cream scoop makes it easy to distribute the batter evenly, ensuring that all three cakes will bake at the same rate.
  • Bake for 50โ€“60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middleof the cake comes out clean. If the toothpick is coated with wet batter, continue baking, for 10 minutes at a time until fully baked.
  • Allow the cakes to cool to room temperature in the tins, then chill them in the fridge overnight. Chilling your cakes overnight makes them easier to trim and decorate, so I always bake my cakes the day before I decorate them.
  • To trim your chilled cakes, use a cake leveller or large serrated knife to carefully trim the crust off the top of each cake. Then trim eachcake in half. Youโ€™ll end up with 6 layers.
  • To crumb coat your cake, add a dab of frosting onto a 10โ€ cakeboard or flat serving plate. Use a small offset spatula to spread thefrosting around before adding the first cake layer. Gently press downthe centre of the cake layer to make sure itโ€™s stuck to thefrosting underneath.
  • Add frosting to a piping bag and frost a ring around the top of thecake. Fill the centre with more frosting. Use your small offsetspatula to smoothen out the frosting before you add the next layer ofcake. Repeat with the remaining layers.
  • Add more frosting around the sides and top of the cake. Use the smallspatula to smoothen out the top and sides of the cake, taking care tofill in any gaps in between each layer of cake.
  • Use a cake scraper (otherwise known as a bench scraper) to smoothenout the frosting on the sides and top. Get it as neat as you can.This should just be a neat, thin layer of frosting which is aimed attrapping any cake crumbs so that random bits of cake crumbs donโ€™t show up on the final layer of frosting. Chill for 2 hours orovernight.
  • Your cake is now crumb coated and ready to be decorated any way you like!

Notes

Cake Conversions
Cake x.5 (1 layer, 8โ€ cake OR 2 Layer, 6โ€ Cake)
175g (1 1/3 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
225g (1 ยผ cups) caster (superfine) sugar
50g (ยผ cup) cocoa powder
ยฝ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
ยฝ tsp fine salt
175g (ยพ cups) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs, at room temperature
175 ml (ยพ cups) full-cream (whole) milk
1 batch buttercream frosting
Cake x1 (2 layer, 8โ€ cake OR 6 layer, 6โ€ Cake)
350g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
450g (2 ยผ cups) caster (superfine) sugar
100g (ยฝ cup) cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 tsp fine salt
350g (1 ยฝ cups) unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs, at room temperature
350 ml (1 ยฝ cups) full-cream (whole) milk
1 batch buttercream frosting
Cake x1.5 (3 layer, 7โ€ Cake)
525g (3 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
675g (3 1/3 cups) caster (superfine) sugar
150g (ยพ cup) cocoa powder
1 ยฝ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 ยฝ tsp fine salt
525g (2 ยผ cups) unsalted butter, softened
6 large eggs, at room temperature
525 ml (2 ยผ cups) full-cream (whole) milk
1 ยฝ batches buttercream frosting
Cake x2 (6 layer, 8โ€ cake)
700g (4 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
900g (4 ยฝ cups) caster (superfine) sugar
200g (1 cup) cocoa powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 tsp fine salt
700g (3 cups) unsalted butter, softened
8 large eggs, at room temperature
700 ml (2 ยพ cups) full-cream (whole) milk
3 batches buttercream frosting

Nutrition

Serving: 20g
Calories : 313kcal
Carbonhydrates: 40g
Protein: 5g
Fat: 17g
Saturated Fat: 10g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g
Monounsaturated Fat : 1g
Cholesterol: 77mg
Sodium: 196mg
Potassium : 136mg
Fiber: 2g
Sugar : 24g
Vitamin A: 520IU
Vitamin C: 1mg
Calcium: 39mg
Iron: 2mg
Nutrition Disclosure
Gave this recipe a go?Mention @thescranline or tag #thescranline!

6 comments

Kristin Koss June 16, 2022 - 3:32 pm

You have filling in this picture. Do you have a recipe for the filling and frosting.
Thanks

Reply
Nick Makrides August 1, 2022 - 10:57 am

Yes! Give my Buttercream recipe a go and add 1/2 cup sifted cocoa powder in with the powdered sugar N x

American Buttercream Frosting

Reply
Chloe June 19, 2023 - 11:51 pm

Hi Nick, how would I convert this into a 6-inch 4 layer (thick sponge) cake?

Reply
Nick Makrides June 24, 2023 - 2:07 am

Hi Chloe! Great question. I would recommend making half the recipe for that. Bake in two 6-inch cake tins and trim in half once baked. Theres a handy little way to halve the ingredients in an instant. If you hot the PRINT button in the recipe card you can lower the serving sizes, in this case half the recipe would be 10 servings. That way you can get them in an instant instead of having to do it manually. Hope that helps!

Reply
Sharon April 24, 2024 - 11:33 am

5 stars
Hi Nick, first of all, your recipes are amazing, thank you for them, I want to make this chocolate cake recipe but in a 13 in ร— 9 in tray, not sure how to do this, can you help please

Reply
Nick Makrides May 30, 2024 - 7:53 am

Hi Sharon! Hmm, I haven’t tested it in that sized pan but I’m sure it would work. For a single layer cake I think just using the recipe measurements as they are would work well. No need to double the recipe! Let me know how it goes! N x

Reply
4.70 from 20 votes (19 ratings without comment)

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