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Our easy chocolate cake recipe is topped with a delicious chocolate frosting and is made with pantry staples.
The Easiest Chocolate Cake
This is our FAVORITE chocolate cake recipe!!!
We love dessert, and especially cake! There are a few kids who choose chocolate cake for their birthday treat every year (who can blame them?). We’ve tried several made-from-scratch chocolate cake recipes over the years, and we finally found a winner that is the tastiest and easiest of all!
This easy chocolate cake recipe is a family favorite that is so soft, delicious, and MOIST. If you love chocolate cake too, you’ll also love our Chocolate Sheet Cake. Serve it with homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, and you’ll be in heaven!
WHY WE LOVE IT:
- Pantry staples. This easy chocolate cake calls for simple ingredients that we always have on hand so it can easily be made without a trip to the store!
- Best chocolate cake. It is fudgy and moist – just the way a chocolate cake should be!
- Party perfect. You can’t beat a slice served with Ice Cream!
Ingredients
PREP TIME: 10 minutes
COOK TIME: 30 minutes
COOL TIME: 10 minutes
Cake Layers
- 2 cups all-purpose flour – or cake flour for a silkier crumb, see How to Measure Flour
- 2 cups sugar
- ¾ cup cocoa powder – Since the recipe also uses baking powder, you can use natural or Dutch-processed cocoa powder.
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup vegetable oil – or canola oil
- 2 large eggs – room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
Chocolate Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened – see How to Soften Butter Quickly
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder – natural or Dutch process cocoa
- 4 cups powdered sugar (confectioners’ sugar) – sifted to remove clumps
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 6-8 tablespoons half and half – or whole milk
- optional decorations – sprinkles and birthday candles, frosting flowers, a worded message, beautiful berries, or sliced almonds or chopped walnuts
How to make Easy chocolate cake
- PREP. Grease two 9″ round pans, line with parchment paper, and set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F.
- BATTER. Whisk 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups sugar, ¾ cup cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 teaspoons baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl.
- Whisk in 1 cup milk, ½ cup vegetable oil, 2 eggs, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.
- Pour in 1 cup of boiling water and stir everything together.
- BAKE. The cake batter will be thin. Pour the batter into greased 9-inch round cake pans lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes.
- COOL. Let the cakes cool for about 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto wire racks. Cool completely, level the top of the cakes, and frost with chocolate frosting.
Make It Into Cupcakes
Add cupcake liners to a muffin tin and fill to about ⅔ full. Bake for 17-19 minutes. Makes about 24-30 cupcakes.
The Frosting
- BEAT. Beat ½ cup softened butter, ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 4 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 pinch salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Add 6-8 tablespoons half and half to get it to be the frosting consistency you desire.
- FROST. Spread this delicious frosting over your cake and add any sprinkles before it sets.
PRO TIP: Add A Crumb Coat
Add a thin layer to coat the crumbs. Let it set and then add a thicker layer of frosting without worry that the crumbs will get caught up in it.
Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
Chocolate Frosting
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 6-8 tablespoons half and half
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 9-inch round pans with parchment paper and spray with non-stick spray.
- Whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- Whisk in the milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla till smooth. Stir in the boiling water, mixing until smooth.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two pans. Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool for 10 minutes in the pans, then invert onto cooling racks. Cool completely.
Frosting
- Beat all ingredients in a bowl until smooth, adding enough half and half to get a spreadable consistency.
- Place one cake on a cake stand or serving tray. Spread about one cup of frosting on the top. Place the other cake on top. Frost the sides and top of the cake with the remaining frosting.
- Serve immediately or cover and let sit overnight.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe FAQ
Tightly wrap in plastic wrap and place in a Ziploc bag on the kitchen counter for up to 3-4 days or in the wrap again with foil and in the freezer for 6-8 weeks.
Cover and store the cake on the counter for 4-5 days. Once cut, press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the exposed cake, or cover it with more frosting to prevent drying out. Store for 3-4 days at room temperature.
Place the frosted cake in the freezer for 4-5 hours, or until the frosting is solid. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and then again with aluminum foil for 4-6 weeks. Unwrap the plastic wrap, recover it lightly with the foil, and allow the cake to thaw.
Hi,
If you could add the (Gram) too when you say cup it would be easy for us living in France. The cups are not always the same size that’s why :(.
We use grams as unit. So I don’t know how puch is a cup. Can you tell me please ? Thanks.
Hi! Thanks for the feedback. I would recommend looking online for a cups to grams conversion chart and you should (hopefully) be able to figure out the amount in grams. I know amounts can change depending on density/volume too, so that’d be my recommendation. 🙂
Weights are different for 4 ounces of wet against 4 ounces of dry ingredients. Here are the conversions for each:
Wet ingredients: 1 US cup (c) of liquid = 240 milliliters (mL) or 240 grams (g).
Dry ingredients:
256 grams of flour – 2 cups
402 grams of white sugar – 2 cups
96 grams of chocolate powder – 3/4 cup
U.S. Metric
1/4 teaspoon 1.42 grams
1/2 teaspoon 2.84 grams
1 teaspoon 5.69 grams
1/2 tablespoon 8.53 grams
Bonne chance et bon appetit!
Can one add chocolate pieces to the cake mixture? If so how much?
I have never tried adding chocolate, but you could certainly try. I’d recommend using mini chocolate chips or finely chopped chocolate chunks so that they don’t sink to the bottom of the batter. You can also try tossing them in a bit of flour before folding into the batter. That may help them not sink too. Not sure how much… that’d totally be a personal preference thing. However much extra chocolate you enjoy. You’ll have to let us know how the cake turns out if you add extra chocolate! 🙂
How much is a pinch of salt
They say it is about 1/16 tsp. But since most measuring spoons aren’t that small, I just literally grab a pinch of salt and it works!
OMG BEST CAKE EVER!! THIS IS THE FIRST CAKE IVE EVER MADE AND TASTED LIKE A STORE BOUGHT PROBABLY EVEN BETTER. I’m not a frosting person but this was the PERFECT frosting not creamy not sugary!I AM DEFINETLY GOING TO MAKE THIS CAKE AGAIN AND TELL MY FRIENDS ABOUT THIS! ALSO FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸
I’m so glad you loved it so much! Thanks so much for trying the recipe. 🙂
I’ve made this recipe several times and it’s a hit every single time.
What kind of oil do you use?
I typically use canola oil, but you could use vegetable oil or coconut oil too.
Haha thanks for asking this, I was scrolling through trying to find the answer 🙂
Yay! So happy to hear the cake is a hit for you!
Made this for my daughter’s birthday and everyone loved it. It was by far the best cake I’ve ever made!
Oh that’s so great to hear!! Glad the cake was a hit! Thanks for sharing.
OML SO GOOOODDDD
Thank you! I’m so glad to hear you liked the cake!!
The powdered sugar was a bit much (the frosting was a little too sweet) , but other than that it was great!
Thanks for your feedback! Glad you mostly enjoyed it.:) You could definitely cut down on the sugar or even add a pinch of salt to counteract the sweetness.
Hi, would the baking time or temperature need to be adjusted if I’m baking the cake in a single tin ? Don’t have 2 pans of the same size so planning to slice the cake in two equal portions.
Yes! It definitely would. What size of pan are you planning on using? A little rule of thumb, you want to make sure to only fill the pan about 2/3 full to leave room for the cake to rise. Another way to bake this cake is in a 9X13 pan and then just spread the frosting on top. Baking time should be similar since both pans would be 9 inches deep, but just keep an eye on it and start checking for doneness 10 or so minutes early, just to be sure.
Nine inches Deep??? That’s 9-inch diameter in all my cookbooks, and about three inches deep. The baking times were the same in my oven, but if doing cupcakes, it’s 12-15 minutes at 350F instead of 30-35 minutes.
Easy and delicious! I substituted the boiling water with coffee and it was awesome!
That sounds like a fun twist. Glad to hear that you enjoyed the cake!!
This was the first time I ever baked a cake from scratch.
Your instructions were very easy to follow making my cake turn out a smash!
I baked this for or my in-laws (one who’s a chocoholic 😁) Everyone loved it, it turned delicious 🤤!
I am ready to bake more now!
Thank you
Donna
Yay! You’re welcome! So glad you all enjoyed the chocolate cake. It’s a yummy one! And yes, keep up the baking. I’m sure you will be amazing at it!