This Chocolate cake recipe by Hershey’s is called “Perfectly Chocolate” for a reason, it makes rich, moist and super chocolaty cakes each time! To take things to the next level top it with my chocolate frosting.
Cakes are easy and predictable, you have a recipe, you follow it to the T and you know the result will not vary. This is one reason I love baking! Cooking is more instinctive but baking is purely the recipe! If you follow the recipe religiously you know your cake will turn out just like the one in the picture. BUT..It’s not always true. Baking cakes is not just about following a recipe, it’s much more. It’s about finding a blog or a cookbook that does not lie and gives you recipes that are tried and tested. I’ve tried baking chocolate cakes so many times, SO many, that I’ve lost count but I never baked a perfect chocolate cake, and now I know why. It’s because I never had the perfect recipe.
I tried and tried and tried and then one fine day (aka yesterday) I found this “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake recipe courtesy Hershey’s on a food group and all my prayers were answered! I followed the recipe and the cake did turn out the way it promised, moist and “perfectly chocolate”. Not bitter, not overly sweet but just right!
The cake was rich and moist but it needed something! So I made the best frosting to go with it. Delicious and creamy, chocolate buttercream. Unlike most frosting this one doesn’t have powdered sugar in it because I feel like that makes frosting too sweet so I used icing sugar and so it’s just the right amount of sweet! If you like your frostings sweeter by all means use powdered sugar. This recipe makes enough for two 6 inch cakes or two 9 inch cakes..you can use any tin but please remember the time will vary. Baking time depends on the thickness of the cake and not the size so if you use a 9″ cake tin, bake for about 25 minutes but for a 6″ cake tin, your cake will need to be baked for at least 30-35 minutes. Also, allow your cake to cool down completely before you start with the icing otherwise you risk melting it.
- For the Chocolate Cake
- • Sugar*, 2 cups (or 450 grams approx.)
- • Flour (or maida), 1¾ cups (230 grams approx.)
- • Cocoa Powder, 1 cup (125 grams)
- • Baking Powder, 1½ teaspoons
- • Salt, 1 teaspoon
- • Eggs, 2 (or 1 cup/240ml buttermilk**)
- • Milk (at room temp.), 1 cup (or 240 ml)
- • Vegetable Oil, ½ cup (or 120 ml)
- • Vanilla Extract, 2 teaspoons
- • Boiling Water, 1 cup (or 240 ml)
- For the Chocolate Frosting
- • Softened unsalted Butter (or white butter), 150 grams
- • Whipping Cream***, 4 tablespoons
- • Icing Sugar, 1 cup (or 110 grams)
- • Cocoa Powder, ⅔ cup (or 85 grams approx.)
- • Vanilla Essence, 1 teaspoon
- *I used 1½ cup white sugar and ½ cup dark brown sugar, you can however, use only white.
- ** To make 1 cup buttermilk, boil 1 cup milk, once it starts boiling add a tablespoon of lemon juice. As soon as the milk curdles take it off heat and sieve it. Use the liquid part as buttermilk in the recipe. Wait for it to come to room temp before you use it.
- ***I use Whipping cream by Rich's. For the frosting, only use cream with 40% fat content or over.
- Grease and flour two 6-inch round cake tin. (Instead of flour use cocoa powder so that it matches the color of your cake, flour can stain your cake.)
- Preheat your oven at 180 degrees celsius for 10 minutes.
- Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. Add in eggs (or buttermilk), milk, oil and vanilla; whisk for about 2 minutes using a mixer or about 3-4 minutes if you're using a hand whisk. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin so don't be alarmed). Pour batter into prepared pans.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Let them cool while your prepare your frosting.
- For the frosting, whisk butter and whipping using a hand mixer for about 3 minutes or until they form soft peaks, add in vanilla, icing sugar and cocoa powder. Whisk until everything is properly mixed and the frosting forms stiff peaks.
- Frost your cake once it completely cool and enjoy!
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im so gonna try this
looks delish !
Thank you so much Japnit! Let me know when you do! Would love to know your views 🙂
this is a lovely cake and so easy too!
Thank you so much Sarah! Hope you give this a shot 🙂
I have had this query recently when I realized that the measuring cup that I am using says 200 ml as it’s maximum capacity … And when I checked measurements online it was said that 1 cup is 240 ml .. U think I’m using wrong measuring tools??
I have been baking a little bit recently and everything has always turned out pretty good … What do u think??
Hi! If everything is turning out great you have no reason to worry, however, I would still suggest you to consider the weight measurements too when baking 🙂 Also, check out my recent post on 5 most common baking mistakes here. It should help you get started: http://sugarnspicebyradhika.in/2015/01/16/5-most-common-baking-mistakes/
Hi! Whenever I bake a cake, the centre of the cake rises but then cracks. Cant figure out why!
Also, in this recipe, by buttermilk do you mean the regular lassi/chaas that we prepare at home?
It could be because you’re over beating your batter, once you add in the dry ingredients to the wet ones ditch the whisk and use a spatula to mix. Once you no longer see dry flour stop mixing. That should sort it out hopefully. About the buttermilk, yes you could use chaas but I heat 1 cup milk and add 1 tbsp lemon juice to it. Once the milk curdles sieve it and use the liquid as buttermilk. 🙂
Thanks for replying! That’s really helpful to know. Two more questions: if I want to just make one 6″ tin, is it okay to simply halve the recipe ingredients? And, I want to use a caramel frosting (the recipe uses 14oz of dulche le leche), should I be adjusting the sugar in cake accordingly?
Hi! Yes you can half the recipe, however use 1tsp baking powder and 1tsp vanilla. Also, the cake isn’t too sweet so I’m sure the caramel frosting would taste just fine. 🙂 however, if you still want to cut down the sugar, don’t reduce it too much because that would mean changing the recipe totally. A variation of 20% is fine but not more than that. 🙂 Good luck! Let me know how it turns out!
Hi radhika!
I tried baking this cake but with half the recipe, using 1tsp baking powder and 1 tsp vanilla extract as mentioned in one of your comments and with buttermilk(same as mentioned). But the cake turned out to be very tasty but was very hard…I can’t figure out what i did wrong
Hi Surbhi! Try emulsifying the oil and sugar for longer to create a softer crumb next time. 🙂
Hi radhika!
I tried baking this cake but with half the recipe, using 1tsp baking powder and 1 tsp vanilla extract as mentioned in one of your comments and with buttermilk(same as mentioned). The cake turned out to be very tasty but very hard…I can’t figure out what i did wrong
Hey radhika
This recipe when i tried became very thin and started pouring out of my tin! Everything was used as per the recipe qty.
Hi Ekta, this batter is supposed to be thin but I think yours was way too much. Why don’t you try adding a little more flour next time.