Chocolate cake is something close to many hearts. After all, there’s nothing quite like a slice of decadent chocolate cake to satisfy those chocolate-y cravings! This Classic Chocolate Cake, inspired by Hershey’s Chocolate cake, is light and fluffy with a richer and creamier frosting!
Enjoy this Classic Chocolate Cake as is or use it as a base recipe for your own personal modifications that you can showcase for birthday parties, special occasions, or specific holidays. Since this cake is super freezer-friendly, you even get to make it ahead of time!
We also love this cake with a browned butter frosting, Brown Butter Frosting. The richness of the butter in this frosting is a great mix with the fluffy chocolate cake.
This chocolate sheet cake makes a great base for poke cakes like our Better than Sex Cake. It’s perfect when you don’t have a box cake mix on hand and you want to whip up something fast and in one bowl!!
It’s an easy one-bowl cake that’s sure to satisfy the chocolate cravings of even the most hardcore cake enthusiasts! If you’re looking to seriously impress, check out my Very Best Double Chocolate Cake!
What is Classic Chocolate Cake?
This Classic Chocolate Cake recipe is inspired by Hershey’s Chocolate cake. With a few recipe tweaks, this version is light and fluffy with a richer and creamier frosting!
Variations and Substitutions
- For a round cake, bake the cake in a round cake pan instead.
- For a layered cake, use shallow prepared pans and then stack the layers of cake with chocolate frosting in between.
- Make cupcakes with this cake batter and frosting. Just take note that the baking time for cupcakes is usually less than what is required for a cake. If in doubt, test by sticking a toothpick into the middle of a cupcake. If the batter remains on the toothpick, then it needs more time in the oven.
- Decorate the cake with your choice of sprinkles while the frosting is still setting. You could even decorate this Classic Chocolate Cake for a particular holiday in mind such as candy eggs or marshmallow Peeps for Easter.
- Add brewed coffee to the cake batter and make the buttercream frosting vanilla instead of chocolate for a Black Magic Cake!
- Make this cake gluten-free by using gluten-free flour.
This Classic Chocolate Cake will last for up to 7 days in the refrigerator if you wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in an airtight container. Make sure that the cake has completely cooled on a rack prior to storage.
This cake also freezes really well for up to 3 months. If I make this cake ahead of time, I like to cut it into individual slices and wrap those individual slices so that I don’t have to defrost the entire cake should I only need a few slices at a time.
If you’re concerned about the frosting being ruined by wrapping the cake, you can either wait to make the frosting for when you serve the cake or you can flash freeze the cake first and then wrap it in plastic wrap for longer-term freezer storage.
You bet! In fact, the recipe is inspired by the mouth-watering Hershey’s classic chocolate cake, obviously with a few variations from my side such as a more decadent chocolate frosting!
- This cake is made with whole milk instead of buttermilk which gives it a light and fluffy texture. You could use buttermilk instead should you want a dense cake similar to the Black Magic Cake.
- The boiling water added gradually to the batter helps to break the dry ingredients apart.
- Always use a shiny cake pan instead of a dark one as dark pans will absorb more heat from the oven and you run the risk of having your cake browning on the edges and top while still being undercooked on the inside. This will also result in a dryer cake.
- A teaspoon of salt added to your cake batter enhances the chocolate flavor while balancing out the sweetness so don’t overlook this ingredient, as insignificant as it may seem!
More Cakes for the Chocoholics!
Classic Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 cup boiling water or hot coffee
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup canola oil
Frosting Ingredients
- ¾ cup salted butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ¾ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- Whisk together all of the dry ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer: flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients: milk, eggs, vanilla, and oil.
- Beat together with a hand mixer or whisk. Gradually add in the boiling water while mixing to help break apart the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
- Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cakes comes out with just a few crumbs.
- Cool cake completely.
- Meanwhile, prepare the frosting.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer or with a hand mixer, slowly begin to beat together softened butter, vanilla, and cocoa powder.
- Rotate between adding the powdered sugar and heavy cream until both are fully incorporated and the frosting is fluffy and smooth.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake.
- Cut and serve.
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Notes
- This is an original Hershey’s cake recipe. It is similar to the Black Magic Cake. Milk is used instead of traditional buttermilk in the Black Magic Cake, which makes a bit lighter, fluffier cake.
- The boiling water is a traditional technique used to help break apart the dry ingredients in a cake batter.
- The batter is prepared in one bowl and is super easy to mix up.
- The frosting is a bit thicker and richer than the traditional Hershey’s chocolate frosting recipe. It’s a delicious chocolate buttercream.
- You can also bake the cake in round cake pans for a layered cake or in cupcakes.
Nutrition
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Comments & Reviews
Mary says
Love this recipe. Excellent directions and I believe it’s in my future. I’m going to give it a try tonight!!