This Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe is moist, flavorful, and inspired by Hershey’s famous chocolate cake, made with a touch of coffee for a unique twist. No more dry cakes! Passed down by my grandma, this recipe is a true classic. The addition of Homemade Chocolate Buttercream takes this cake to the next level and sets it apart from the rest.
Ingredients & Substitutions
Buttermilk: I prefer to use store-bought buttermilk for this cake, but you can absolutely use homemade. I have a post on How to Make Buttermilk should you want to make your own! I like the sour cream method for this cake.
Coffee: I have many recipes on my site for chocolate cake and most of them use coffee. Coffee will enhance the flavor of the chocolate, not overpower it. If your recipe is good (and this one is) you will not taste the coffee at all, you will only taste the richest chocolate cake you have ever had. You may substitute water for the coffee if you prefer, but the chocolate flavor will not be as intense.
Chocolate Buttercream: The recipe for the whipped chocolate buttercream is a large amount. If you don’t plan on piping on embellishment, you can cut the recipe in half. Or, use your favorite kind of frosting.
Can I Make This Chocolate Cake Into Cupcakes?
This recipe has not been tested as cupcakes, but if you decide to make it into cupcakes, here are some guidelines. Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full with batter and bake at 350°F for 16-22 minutes. Check on the cupcakes starting at 16 minutes to avoid overbaking. For a tried and true cupcake recipe, try my Ultimate Chocolate Cupcake recipe.
Can I Use a 9×13-inch Baking Dish?
Yes, you absolutely can. Bake at 350°F for 28-32 minutes. The cake is done when an inserted toothpick is removed with crumbs, but no wet batter.
Can This Cake be Gluten-Free?
I am often asked how to make this recipe gluten-free. I recommend good quality gluten-free flour that can be used interchangeably with all-purpose flour. (A 1:1 blend) This recipe is best when gluten is used, but will still taste delicious with gluten-free flour.
How to Freeze Chocolate Cake
I don’t recommend freezing with frosting on. To freeze the cake, follow these instructions.
- Allow the cake to completely cool in the pan.
- Place a layer of plastic on top of the cake and then place a cutting board or cooling rack on top.
- Flip the cake over, removing the pan.
- Wrap the plastic up over the edges of the cake and then add another large piece and wrap it again as tightly as possible without crushing the cake. Make sure that none of the cake is exposed in the freezer as this can cause a freezer burn.
- Finally, wrap it in a layer of foil. Label and date the cake. The cake will freeze well for 1 month and should be fine for up to 3 months.
More Chocolate Cakes
The Perfect Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups (219 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (90 g) good quality unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (240 g) buttermilk, room temperature
- ½ cup (112 g) vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons McCormick pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (237 g) freshly brewed hot coffee, regular or decaf, or hot water
- chocolate buttercream frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray 2, 8-inch x 3-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. (8-inch cake pans with shorter sides may cause an overflow in your oven.) Set aside.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix to combine.
- In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With the mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out mostly clean with no wet batter.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for 30 minutes. Then, turn them out onto a cooling rack to let them cool completely.
- Frost the cake with chocolate buttercream frosting.
Did you make this recipe?
Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.
This is my go to, I have made this cake a dozen times at least and it has become a birthday staple for us. I love the blend of flavours, the coffee enhances the chocolate and it’s more salt than I would usually add but without it, it just isn’t as great. This is the perfect recipe. It lives prominently on my home screen!
your recipes often call for extra large eggs which are difficult to find right now. What is the conversion if i have large eggs. it looks like two extra large eggs is .5 cup from other web sites but i am not sure.
Baking this today for my granddaughters birthday! I will let you know how it turns out!
Hi Jane! Maybe before you accuse people of intellectual dishonesty you READ THE POST.
“The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe
What makes this recipe the best? First off, it is inspired by Hershey’s chocolate cake recipe which is the same recipe my grandma used. They added coffee to their cake which does magical things to chocolate. Second, this is truly a MOIST and flavorful chocolate cake. Is there anything worse than dry cake? Nope. You will never have that problem with this recipe!”
Can I use cake flour, instead of all purpose and what different with that make in the texture
The batter overflowed both 8” round baking pans. I had used 3 medium-sized eggs, plus I mixed about a minute before adding coffee and about a minute after. Wondering which of these things caused it to overflow. Otherwise, this is an awesome recipe!!
Great and easy recipe it was it so moist and flavorful.
I despise anything coffee. I decided to take a leap of faith cause your photo of the cake looked awesome. Well I LOVE it!! Who knew! This is now the only way I’ll take my coffee!❣️
Hi I’ve made this cake twice with the buttercream and it turned out amazing! I want to make it again, but with three 6inch round cake pans. Do you have any recommendations for baking time? Thank you !
You’ll need to bake it a bit longer to make sure the center gets done. 🙂
Hi! I was wondering how I would I change the recipe for 3 6 inch cake pans instead of the 2 8 inch . Thank you
LOL You don’t get to tell me “do not explain”. My word. I made 2 layers, I cut each layer into 2. That equals four. In the picture in the recipe card, I made 3 layers in 7-inch cake pans and used it for another recipe, for coffee buttercream. You can see that here. It’s quite a versatile cake!