Simply Perfect Chocolate Cake

My Simply Perfect Chocolate Cake is soft and fluffy, rich and fudgy and is ready in 1 hour!  It’s the only Chocolate Cake recipe you’ll ever need.

Simply Perfect Chocolate Cake

If you’ve been searching for the perfect Chocolate Cake recipe, then let me tell you your search is over!  My Simply Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe is the only one you’ll need.  Believe me when I say you’ll be making this one again and again. And again!

I found this recipe on an app many years ago and have been making it non-stop ever since.  With only a minor change, it’s based on the Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate cake (except I use Valrhona Dutch processed cocoa…ooops!).  For a cake that’s so simple and quick to make, it’s ridiculously delicious!

The Easiest Chocolate Cake Recipe

This simply perfect chocolate cake can be made using just one bowl and can actually be mixed by hand (but an electric mixer sure does help!).  I place all of the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and give it a stir with a whisk.  This means you don’t need to sift the ingredients -thank you very much!  The wet ingredients (apart from the boiling water) are then added in, with the hot water added at the end.  Adding the boiling water was an interesting one for me, but it makes the world of difference!  From what I can work out, it seems to enhance the chocolate flavour and keeps the cake super moist.  It does make the cake batter very thin though, so don’t worry -that’s normal.  Just make sure you grease and line your pans well.

Cake Pan Variations

I have used this recipe in a few different forms.  I love it as a (big) loaf cake, I’ve used it as a 3 layer cake and also as a bundt cake, which was sooo amazing!  Of course, with a bundt cake, you can’t line the pan.  However, if you carefully grease the pan with melted butter and dust it with flour, this is a perfect bundt cake!  The cooking method is the same, with slight time adjustments, depending on the pan size.  Here are just some of the cake pan variations I’ve tried:

• 2 x smaller loaf pans:  21cm x 11cm, bake for 40-45 minutes
• larger loaf pan:  27cm x 11cm, bake for 1 hour
• square pan:  23cm x 23cm, bake for 50-55 minutes
• slab pan:  23cm x 33cm, bake for 25 minutes
• bundt tin:  5 cup, bake for 50-55 minutes

Don’t forget to test your cake with a skewer, to make sure it’s cooked properly.  When it comes out clean, it’s cooked.  If the cake starts to brown on top before it’s finished baking, you can cover it loosely with a piece of foil.

The Chocolate Cake that stays fresh for days

The simply perfect chocolate cake is super moist, with the most incredible tender crumb.  And it stays deliciously moist for 3-4 days, which makes it ideal to make ahead of time.  So that birthday cake?  You can make it the day before the party and it will be perfect the next day.  It’s also the perfect cake to make ahead and freeze for later -you have got to love that!  Just wrap the cake (or cakes) separately in glad wrap, then cover in foil and pop it into the freezer.  It will easily keep for a couple of months.  When you need it, just bring it back to room temperature and frost as desired.

The Easiest Fudgy Chocolate Frosting

The fudgy frosting I use for this chocolate cake is so crazy!  Crazy easy and crazy delicious!  It’s super chocolatey and just completes the cake perfectly.  By blending the cocoa with the melted butter, the chocolate flavour goes to a whole other level.  Once the cake has cooled, you quickly whip up the frosting until it’s light and deliciously fluffy.  I think it’s absolute chocolate perfection!

How to make the Perfect Chocolate Cake

• Use the best quality ingredients.  Always!  Free range eggs, cake flour (lighter cakes people!), Dutch processed cocoa…
• Ingredients should be at room temperature.  Room temperature ingredients emulsify and yield fluffier cakes.  If you add cold ingredients (cold milk) it will seize in the batter and result in a dense cake.
• Buttermilk in cakes gives a lovely soft crumb.  You can use regular full fat milk, but I like the subtle tang that comes from buttermilk.  I use it in a lot of my baking!
• Always grease and line (or flour for bundt cakes) your pans carefully.  This is a very thin batter, so line well!
• Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting it…otherwise the frosting will run all over the place!

When you make this chocolate cake, please let me know by leaving a comment below, or sharing and tagging me

For more family favourite recipes, check out:

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies for the gooiest, most delicious chocolate cookies.

Mini Pavlovas for the ultimate dessert banquet

Millionaire’s Shortbread an incredibly easy, yet super decadent chocolate caramel slice.

Simply Perfect Chocolate Cake

My Simply Perfect Chocolate Cake is soft and fluffy, rich and fudgy and is ready in 1 hour!  It's the only Chocolate Cake recipe you'll ever need.

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Course brunch, Dessert, Snack

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

 

Chocolate Cake

• 270 g (1¾ cups) plain cake flour regular plain flour is also fine
• 90 g (¾ cup) Dutch processed cocoa
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp bicarbonate soda
• pinch salt
• 465 g (2 cups) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (250ml) buttermilk buttermilk yields a softer cake, but regular milk is also fine
• ½ cup (125ml) vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup (250ml) boiling water

Fudgy Chocolate Frosting

• 115 g (¼ cup) unsalted butter melted
• 65 g (⅓ cup) Dutch processed cocoa
• 2 tbsp milk
• ½ tsp vanilla extraxt
• 375 g (1½ cups) icing sugar

Instructions

 

Chocolate Cake

• Preheat oven to 180°C/ 350°F/ 165° FF and prepare your chosen pan/pans (I'm using a large loaf tin, but you can use a bundt tin, circle tins or 2 smaller loaf tins). Grease and line loaf tin with baking paper.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the dry ingredients
• In a small jug, combine the buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla
• Add the buttermilk mixture from the jug to the dry ingredients, then mix on medium-high for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy
• Gently stir through the boiling water, until combined. The mixture will be very thin
• Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 40-50 minutes (depending on tin size), or until a cake tester comes out clean
• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto a cake rack to cool completely

Fudgy Chocolate Frosting

• Stir cocoa into the melted butter
• With a hand mixer, add the milk and icing sugar alternately, mixing until smooth and fluffy
• Mix through the vanilla
• Frost the cooled cake, using an offset spatula

Notes

For this recipe, I mainly use a large (deep) loaf tin.  Alternatively, you could use a bundt tin that has been well greased with butter and dusted with flour, smaller bundt tins, mini loaf tins, round or square tins for a layer cake....it's so adaptable!  Just adjust the cooking time accordingly.

The frosting could be doubled if you are splitting the cake into more than one tin.

Cake Pan Variations:

• 2 x smaller loaf pans:  21cm x 11cm, bake for 40-45 minutes
• larger loaf pan:  27cm x 11cm, bake for 1 hour
• square pan:  23cm x 23cm, bake for 50-55 minutes
• slab pan:  23cm x 33cm, bake for 25 minutes
• bundt tin:  5 cup, bake for 50-55 minutes

Keyword cake, chocolate, frosting

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