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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
Simple and easy, this chocolate cake is even tastier than a box mix and just as quick to make. Slather on your favourite frosting and enjoy.
For another great cake recipe, try this Chocolate Root Beer Soda Cake. And if you are looking for an even easier chocolate cake, try this Wacky Cake. Or if cupcakes are more your jam, check out The BEST Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting.
Reader Review
Omg omg…chocolate cake my favorite!!
Very moist and great icing as kichenmagpie states….
Excellent, amazing, and overall great…
Thks Joanne 👍👌😊
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: This is a very easy recipe.
- Total Time: Making this cake takes approximately 45 minutes.
- Variations: Mix a handful of chocolate chips or chopped nuts into the batter. Use the Buttercream Frosting recipe attached to this post, or try something else, like Maple Frosting or a Coffee Buttercream Frosting. Throw on some colourful sprinkles or add a drop of food colouring to your frosting if you’d like to brighten things up.
- Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need a 9×9 square cake pan, a medium bowl, a whisk, a mixing spoon, a stand mixer or large bowl and hand mixer, a cake tester or toothpick, and a cooling rack.
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Coffee: Use a cup of your favourite coffee to enhance the flavour of the chocolate. Instant coffee works amazingly well for recipes like this because you don’t have to take the time to brew a pot. If you’d like an even stronger flavour, try instant espresso.
Cream: Full fat or no fat sour cream will add an incredible level of moisture to this cake. Plain or vanilla Greek yogurt would work as alternatives. This recipe also uses heavy cream, to add even more moisture and decadence.
Vanilla: Yes, this is a chocolate cake, but it will still benefit from that bit of vanilla flavouring. If you happen to have some high quality vanilla or maybe some vanilla bean paste, this is a great place to use it. Otherwise, any old vanilla extract will be fine.
How To Make Chocolate Cake
This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 9×9 pan and set aside.
- Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat eggs and oil until combined and add remaining wet ingredients.
- Add dry mixture to wet mixture. Mix at low speed for 2 minutes.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes in pan before flipping on to a cooling rack or plate.
- Cool fully and add icing as desired.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Chocolate Cake
Serving Suggestions: This cake will be absolutely delicious on its own, but you can serve it with a scoop of your favourite ice cream, learn How To Make A Perfect Whipped Cream or use some frozen whipped topping. If you’d like to try something other than a basic buttercream frosting, you’ve got plenty of great options. For example, you can try a Pistachio Pudding Buttercream Frosting or Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.
Sticky Situations: If you find that you generally have trouble getting cakes out of pans without them sticking, you can try lining the bottom and sides of your pan with some parchment paper. Alternatively, just frost and serve your cake right in the pan you baked it in, especially if you used a glass pan that won’t get scratched when you slice the cake.
Storage Instructions
This cake can sit covered at room temperature for a day or two without frosting.
Fridge: Once it is frosted, keep leftover cake in the fridge for up to 2 days. The icing should keep the cake from drying out too quickly, but you can cover it just to be sure.
Freezer: If you’d like to store this cake in the freezer, let it fully cool and leave off the icing. Store in a sealed container or wrapped tightly in plastic wrap to avoid freezer burn. Freeze it for up to 3 months. Defrost and ice when you’re ready to serve.
More Delicious Cake Recipes
Are you looking for more easy and tasty cake recipes?
Try this Fully Loaded Carrot Cake or an Angel Cake if your household doesn’t love chocolate.
Or make Lemon Cheesecake Bars for something handheld.
Try an Old Fashioned Gingerbread for the holidays.
There it is, folks. A simple recipe for amazing chocolate cake. Try it out and let me know what you think.
Happy Baking!
Karlynn
Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup cocoa
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
Wet Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup oil
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup coffee
Frosting
- one batch buttercream frosting
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×9 square pan and set aside.
- Measure all your dry ingredients into a medium sized bowl. Using a whisk, combine them thoroughly.
- In a large bowl attached to a stand mixer, beat the eggs with the oil until combined, then add in the remaining wet ingredients.
- Combine all the ingredients for 2 minutes on low speed, scraping the sides as needed.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Tap the pan lightly on the counter to release any trapped air bubbles and then place into the oven.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes OR until a cake tester/toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Remove and cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then flip onto a cooling rack or plate.
- Once cooled completely, prepare and frost with my buttercream icing recipe.
Notes
- You can choose to just serve this plain, or serve warm with some vanilla ice cream.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Betty Korpisto says
Hi Karlynn – just a quick question…The Chocolate Cake recipe calls for a 9×9″ cake pan, but I’m wondering if that might be a typo and it should read 9×13″ pan. My cake pan is 8×8″, so figured I’d just end up with a thinner layer of cake in my 9×13 – but in fact it was totally full; and the Buttercream Icing recipe (which is MIGHTY tasty) made plenty for the 9×13 cake. I did wonder when I was mixing the cake ingredients and my mixing bowl was 2/3 to 3/4 full with just the dry ingredients; it was less than an inch from the top when all the ingredients were mixed in. The cake is DELICIOUS, moist and yummy – and I will simply continue to use my 9×13 pan for it. Just thought I’d ask. Thanks. I’m a real fan of your recipes.
Brittney says
I am looking for the old fashioned chocolate cake recipe that doesn’t seem to be here anymore. It’s my sons favorite and I failed to save a hard copy. Would you please share that with me?
Brittney says
I love this recipe. It looks like it was taken down. Do you happen to have a copy you could share? I failed to print and save and now have lost my favorite chocolate cake recipe!!
Joanne Krysta says
Omg omg…chocolate cake my favorite!!
Very moist and great icing as kichenmagpie states….
Excellent, amazing, and overall great…
Thks Joanne 👍👌😊
gail mcnairnay says
A very easy way for a cake to come out of the pan clean is to line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Let the cake sit in the pan for 10 minutes after it comes out of the oven, turn the cake over on to the rack then peel the paper off the cake as soon as it is out of the pan .
Mary Ann Hyndman Smith says
I like your mixer, mine is a boring white one, but I cannot justify spending lots of money to buy a colour, when Madge works well. ( her name is Blanca Madge) see what I did ? Anyway , would cerise be a nice name for yours? Giggle!
candjmunoz says
This is my go-to chocolate cake. Before we found out that my daughter has celiac disease, we made this several times a year. I have made it twice now with a gluten free substitute (Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour), and it has turned out better than any gf cake mix, and possibly better than any gluten cake I ever made! I really think it’s the sour cream and boiling water that make it so good.
Do you have any suggestions for using the sour cream and boiling water in non-chocolate cake? I keep wondering if it’s the chocolate that makes this recipe work with those ingredients…
Thanks!
Janis
Carla says
Enjoyed your chocolate cake recipe! Omitted canola oil for coconut oil; kind of gave it a hint of coconut! Lol but moist, delicious and did rise well!
Your chocolate chip cookie is the best!! 10x better than nestle! I like how you only use 1/4 of butter instead of a whole stick! Thank you for the yummy sweets!
-carla
chi says
Hi there do you use self raising flour?:)
going to make my son’s birthday cake xx
superjohn12 says
This is what i really want
NurseLovesFarmer says
You don’t say how long to bake this for….
candjmunoz says
I’m making a two-layer 9″ round cake plus some cupcakes (how many cupcakes is not overly important to me. I’m only making those because my son wants both a cake and cupcakes for his party.). Should I double this recipe for that purpose, or is a single recipe plenty for this? Thanks!