Chocolate Cake Recipe

I may be a messy baker, but at least I know how to make a mean chocolate cake, including this moist chocolate loaf cake with rich fudge frosting. It’s cake time!

What You Need

For the Cake Batter

• espresso powder
• Dutch cocoa powder
• hot water
• sour cream
• oil
• vanilla extract
• 3 whole eggs
• cake flour
• brown sugar
• regular white sugar
• baking powder
• baking soda
• salt

For the Frosting

• chocolate (for chopping)
• honey
• heavy cream
• butter
• powdered sugar
• cocoa powder
• salt

How to Make This Chocolate Cake

Making the Cake Batter

1. Start by combining your espresso powder and Dutch cocoa powder in a bowl. Dutch cocoa powder has a smoother and deeper flavor than natural cocoa powder.
2. To get as much chocolatey flavor as possible, you’re going to “bloom” these powders by pouring over some hot water and giving it a quick whisk. Make sure there are no clumps. The reason for using espresso powder is that coffee enhances the flavor of chocolate, giving you a more chocolatey cake.
3. To this mixture, add in some sour cream (which makes the cake super moist and tender), then some oil, and vanilla extract. Whisk that again.
4. Once that’s fully mixed, add in three whole eggs, one by one, whisking after each addition.
5. While doing this, it’s helpful to have a rubber spatula on hand to constantly scrape down the sides of your bowl and make sure everything is fully mixed.
6. Set the wet mixture aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add some cake flour, brown sugar (which is just regular sugar with a little molasses in there), regular white sugar, a sprinkle of baking powder, a sprinkle of baking soda, and some salt.
7. Give this a quick whisk until things are evenly mixed together. It’ll probably be fine if there are still a couple little clumps, but do your best to break it all apart for the smoothest and silkiest chocolate cake.
8. Then, add in your wet ingredients. Make sure you scrape down that bowl to get everything out.
9. With a paddle attachment (not a whisk attachment), mix it on low to fully combine. Keep that rubber spatula handy to scrape down the sides and dig to the bottom to make sure nothing stuck down there. Continue mixing until fully combined.
10. Once combined, scrape everything off the paddle attachment. Your cake batter is done.

Baking the Cakes

1. To bake, line a few cake pans with parchment paper and spray them with cooking spray to make sure nothing sticks. Really look around and hit every single corner.
2. Divide this batter evenly between your three different pans. If you want to be precise for a perfect layered cake, you can weigh them out. Otherwise, eyeball it. Scrape the bowl to get every last drop.
3. Once you’ve measured them all out evenly, drop them a couple of times onto the counter from a short height to remove air bubbles. This will make for a more consistent bite.
4. These will bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, depending on your oven.
5. Once baked, rest the cakes off to the side to let them cool while you finish everything else.

Making the Frosting

1. Start by rough chopping some chocolate into small enough pieces to melt easily in a double boiler. The bigger the pieces, the longer it will take to melt.
2. Set up a double boiler: a pot with a bit of water on the bottom and a heat-proof bowl that fits right over that pot. This is a great way to melt chocolate without it burning, perfect when making an easy chocolate ganache for smooth silky desserts.
3. To the bowl, add your chopped chocolate, then some honey, and finally, a splash of heavy cream.
4. The key with a double boiler is to stir constantly. If you don’t stir constantly, it could still burn because whatever you’re melting is sensitive to heat.
5. When that chocolate is perfectly shiny, smooth, and melted, turn off the heat and move that bowl off to the side to cool.
6. While that melted chocolate mixture cools, add butter into your stand mixer. With the paddle attachment, mix to get a nice even consistency.
7. Through a strainer, sift some powdered sugar into the butter to keep the frosting nice and silky smooth. Ideally, sift into the bowl.
8. Do the same thing with some cocoa powder. This will give even more of a chocolatey flavor. Shake it through so it’s all sifted.
9. Last, add a little pinch of salt, then add back on your paddle attachment and beat on low.
10. Once your melted chocolate has cooled, go very low speed on your mixer to start and begin drizzling in that chocolate.
11. Once all the chocolate is in, crank up the speed on your mixer because you want everything to fully combine into a nice, even, smooth mixture.
12. Open the mixer for a second and scrape down the edges of your bowl. This is important to ensure everything’s fully mixed so you don’t have clumpy, uneven frosting.
13. Once scraped, the frosting will go in the fridge to firm up a bit until you’re ready to frost your cake.

Assembling and Frosting the Cake

1. Grab your cooled cakes. They can still be a little warm, but by the time you’re stacking them up, they should be cool enough.
2. Grab a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap and give it a quick spray with cooking spray. Put it upside down over a cake, and then in one motion, flip. Peel off the parchment paper.
3. Now grab a wire rack and flip that over the cake. Flip again to easily transfer your cake over to the wire rack. Do the same thing with your other cakes. The key to doing all this is just confidence and nice, quick flips.
4. Once you’ve gotten all your cake parts out, give them each a quick “haircut.” This is to make them all flat on both the top and the bottom so they’ll stack up easily. Get down low and try to find that perfect line across that you’ll need to cut, then super focused, cut back and forth. Trim off as much cake as you need.
5. Use the crust as a guide for your knife. As long as you are right up against that crust on all sides, you should cut off the perfect amount and get a beautifully flat cake. A serrated knife helps, as you’re sort of cutting bread.
6. For the final cake, use a serrated knife to help lift off that top piece.
7. To layer your cake, first put a dollop of frosting in the middle of your cake stand. That’s going to help to stick down the first layer.
8. Place the first layer, try to get it as centered as possible, then lightly press down.
9. Using an offset spatula, plop down some frosting and begin spreading this into a nice first layer. Depending on how you want your cake to look, you can change the amount of frosting you put down. If you want to frost the entire outside, use your layers sparingly here, not going all the way to the edges. The weight of the cakes will push the rest of the frosting out to the sides.
10. Move on to layer number two. Place down your cake, give it a little spin to make sure everything is lined up perfectly. Then, add some frosting to the center and spread it out.
11. Try to make sure you’re applying really purposeful and even pressure as you’re spreading the frosting. Also, make sure your frosting is not too cold. For more help, explore easy tips for perfect buttercream frosting every time.
12. As you go, always try to level things out so your cake is even when you cut into it. If you ever need to fix any small details, you can always go in with a smaller tool, like a mini offset spatula.
13. Drop the last layer of cake down as evenly as possible. Be really careful when stacking these, it’s hard to peel it back up and do it again.
14. For this very last layer of frosting, dig all of it up. Scrape every last bit out of your bowl because now you need all of it to coat the entire outside of the cake.
15. Just spread it out. Bring it evenly to the edges of the cake because it’s basically going to work like a chocolate fountain, falling down the sides and evenly coating the cake as you continue to spread. Push it in such a way that you try to make sure there’s an even amount falling down the sides at all times.
16. Every so often, you can also scrape a bit more off the top and then use that on the sides of the cake as well.
17. If you’re not worried about how smooth the outer part looks, you can add a fun little pattern. Put down little dollops of extra frosting and make fun little wavy patterns through it. This gives the cake a really cool wavy look and makes it feel more like an art piece. Continue this pattern all across the top of the cake as well as down the sides.
18. That is a beautiful chocolate cake, and now you can take out a nice big slice!

Recipe Notes

• Coffee, believe it or not, enhances the flavor of chocolate, giving you a more chocolatey cake. You might also enjoy our decadent homemade chocolate cheesecake recipe from scratch.
• Sour cream is what’s going to make your cake super moist and tender, much like the moist and zesty cranberry cake with orange juice.
• Always keep a rubber spatula handy to scrape down the sides of your bowl to ensure everything is fully mixed.
• Brown sugar is just regular sugar with a little molasses in there.
• Sifting powdered sugar and cocoa powder helps keep your frosting nice and silky smooth.
• A double boiler is simply a pot with a bit of water on the bottom and a heat-proof bowl that fits right in over that pot. This is a great way to melt chocolate without it burning, but remember to stir constantly.
• When frosting, ensure your frosting is not too cold, as it can lift up pieces of cake and make the frosting grainy.
• A serrated knife works much better than a regular knife for trimming cake layers, similar to how you would cut bread.
• Frosting a cake can be a fun process because if anything gets messed up, you can literally just scrape the frosting and start from scratch again.