One Bowl Chocolate Cake - Naked Cake

A one-bowl chocolate cake recipe is a must-have recipe on hand. What can be easier than add everything to the bowl, mix it up and bake it? No need for mixers or fancy equipment. Taste delicious on its own and yet a versatile cake with so many variations to try.

Table of Content

• About this cake
• Ingredients and substitutes
• Step by step instructions
• The key to one bowl baking
• More chocolate cakes
• Frequently asked questions
• You may also like
• Printable Recipe
• Join the conversation

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Being a cake decorator, who makes cakes for a living, guess what? We don't eat so much cake anymore.  I still do make grand fondant decorated cakes for my kids' birthdays. But, for us to eat as a family it has to be simple naked cakes will less frosting.

When I have a birthday I chose to make simple cakes like this, my favorite one-bowl chocolate cake with little frosting as possible, and dressed it with fresh cherries or season berries.

About this cake

The simplest and easiest chocolate cake you can ever make. You just have to add all the ingredients in a bowl and give it a good mix with a whisk. You don't need to remove the cake mixer out but for the purpose of the video, I have used a food processor so it's even quicker.

The cake is delicious on its own. Very light, moist, and fluffy with a tender crumb. I never usually frost this cake much and if I do, it's usually a naked cake with just some frosting in between layers.

This is pretty much the basic cake formula that works every single time. I also have a One-Bowl Vanilla Cake from scratch

Bakey Style Frosting - There is a reason why I chose this bakery-style vanilla frosting for this cake and that's because this vanilla or chocolate frosting works great in hot, humid weather and can sit out for hours without any refrigeration required. The frosting takes of course just five minutes to make. Of course, I have over 50 buttercream and frosting recipes so feel free to try any combination you like

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Ingredients and substitutes

• All-Purpose flour - this is a simple recipe and works really well with regular plain flour or all-purpose. No need to go looking for cake flour or pastry flour.
• Butter - this is a butter-based cake and is absolutely delicious. You can also substitute with margarine in equal amounts as well. If you want, you can use about 150 grams of vegetable shortening instead of 170 grams of butter.
• Sugar - since this is a one-bowl recipe, you want to use a fine grain sugar that will cream into the butter easily.
• Eggs - You do need to use eggs in the recipe. If you can't use eggs you can use my eggless vanilla cake recipe instead.
• Vanilla - I really like to use pure vanilla bean paste for my vanilla cakes. You can use store-bought of homemade vanilla extract, bean paste or even substitute the sugar with vanilla sugar.

Step by step instructions

For the cake

• Preheat the oven to 160 C/ 320 F.
• Greece and line two or three 6 inch round baking pan.
• Measure all ingredient except hot water in a large bowl
• Mix well with a whisk, or mixer until well incorporated and no lumps.
• Add hot water and mix a minute more.

• Pour into your prepared baking pans.
• Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes on the center rack or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Once baked let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then on to a rack to cool completely.

Bakery style buttercream frosting

• See a video - how I make this bakery-style buttercream frosting
• Cream butter and shortening for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.
• Add cornstarch to the hot water and add it to the creaming mixture.
• Continue to cream until it’s a smooth mixture again.
• Add vanilla and combine well.
• Finally, start adding the powdered sugar one cup at a time.
• Once all the sugar is in – whip the buttercream for a good three minutes until light and fluffy.
• Place in a piping bag with a star piping nozzle.

Assemble

• Brush layers with simple syrup
• Use a spatula to frost the cake as I have done in my one-bowl vanilla cake or use a piping bag and star tip and decorate as I have shown in the video for this cake.
• Pipe any leftover frosting if desired.
• For a naked look - I did not frost the outside of the cake.
• Decorate with seasonal fruits - we had cherries in season. 

The key to one bowl baking

If you have read my 10 tips to baking a cake from scratch I elaborated about having all ingredients at room temperature before baking a cake. That could not be more true with one-bowl cakes. The key success of baking a one-bowl recipe is the temperature of your ingredients.

• All ingredients must be at room temperature.
• If the butter is cold - it will not cream well and the result will be a grainy batter that bakes unevenly.
• If the eggs are cold it will curdle the warm butter. So if everything is room temperature, it mixes into a smooth batter which is exactly what we want.
• Tip - if the batter curdles when you add the eggs - simply add a tablespoon of flour and continue to mix. This should help combine into a smooth batter again.

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More chocolate cakes

• One bowl vanilla cake or one bowl coconut cake
• Simple Moist Chocolate Cake
• Classic chocolate cake
• Chocolate Birthday cake
• Chocolate chiffon cake
• see all layer cake recipes

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Frequently asked questions

You may also like

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Printable Recipe

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