I looked up “chocolate cake” on Pinterest and just about all of the chocolate cake recipes claimed to be THE BEST chocolate cake recipe. Others claimed to be THE BEST EVER. Yeah, so you can imagine it was pretty hard picking which recipe to use.
Maybe you just can’t go wrong with chocolate cake. Every single chocolate cake is the best. The best ever.
But really, I have gone wrong with chocolate cake before. I tried to healthify a recipe. I can’t remember what I used, but probably a combination of applesauce, banana, coconut oil, and a clumpy homemade cream cheese frosting. It was very moist and dense. Not to mention bland since I skimped majorly on the sugar. And the frosting just wasn’t very good with it at all.
So this time I decided to go with a real chocolate cake. The unhealthy kind. The kind that makes you feel guilty with every bite because you know how much sugar is in there. The kind that doesn’t have any added fruit. The kind you probably will only make once a year, for a special occasion. Like your husband’s birthday!
I found the perfect recipe. In fact, it was called THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE {EVER}. You could have guessed that though. 🙂 Pretty much the only change I made is that I did not add any coffee to the cake or the frosting. And guess what! It was still amazing.
This recipe is simple and the cake has just the right texture and moistness. Not too dense, but not too light and airy either. It has a rich chocolatey flavor, and tastes amazing with CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING (which I’ll post next week!).
You can decorate it with chocolate chips. I used regular semi-sweet chocolate chips on the top, and mini semi-sweet chocolate chips on the sides. Actually, those mini chocolate chips were the most fun part of decorating the cake. You just put a few in your hand at a time and toss them onto the side of the cake. Pretty fun.
Double-layer Chocolate Cake Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 C. all-purpose flour
- 2 C. granulated sugar
- 3/4 C. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 C. milk (I used 2%)
- 1/2 C. Canola oil
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 1 C. boiling water
- optional, but highly recommended: CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour 2 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside. Start boiling a cup of water.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk through to remove any lumps.
- Add milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla to the dry mixture. Mix together on medium speed until smooth. Reduce speed of the beaters and slowly add boiling water to the mixture. Beat on high speed for about a minute to add air to the cake batter.
- Pour batter evenly into the two round pans. Bake in preheated oven for about 30-33 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool about 10 minutes in the pans. Then remove from pans and let cool completely before frosting.
*Inspired by THIS recipe.