Chocolate Cake Recipes

A super-easy chocolate layer cake belongs in every cook's recipe repertoire. This chocolate-buttermilk cake is luscious enough for a special occasion, but easy enough for everyday desserts. And the recipe gets brownie points for using just a single bowl. You can also use this cake batter to make two dozen cupcakes: Fill lined tins two-thirds full and bake for 20 minutes, rotating once. A decadent chocolate frosting is the finishing touch and your cake is ready for its star turn at a birthday, anniversary, or pretty much any celebration.

This beauty is baked with a splash of Chambord and layered with a sweet raspberry filling, both of which offer bright counterpoints to the thick layer of chocolate-cream cheese frosting and whole berries scattered on top. You won't be able to have just one slice.

This sweet and simple sheet cake marries two great flavors that just plain belong together: rich and tender chocolate cake, and creamy peanut-butter frosting. For maximum fluff, go for a classic smooth variety of peanut butter, and plug in your mixer—manpower alone won't be enough. Scatter chopped peanuts along the edges for any crunchy fans in the house.

If you don't own a candy thermometer, this cake offers a good excuse to buy one. It sounds a little nitpicky, but the caramel should reach exactly 238 degrees. (Any less and the cake layers won't hold together properly; any more and the caramel will turn hard.) Precision will also pay off with the chocolate frosting—it achieves its ideal spreading texture after standing for 30 minutes.

There's a lot to love about this versatile chocolate cake recipe. Sure, you can make a two-layer dessert for a special occasion, but you can also use the batter for other delicious treats. It will yield about 30 cupcakes—or you can bake it in a 9 x13 pan and frost it for a single layer cake that feeds a larger crowd. And don't be afraid to add in some extras—we're partial to a mix of chocolate chips, coconut, and walnuts.

Decadent and delicious, chocolate lovers will adore this four-ingredient dessert. The edges and top of our flourless chocolate cake develop a delicately crisp crust, while the center remains moist and fudgy. It's the last course you didn't know your dinner party menu was missing.

There's something extra-special about an individually sized dessert -- especially when it's a molten chocolate cake served warm out of the oven. You can prepare these rich chocolate pudding cakes up to a day ahead and refrigerate them, then just pop them in the oven when you sit down to dinner. They'll be done by the time you're ready for dessert. And they reheat easily, so you can have two one night and two the next. This recipe appears in our cookbook "Martha Stewart's Newlywed Kitchen" (Clarkson Potter).

This chocolate cake recipe from Lucinda Scala Quinn's "Mad Hungry" cookbook involves minimal cleanup -- the ingredients are blended in the very pan that goes into the oven.

This crowd-pleaser is moist, dense, and ultra-chocolaty. Lift it out of the pan with its parchment-paper liner, so the shiny chocolate glaze is free to drizzle down the sides.

You won't taste the pureed beets, but they make this cake extra moist and play up its deep chocolate flavor.

If the sides aren't perfectly glazed, press in chocolate shavings for an easy cover-up.

With three shades of chocolate, these cakes are as pleasing to the eye as they are to the sweet tooth.