Best Homemade Chocolate Cake
“Moist and fluffy chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting! A go-to tried and true recipe!”
Visual learner? Watch me make this homemade chocolate cake from start to finish!
This. Is. THE. Chocolate. Cake.
Yep. The only one you need.
The king daddy of all king daddies.
The man-catcher.
The…
Ok, you get the point right?
Move over cafeteria lady and Principal Trenchpult! This cake is taking center stage, minus the sweat she added to her’s. (Remember that chocolate cake on Matilda? Please tell me you’ve seen that adorable movie)
Anyway, goodness yall, I do apologize for taking so long to get this chocolate cake to you. I usually only make it for special occasions (usually last minute), but this week my husband requested it out of the blue.
Perfect timing because I’ve been getting so many requests for a chocolate cake. It was about time I gave this chocolate poke cake and devils food cake some company.
What Makes This Chocolate Cake EPIC
1. The Buttermilk: Chocolate cake NEEDS buttermilk. It’s a match made in heaven and creates a very subtle tang that compliments the chocolate like a boss!
2. The Coffee: Coffee really bumps up the flavor of chocolate. You won’t be able to taste it in the cake, and it helps create a moister texture as well.
3. Oil: As much as I love butter, chocolate cake is best with oil. It keeps it moist and light.
4. Brown Sugar: Brown sugar belongs in chocolate cake. Not only does it add to the moisture but it works well for flavor.
5. Dark cocoa powder: Using dark unsweetened cocoa powder creates that dark and lovely color
This chocolate cake is everything a chocolate cake needs to be. Moist, dark, fluffy, and oh so chocolatey! It’s incredible the first day but seems to get even better (and darker) the next day.
It’s full of everything good, holy and fattening! I hope you aren’t dieting this time of year. I mean….that sounds like cruel and unusual punishment anyway with all these yummy holidays back to back!
There’s Thanksgiving and all that comfort food, Christmas with all those decadent treats and then New Years is right around the corner with those tantalizing cocktails. Mercy!
More power to ya if you’re on a diet sister! But I’ll leave this photo riiiiiiight here.
Not trying to bribe you to cheat on your diet or anything just saying. Look at it!! Just look at it!!
The chocolate buttercream frosting is EVERYTHING on this cake! It’s full of dark cocoa powder, butter, sugar, and heavy whipping cream. Yeah, you already know what time it is right?
Pass the milk!
Get the Recipe: Best Homemade Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
CHOCOLATE CAKE
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups plain hot coffee
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
BEST CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
- 6 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
- 16 tablespoons butter, 2 sticks
- 1 1/3 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream, may need more or less
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Salt, generous pinch
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325. F.
- Grease and flour 3 (9-inch cake pans), set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vegetable oil.
- Mix in eggs one at a time.
- Mix in vanilla extract, buttermilk, and hot coffee until combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.
- Gradually mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
- Pour batter evenly into prepared pans (I did about 2 cups per pan)
- Bake on middle rack for about 25 minutes. (Do not overbake. Cakes should look moist on the tops)
- Remove from oven and let the cakes sit in hot pans until warm to the touch.
- Carefully, remove from pans and place on a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Meanwhile make the frosting by combining powder sugar, butter and cocoa powder in a large bowl until crumbly.
- Gradually add in enough heavy whipping cream to achieve your desired texture.
- Mix in vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.
- When cakes have cooled frost and enjoy. (Cake gets even better the next day!)
Wow, you were not joking. This is the best, most moist cake I’ve ever tasted. I was tasked with making a wedding cake and to use a recipe completely from scratch. This one will have people talking. My coworkers were thrilled to be the test tasters. Thank you for sharing it with us. I also tried your red velvet cake recipe, although I could not figure out the love affair the south has with this type of cake. Now I understand. When it is made right, it’s incredible and moist. I have one suggestion. In the recipe for the red velvet you let us know that the batter would be thin, so I was expecting that. I found the batter for this recipe to also be a little on the thin side, so I would add that info here as well. The cakes turned out amazing, thanks again.
I forgot to add the salt to the batter
I’m pregnant and was craving a moist chocolate cake! And OMG! I swear to you, this completely satisfied my craving. You’re right about this will be the only chocolate cake recipe I will ever need and want! It was so chocolatey and delicious! My tastebuds were in chocolate heaven! Thank you so much for this recipe! This is and always will be my go-to recipe. I will be making it again and again!
Just wanted to say I just finished making this cake yesterday for a family get together & everyone really raved over how moist and rich it was. The only think I altered was mixing Hershey’s dark coca with the regular mild chocolate, but I think it still turned out awesome. Thanks so much!
This recipe sounds amazingly delicious…can’t wait to try it! I want to make a sheet cake using a 12″X 18″ pan for a church dinner. Should doubling the recipe be sufficient?
Thank you!
Monique I love you. My whole family loves you! So we are making this cake on Saturday for my sister’s birthday party on Sunday. Could we put it in the fridge for about 24 hours? Or will that dry it out? Does the frosting need to be refrigerated? Thank you!!