Easy Chocolate Cake
This is the chocolate cake to make when you want a good result without much technique. There is no creaming stage, the batter is mixed in one bowl, and the hot liquid at the end is what gives it a deep colour and a soft, moist crumb. It is very hard to make badly, as long as you do not overbake it.
- Prep time
- 15 minutes
- Bake time
- 30 to 35 minutes
- Total time
- About 2 hours including cooling
- Makes
- Two 20cm (8 inch) layers, about 12 to 16 slices
- Difficulty
- Beginner
Ingredients
- 200g plain flour
- 60g cocoa powder
- 350g caster sugar
- 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp fine salt
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 250ml buttermilk, at room temperature
- 125ml flavourless oil, such as sunflower
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 250ml boiling water or hot black coffee
Equipment
- Two 20cm (8 inch) round cake tins
- Baking parchment
- Digital kitchen scales
- Large mixing bowl and whisk
- Sieve
- Wire cooling rack
- Skewer or cake tester
Method
- Heat the oven to 160°C fan / 180°C conventional / gas mark 4. Grease two 20cm tins and line the bases.
- Sift the flour, cocoa, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and whisk them together.
- Add the eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Whisk just until smooth, about 30 seconds. Do not beat it.
- Pour in the boiling water or hot coffee and stir until combined. The batter will be very thin. That is correct and it is what makes the cake moist.
- Divide between the tins and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
- Start checking at 30 minutes. Press the centre lightly: it should spring back. A skewer should come out with a few moist crumbs, not wet batter and not bone dry.
Cooling
Cool in the tins for 15 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack. This cake is soft when warm, so handle it gently while turning it out. Do not fill or frost until it is cold all the way through.
Storage
Un-iced layers keep for 3 days well wrapped at room temperature, or 3 months in the freezer. Frosted, keep it cool and eat within 4 days. Chocolate cake dries faster once it is cut, so press cling film against the cut face.
KKD baking tips
- Cocoa powder makes the difference. Use unsweetened cocoa powder, not drinking chocolate, which is mostly sugar and milk powder and will give you a pale, sweet, weak cake. Either natural or Dutch-processed cocoa works here.
- Sift the cocoa. It clumps in the packet, and a clump that survives into the batter will not dissolve.
- Whisk, do not beat. There is no creaming in this method, and the only way to make it tough is to keep mixing after the flour is wet. Thirty seconds is enough.
- Coffee instead of water deepens the chocolate flavour without tasting of coffee. Hot water is perfectly fine if you would rather not.
- Overbaking is the one real risk. A chocolate cake is dark, so you cannot judge it by colour. Check the centre and take it out as soon as the skewer shows moist crumbs.
Common mistakes, and how to fix them
- Dry: almost always a few minutes too long in the oven. Take it out at moist crumbs, not clean skewer.
- Sunk in the middle: underbaked, or too much raising agent. Measure the bicarbonate of soda level, not heaped.
- Pale and weak-tasting: drinking chocolate instead of cocoa powder.
- Tough: overmixed once the wet met the dry.
Serving suggestions
Fill and cover with Easy Chocolate Buttercream. It is also very good with the Simple Strawberry Cake Filling between the layers and chocolate buttercream on the outside.