Dark Chocolate Cake: fudgy and simple!
I’m constantly on the hunt for delicious, easy to prepare dark chocolate layer cake that uses ingredients you almost always have on hand.
So far my favorite is the flourless Torta Caprese but it’s also nice to have a great recipe for a classic rich dark chocolate layer cake. I always have cocoa powder on hand to make hot chocolate, and who doesn’t have flour, eggs, milk and olive oil on hand?
I make delicious brownies all the time using cocoa powder so why not do the same with dark chocolate layer cake?
This is what I’ve come up with and it’s the simplest, fudgiest recipe you can imagine, plus it’s not overly sweet, another thing in its favor.
Dark Chocolate Layer Cake
Ingredients:
For the cake:
225 g all-purpose flour
350 g sugar
85 g cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
Two large eggs
250 mL milk
125 mL olive oil
250 mL of boiling hot water
For the icing:
250 g dark chocolate
250 mL fresh cream
1 tablespoon miso (optional)
Procedure:
For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
Butter the bottom and sides of two 8 inch cake pans.
Line the bottom of both cake pans with oven paper.
Dust the sides of the cake pans lightly with flour.
Place all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and whisk together.
With the mixer on low add the milk, vegetable oil, and eggs all at once and mix until smooth.
With the mixer on medium gradually add boiling hot water to the cake ingredients.
The batter will be very thin and liquidy so don’t be concerned.
Pour the batter into the cake pans.
Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes until it’s firm to the touch and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 225 g all-purpose flour
- 350 g sugar
- 85 g cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- Two large eggs
- 250 mL milk
- 125 mL vegetable oil
- 250 mL of boiling hot water
For the icing:
- 250 g dark chocolate
- 250 mL fresh cream
- 1 tablespoon miso optional
Instructions
For the cake:
- Butter the bottom and sides of two 8 inch cake pans.
- Line the bottom of both cake pans with oven paper.
- Dust the sides of the cake pans lightly with flour.
- Place all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and whisk together.
- With the mixer on low add the milk, vegetable oil, and eggs all at once and mix until smooth.
- With the mixer on medium gradually add boiling hot water to the cake ingredients.
- The batter will be very thin and liquidy so don’t be concerned.
- Pour the batter into the cake pans.
- Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes until it’s firm to the touch and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool completely before removing from the cake pans.
- If you’re making the dark chocolate layer cake in advance you can lightly cover the cake layers once they are completely cool and leave in the cake pans overnight.
For the icing:
- Place the dark chocolate and fresh cream in a sauce pan and cook over a very low flame just until the chocolate is thoroughly melted.
- Stir in the miso for additional and wonderful umami flavor.
- Make sure to stir regularly and thoroughly while the chocolate is melting.
- Allow the chocolate icing to cool to room temperature.
- Gently remove the first cake layer from the pan, remove the baking paper liner, and place on a serving platter.
- Ice the first cake layer.
- Remove the second cake layer from the baking pan, gently remove its baking paper liner and place atop the first cake layer.
- Ice the top and sides of the chocolate cake with the remaining icing.
- This cake can be prepared from one to several days in advance.
- If prepared in advance cover the cake and store in the refrigerator.
- When you serve the dark chocolate layer cake don’t shortcut on presentation; a lovely cake platter makes all the difference!
Notes
Nutrition
Allow the cake to cool completely before removing from the cake pans.
If you’re making the dark chocolate layer cake in advance you can lightly cover the cake layers once they are completely cool and leave in the cake pans overnight.
For the icing:
Place the dark chocolate and fresh cream in a sauce pan and cook over a very low flame just until the chocolate is thoroughly melted.
Stir in the miso for additional umami flavor.
Make sure to stir regularly and thoroughly while the chocolate is melting.
Allow the chocolate icing to cool to room temperature.
Gently remove the first cake layer from the pan, remove the baking paper liner, and place on a serving platter.
Ice the first cake layer.
Remove the second cake layer from the baking pan, gently remove its baking paper liner and place atop the first cake layer.
Ice the top and sides of the chocolate cake with the remaining icing.
This cake can be prepared from one to several days in advance.
If prepared in advance cover the cake and store in the refrigerator.
When you serve the dark chocolate layer cake don’t shortcut on presentation; a lovely 
makes all the difference!
Another super simple dark chocolate recipe you might love are Chocolate Truffle Treats!
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What in the heck is miso, for this chocolate cake recipe? 1 4/5 of flour? Really?! Your USA conversion table sucks! Thanks you!
Thank you for reaching out to me and pointing out issues you have with my dark chocolate cake recipe. I modified the recipe to give more explanation on the use of miso. Using it is strictly optional but it's a wonderful flavor enhancer that really brings out the rich dark chocolate flavor. Whether you decide to use it or not this is a fantastic chocolate cake recipe. I really love rich, moist dark chocolate flavor and this really fits the bill but at the same time is a super simple recipe.
I changed the flour measurement to 2 cups but for precision sake it would be best to use 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons. The truth of the matter is that when you measure using cups it's always imprecise. If you have a scale it's so much easier and more accurate.
And the fact of the matter is you have much less mess and clean up when you measure using a scale. Here's why:
With a scale you can place your mixing bowl on the scale and then press zero to remove the weight of your bowl. Then as you add each dry ingredient you get right to the precise weight. Then press zero again and add your next dry ingredient. Continue until all your dry ingredients are in the bowl.
Do the same with your wet ingredients like oil, milk etc.
In the end you have no cups and teaspoons to wash and no mess of ingredients all over the counter.
The most important thing is that it's so much more precise. When I run cooking classes we do a little experiment and each person measures out a cup of flour and then we weigh it. No one ever has the same weight! But when you measure ingredients on a scale the weight is always exactly the same.
For most recipes this doesn’t matter a whole lot but for many baking recipes it's quite important to be extra precise.
Thanks for reaching out to me Debra and please do try this recipe because if you love a great dark chocolate cake this is unbeatable!