The Ultimate Double Chocolate Cake Recipe for Chocolate Lovers Cakes/Cupcakes Desserts Entertaining

Ever since my husband was a little boy, he’s had a chocolate cake for his birthday – first baked by his mother and then purchased at a local bakery that made the most decadent cakes imaginable. There was no use for me, the non-baker, to try to improve on that (or at least that’s what I told myself)! I didn’t even own a cake pan, for goodness sakes!

However, when we moved out of state, away from his mom and that bake shop, it was time for me to leave those sad excuses (and my Duncan Hines box mix) behind and learn to bake a birthday cake for him. Finding two good cake pans for $5 at a nearby thrift store, I located an easy one-bowl chocolate cake recipe on the internet, asked my mother-in-law for her special recipe for frosting, dusted off my ancient mixer and got to work. A few hours and a kitchen covered with cocoa powder later, I had a beautiful, pretty tasty chocolate-on-chocolate cake that also passed muster with the discriminating birthday boy.

Pro Tips

• Use a large bowl for the frosting. Otherwise, you’ll have cocoa powder everywhere like I did!

• Be sure layers are evenly stacked one on top of the other.

• Don’t scrimp on frosting between layers.

• Do not refrigerate the frosting. It will be too hard and cause the cake to crumble when frosting.

Before you get started making this rich chocolate cake recipe, make sure your kitchen is stocked with all the ingredients (personally, I forgot to check my supply of powdered sugar!), but especially the most important one: LOVE!

Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour and 10 minutes
Servings: 12

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• LOVE!

Frosting

• 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water, boiling
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups powdered sugar

Here’s how to make it:

1. To make the cake, mix all the dry ingredients together.
2. Beat the eggs (I used my mixing cup for beating) and add them along with the milk, oil and vanilla to the dry ingredients and beat for about 2 minutes until well-blended.
3. Stir in the boiling water. The batter will be thin.
4. Pour evenly into two greased and floured cake pans. (Make sure to grease and flour pans, including the sides, well.) Bake in preheated 350-degree F oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
5. Cool in pans for about 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and cool completely on wire racks to prepare for frosting.
6. To make the frosting, in large bowl, beat butter and cocoa powder and a teaspoon or two of the corn syrup to make beating easier. Add the rest of the corn syrup and continue beating until smooth. Gradually add the boiling water and beat in. Stir in vanilla and salt. Once all of the other ingredients are blended, slowly add the powdered sugar to the mixture, beating on high until smooth. (If you don’t have corn syrup in your pantry, you can substitute molasses or honey, but it will give the frosting a slightly different flavor.)
7. Once the cakes are completely cool, frost the top of one layer. Carefully place the second cake on top and then frost the outside of the whole cake.
8. Store the cake in an airtight container to keep it fresh.

Recipe cooking times, nutritional information and servings are approximate and provided for your convenience. However, 30Seconds is not responsible for the outcome of any recipe, nor may you have the same results because of variations in ingredients, temperatures, altitude, errors, omissions or cooking/baking abilities. Any nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and it is up to the individual to ascertain accuracy. To ensure image quality, we may occasionally use stock photography.

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