Ina Garten’s Chocolate Cake recipe ~ it’s a classic! When I hear the word dessert, this homey, rich, chocolatey cake is what springs to mind. Everybody should make it at least once.
Ina Garten’s chocolate cake is hands-down one of my favorite chocolate cakes I’ve ever baked, (or tasted!)
It will take a lot for me to look for another chocolate cake recipe in the near future. The texture and flavor of Ina Garten’s chocolate cake is just my style — it’s very moist without being dense or heavy at all, and has just the right balance of sweetness with rich chocolate flavor. I can see why this is a beloved recipe, and will be my go-to from now on.
This easy chocolate cake has the light, even texture of a boxed cake mix
The chocolate cake itself is similar to my Chocolate Cake with Cranberry Buttercream, but even a little bit simpler to put together as it calls for oil and cocoa powder rather than melted butter and chocolate. You can feel confident going with either one, depending on whether you’re in a butter creaming mood or not. They both bake up perfectly with a nice deep rich color and fabulous chocolate flavor.
A pinch of salt and some silky sour cream makes chocolate frosting even better!
I did make a couple of changes to the original frosting recipe to suit my preferences ~ I added a pinch of salt, a bit of sour cream, and increased the amount of powdered sugar. These changes help to bulk up the frosting a bit so that there’s plenty to generously frost a double layer cake (I’m paranoid about running out!)
I feel that the salt and sour cream help offset the added sugar a little bit. The added sour cream also makes for a slightly softer frosting that doesn’t go quite as crusty over time as a plain buttercream frosting tends to do.
I kept my cake as plain and simple as can be, but of course this is a wonderful base for all kinds of variations and decorations. The cake would be amazing with a vanilla frosting, a peanut butter frosting, a blackberry buttercream, whatever you like!
Suggestions for decorating a chocolate layer cake
If your occasion calls for a little more frippery, here are some ideas…
- One of my favorite ways to decorate any chocolate surface is with chocolate shavings: just take a bar of chocolate and a vegetable peeler and peel off little curls. If your chocolate is dry you can microwave it for a few seconds to soften it so that you can get it to curl beautifully.
- Chocolate sprinkles look pretty on a chocolate cake, you can decorate the top, or press them into the sides.
- If it’s the season, pop some berries on top, strawberries and raspberries are perfect. Intersperse some green mint leaves.
- Arrange malted milk balls or other chocolate candy around the perimeter of the cake.
How to crumb coat a layer cake
The moist, delicate texture of this cake mean that it is a little bit trickier to frost without getting crumbs in your frosting, so I recommend doing a quick “crumb coat,” which, if you’ve never bothered with one in the past, really isn’t as complicated or annoying as it might sound!
- To make a “crumb coat,” simply frost the top and sids of the cake with a thin layer of frosting, getting everything as smooth as you can. Don’t worry if there are crumbs showing.
- Then, refrigerate the cake for at least 15 minutes. This sets the frosting and effectively locks all those crumbs in place before you move on to your next coat of frosting, so they won’t be floating around and getting in your way! That’s it!
I think this cake is the perfect celebratory cake for any and all occasions ~ it’s a great recipe to have in your back pocket for birthdays, anniversaries, graduation parties, you name it.
More luscious layer cakes ~
- Banana Cake with Spiced Vanilla Buttercream
- Orange Creamsicle Cake
- Raspberry Lemon Cake
- Blueberry Lemon Layer Cake
Ina Garten’s Chocolate Cake
Equipment
- Two 8-inch round cake pans Note: this cake is thick, so make sure your cake pans are at least 2 inches tall to accomodate the batter.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup buttermilk (I used half-and-half, which worked fine, too!)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup hot coffee
For the frosting
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat oven to 350F. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper discs.
- Whisk all the dry ingredients together well in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients EXCEPT the coffee.
- Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing as you go. Once incorporated, add the hot coffee, and mix everything until there are no pockets of dry flour left. The batter will be very thin.
- Divide the batter between the two cake pans, and bake for 35 minutes until risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out without wet batter clinging to it.
- Allow the cakes to partially cool in the pans, then turn out onto a cooling rack to completely cool before frosting. The cakes can be made a day or two ahead and kept in the refrigerator before frosting.
For the frosting
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave using short bursts. Stir until smooth and set aside to cool slightly.
- Beat the room temperature butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment for a couple minutes until smooth and noticeably paler in color. Slowly add the powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla, beating on a low-medium speed until everything is smooth.
- Whisk the sour cream into the partially cooled melted chocolate. This both cools down the chocolate and warms up the sour cream so that both are more-or-less room temperature before adding to the butter mixture.
- Add the chocolate and sour cream mixture to the mixer bowl and beat on low speed until everything is smooth and combined.
- If your frosting seems a little too loose, you can refrigerate it for 10-15 minutes to allow it to firm up a little bit. Then give it a good stir before frosting the cake.
Notes
Nutrition
Can you taste the coffee in this cake?
No, you can’t, it just enhances the chocolate flavor.
To do vanilla icing instead of chocolate, could I just leave out the chocolate? Would the sour cream still work?
You probably could do a vanilla sour cream frosting, I think it would be tasty. You might need to adjust your sugar and/or add a bit of milk or cream as needed.
Hey! I’m trying this for the first time. I don’t have parchment paper can I just butter the bottom of the pan?
You can, for sure. Just be careful when turning the cake out of the pan, you don’t want it to stick. I would flour it after buttering to be extra sure.
This is my go-to chocolate cake recipe…it’s always great and easy to make. It’s moist and delicious…the very best.
Thanks Cathy!
This is my favorite cake to bake! Each one of my kids request this as their birthday cakes. It also works beautifully using measure for measure gluten free flour and “soured” almond or coconut milk for substitutes. My picky husband couldn’t even tell the difference!
I’m really glad to know about the gf and milk substitutes, thanks Melissa.
I’m a guy, and I hate baking. But tried this because I was bored. I’ve made like 3 homemade cakes my entire life. So I tried this. It was so easy, so few recipes and literally the best cake I’ve ever had. I didn’t do the icing but had it with ice cream. This was so good. I hope this lady has a book or a show. I’m gonna use all her recipes and would love to have her teach me how to cook
She has cookbooks AND a show ~ go for it!
Hi,
For coffee – Would 1 tsp of espresso powder mixed with hot water work? I’m not a coffee drinker, so I’m not sure what this should exactly be?
Can I put some chocolate chips in instead of making the frosting?
Also, for buttermilk – would 1 cup milk plus 1 tbsp white vinegar work as a substitute?
Thanks so much for a lovely recipe!
Yes, the espresso powder will work great. And yes to the chocolate chips. And yes to the homemade buttermilk! Enjoy the recipe Simran 🙂
This cake is AMAZING. I used 1 rounded teaspoon of expresso powder in one cup of hot water instead of coffee. Also Dark Cocoa, because that’s what I had. The cake is MOIST and CHOCOLATE RICH . The icing is SOFT and DELICIOUS. Baked it in a 9×13 pan for the same amount of time. I am not a fan of cakes, but this cake has me swooning.
I’m just wondering could you use chocolate ganache over this cake.?
You could use a ganache, I might let it cool at bit and then whip it for a more spreadable texture.
This was the best chocolate cake recipe i’ve ever tried. The texture was perfect and it was delicious! This will be my go to chocolate cake from now on. Thank you!