Simple Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe

Name: Simple Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 20 servings
Ingredients: 300 grams Sugar; 220 grams All-purpose flour; 1 tsp Baking soda; 1/2 tsp Baking powder; 85 grams Cocoa powder; 1 pinch Salt; 158 ml Vegetable oil; 180 ml Boiling water; 2 tsp Instant coffee; 180 ml Milk; 60 ml Yogurt; 2 Eggs (large); 2 tsp Vanilla extract; 4 cups Velvet American Buttercream (recipe here or ); 2 cups Chocolate ganache (recipe here)

March 6, 2013 By Veena Azmanov 40 Comments

Simple Moist Chocolate Cake – Simple, Quick and Easy

A versatile chocolate cake recipe is a must have on hand recipe. This simple, easy and effortless recipe makes an irresistible simple moist chocolate cake. All you need are two bowls and a whisk. The light and airy texture of this cake mean you it can be served with whipped cream for a light dessert or with chocolate frosting for a more indulgent affair.

A Pinterest optimized image for this Simple Moist Chocolate Cake recipe, featuring a cut slice of the cake, displaying beautiful perfect dark chocolate layers with white velvet American buttercream — Simple Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe, Best Chocolate Cake, Moist chocolate cake, simple chocolate cake

I love spending time baking so all my cakes are perfectly moist and incredible. And yet, sometimes, I love those quickies. Just throw something together and voila! you have a cake. Well, not literally like that but you know…… I think you get the idea.

This is a delicious chocolate cake. Very soft, moist and dark in color. I honestly didn’t know what to call it. Since it’s very easy to make and yet so moist I thought why not just call it Simple Moist Chocolate Cake.

Baking a Cake from Scratch

Well, here is another addition to my baking from scratch series. By now, you probably already know what that means but if you new to my blog and don’t know what I’m talking about?

It’s simple! I love baking from scratch and in an attempt to encourage everyone to bake from scratch I have come up with a few recipes that are easier then you can ever imagine. Most of these use one bowl or in this case; this cake use two bowls but with the same concept. Simple, easy, quick and effortlessly baking a cake from scratch. And I’m happy you all are enjoying these recipes. Free free to let me know in the comments below. I love the feedback.

A Versatile Cake (Save/Pin )

As I said above this is a very versatile cake. Here are a few suggestions on how to customize this cake to your own needs.

If you need a chocolate cake to decorate with fresh cream? this is it.
Like a chocolate cake with strawberries – this is perfect again. Layer whipped cream and strawberries for a light summer dessert of strawberry chocolate cake.
Need a chocolate cake to make Black Forest Cake – this is what I use.
Make a chocoholics chocolate cake and use chocolate ganache instead of whipped cream and it turns into a decadent chocolate cake.
Here I’ve used my velvet American Buttercream to make a quick last minute birthday cake.

Note – Please do not use this one to carve or for a novelty cake. It’s a nightmare! Way too soft and falls apart. So while it’s perfect for your dessert type cakes not so perfect for those carving adventures.

As I said above, this cake is delicious with Buttercream. You can even cover it with fondant for a single tier cake. It’s quite a delicate cake so I wouldn’t use it in tier cakes unless it is the top tier.

I make this often mostly as quick desserts to take to family. Often I will make small little cakes and give them away as gifts to people I need to treat.

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Recipe – Simple Moist Chocolate Cake (Save/Pin)

Useful Tips and Tools

A simple Bowl, whisk and Spatula with a little extra effort will do the trick too.
Personally, I believe in weighing ingredients by weight, which makes my kitchen scaleone of the most valuable items when baking.
The same goes for mymeasuring cups and measuring spoons. It’s always a good idea to have these handy and use them when baking rather than trying to guess measurements.
I think one set of baking pans is a must for anyone a home baker. Personally, I like to bake three layers rather than torte my cakes and it bakes faster too. For most of my layer cake recipes on this blog I use 3 x 6-inch round pans or 2 x 8-inch round pans.
Once baked always invert your cakes on a cooling rack. This encourages air circulation and prevents the steam from pooling at the bottom of the pan.
Every oven works differently. So the baking times are just guidelines. In the case of cakes, a skewer inserted in the center is a great indication. If the cake bakes too quick or too slow compared to the time given it might be a good idea to check if your oven needs calibration. An oven thermometer is a great little gadget to help keep the oven temperature in check. All you need to do then is adjust the temperature accordingly

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Let’s talk ingredients and substitutes (Save/Pin)

All-purpose flour – yes, regular plain flour (maida) is all you need for this cake. Do not use any self-raising as those contain more leavening.
Butter – I prefer to use unsalted butter so I can control the quantity of sugar in my recipe but if salted butter is all you gave go ahead and use it. Just omit salt in the recipe.
Sugar – I prefer to use white sugar so it won’t alter the color of my cupcakes but feel free to use the same amount of light brown sugar. I would not recommend dark brown sugar.
Sour Cream – gives the cake a soft crumb. If you don’t get sour cream where you are you can make sour cream at home. Here’s how to make sour cream at home for baking. If you must you can also use buttermilk. Buttermilk can also be made at home in just 5 minutes – here’s my tutorial for homemade buttermilk.
Eggs – Always use large size eggs when baking unless specified. The size of eggs varies significantly these days so as a guide on large eggs weighs between 50 to 60 grams
Vanilla – A good quality vanilla will make a huge difference in anything you make. Premium vanilla can be expensive which is why I make my own homemade vanilla extract, bean paste or sugar.

Ingredients

Dry ingredients

300 grams ( 1 1/2) cups sugar
220 grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
85 grams ( 3/4 cup) cocoa powder
Pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients

2/3 cup (158 ml) vegetable oil
3/4 cup (180 ml) boiling water with 2 tsp instant coffee
3/4 cup (180 ml) milk
1/4 cup (60 ml) yogurt
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting of your Choice

Velvet American Buttercream – recipe and video
Chocolate Ganache – recipe and video
you can find all my fillings and frosting recipes here

Note – If you do not want to use an American buttercream, you can use Italian meringue or Swiss meringue or others. You know I love frosting so I have lots of options for you to try. Check out my 30 plus homemade buttercream frosting recipes

Over 30 homemade buttercream frosting recipes by Veena Azmanov all in one place.

30 Plus Homemade Buttercream Frosting Recipes

Need a buttercream recipe in 5 minutes? Have a buttercream related question? Wondering what buttercream to use for your cake? It's all here in one place. 30 plus homemade buttercream frosting recipes for you to explore. With recipes, tips, trick, and troubleshooting, as well as popular questions, answered.

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 C / 320 F.
Prepare two 8″ round pans for baking – grease and line them.

For the wet ingredients

Start with the hot water and coffee, then add in the yogurt, milk, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
Use a whisk to make sure the eggs are well incorporated.

For the dry ingredients

Use a bowl large enough for the final batter.
Add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Mix them well together with a whisk.

Combine wet and dry

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.
Use a whisk to combine the two slowly so you have a smooth, not lumpy batter.
This is a very pouring cake batter.
Pour the batter into your baking pans.
Bake in a preheated oven at 160 C / 320 F for about 25 to 30 mins.

Prepare Frosting

Prepare buttercream or ganache frosting as directed in the links above.
Tort the cake into two or four layers as desired.
Layer with frosting, smooth using a spatula or bench scraper.
Pipe any remaining frosting as desired.

Storage

The cake will stay fresh for up to four days at cool room temperature, longer if kept in the fridge.
It can be frozen for a month or more.

10 tips on how to bake a cake from scratch with recipes included.

10 Tips to Successfully Baking a Cake from Scratch (Recipe included)

Learn how to bake a cake from scratch every single time with these 10 tips, step-by-step progress pictures, video tutorial, and more than 50 cake recipes. Understand cake ingredients and how they work before you can use them to get the best results with desired outcomes. This article is going to make you a better baker.

Don’t forget to save this recipe on Pinterest for later.
You can find a collection of my tutorials and recipes here on Pinterest.

Simple Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe

Author: Veena Azmanov

4.93 from 26 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cake, chocolate, moist, Quick, Simple

Adjust Servings Here: 20 servings

Calories: 366kcal

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 30 mins

Total Time: 40 mins