Chocolate Cake
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- Prep Time 40 minutes
- Total Time 2 hours 55 minutes
- Yield Makes one 8-inch two-layer cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 1/2 cups hot water
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment paper, and butter paper. Dust the pans with cocoa; tap out extra.
- Sift cocoa, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar into bowl. Beat in oil, buttermilk, vanilla, eggs, and hot water one at a time, using a mixer set at low. Beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Pour batter into pans. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean; an adult should rotate the pans halfway through and remove cakes from the oven.
- Let cakes cool in pans on wire racks, 20 minutes, before inverting to remove. Discard paper. Cool completely on racks, top side up. An adult should cut off top of one layer.
- With a butter knife, frost top of trimmed layer.
- Place the other layer on top. Frost top and sides of cake.
Variations
Tiny and Tasty: Cupcakes are great for parties at school -- they require no cutting, and liners come in all different sizes and designs. After you make the chocolate-cake batter, fill each liner so it's three-quarters full. Our recipe will yield about 30 standard-size cupcakes; bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes (25 to 35 minutes for mini sizes). Once cool, cover them with your favorite frosting. Caroline topped hers with sprinkles -- and a candle, of course. Bars with Crunch: Instead of using frosting, sprinkle topping over chocolate squares. Pour cake batter into a 9-by-13-inch prepared baking pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Mix 1 cup each flaked sweetened coconut, walnuts, and semisweet chocolate chips; stir in 1 tablespoon melted butter. Remove cake from oven; sprinkle mix on top. Loosely cover with foil; continue baking, about 45 minutes.
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Agree with jenbyrne...after cleaning my oven still had enough batter for 3 layers!
Just made this cake today, turned out great! I used two nine inch cake pans and baked it for about 45 min. turning once halfway through baking. I will definitely make this cake again!
Absolutely amazing!! This was a huge hit with my family. I modified it a bit to make a black forest cake and it turned out delicious! See it here... http://www.epicureanmom.com/2010/04/black-forest-cake.html
This recipe is identical to her other one "Chocolate Cake for Cupcake Pops" and that one lists 1 1/2 cups of hot water in the ingredients.
How much hot water are we to add. It doesn't say, and I'm in the middle of making this cake. HELP
Why does it say to add hot water? It doesn't say how much to add?
Anytime I recipe calls for 3 cups of flour, you can get three layers out of it.
This can be confusing, but what she means is that it will make one 8-inch layer cake consisting of two layers. If it were just going to make one 8-inch round cake, it wouldn't be called a layer cake.
So it says one 8" layer but then when you read the directions it says to "butter the PANS" and then goes on to say there will be two cakes to layer and all - so Martha needs to change the title at the top and say makes TWO 8" layers!
TOO MUCH BATTER!! All over my oven!
Turns out you CAN half this recipe, I used 2 eggs, halved everything else, and used a 9" round pan and it turned out great!
Does anyone know if it's ok to half this recipe? If so, use 2 eggs or 1?
I just made this cake and the recipe made enough batter for 3-4 8inch cakes! I re-read the ingredients and I definitely didn't mess things up.
Can some one please tell me what frosting this is and maybe provide a link to it too =)
thanks in advance, Either leave a comment and i will check later. OR email me at:Mohammad.Khoja@nixorcollege.edu.pk.
Can some one please tell me what frosting this is and maybe provide a link to it too =)
thanks in advance, Either leave a comment and i will check later. OR email me at:Mohammad.Khoja@nixorcollege.edu.pk.
Best chocolate cake I've ever made!! so rich, so fudgy, so moist! :)
I really want to make this cake.. so if anyone kind enough to post it or send to my email add=mini_2505@yahoo.com
Same goes for me....I'd love to make this cake for hubbie's birthday this Friday. Does anyone have the recipe and directions? Maybe someone can post this directly onto the comments this way others can get it easier. Thanks so much!
Ohhhh i thought i will beable to make a chocolate cake, but there is nothing showing above any body can help plssss
PLEASE send me the ingredients and directions. They are not listed!!! Please e-mail them to me. simonerhurwitz@yahoo.com
I have made this cake before and really liked it, but now the site is not showing the ingredients or the directions. HELP!!!!
Where are the ingredients?? They are not listed on the recipe. The directions also are missing?? Please e-mail me them.
waynorere@verizon.net
I have finally found a cake that it's simple to make and delicious to eat. My quest is over after a year of research, and the best part is that holds very well at room temperature, 5 days. I have made it with vanilla frosting and with chocolate frosting, delicious either way. I baked it in a 10x3in round pan at 325 degrees. Don't open oven door for the first 45 minutes, or it will sink a little bit, but still good to eat! DELICIOUS and excellent chocolate after taste!
I have finally found a cake that it's simple to make and delicious to eat. My quest is over after a year of research, and the best part is that holds very well at room temperature, 5 days. I have made it with vanilla frosting and with chocolate frosting, delicious either way. I baked it in a 10x3in round pan at 325 degrees. Don't open oven door for the first 45 minutes, or it will sink a little bit, but still good to eat! DELICIOUS and excellent chocolate after taste!
Also, my cakes sunk a little in the middle, since I live at high altitudes. But, the layers are SO tall that it's easily remedied. I would definitely make this again.
My cakes overflowed from the pans, so next time, I would either A) bake them in three 8x2 round pans, or B) use 8x3 inch pans. Since it overflowed, it was very difficult to get the cakes out of the pans since the cake was stuck to the rim of the pans. One layer had big chunks of cake that fell off, so I cut the other cake in half, and cut the top off the other one, and made a 3-layer cake. It was very moist and chocolatey, but not as light as a cake made with cake flour.
I made this cake for a Christmas party I was going to. There were also some chefs at that party and they too raved about it. It was so moist I couldn't even believe it. I made it as a 9x13 instead, it raised up pretty high and almost over flowed, but did not luckily. After I layered it, it was perfect for decorating! I even added a bit of peppermint extract to make it extra Christmassy!! mmm
This chocolate cake receipe is amazing! I made it for my daughters first birthday and one of the guests at the party was a chef and he raved about it. I then used the same receipe for my sister in-laws baby shower and everyone loved it.
This chocolate cake receipe is amazing! I made it for my daughters first birthday and one of the guests at the party was a chef and he raved about it. I then used the same receipe for my sister in-laws baby shower and everyone loved it.
This chocolate cake receipe is amazing! I made it for my daughters first birthday and one of the guests at the party was a chef and he raved about it. I then used the same receipe for my sister in-laws baby shower and everyone loved it.
This chocolate cake receipe is amazing! I made it for my daughters first birthday and one of the guests at the party was a chef and he raved about it. I then used the same receipe for my sister in-laws baby shower and everyone loved it.
I made this cake for my daughter's first birthday and everyone loved it. It is very moist and tastes great.