You just found your go to chocolate cake recipe! 🍫
Why you’ll love this recipe…
A rich, deeply chocolatey and wonderfully moist chocolate cake, lathered in a silky, buttery, milk chocolate ganache. This is the kind of cake that feels wonderfully rustic and simple, but tastes absolutely incredible. It’s the cake that will have everyone asking you for the recipe!
And the best part? It is SO easy to make. This is a one-bowl, one-tin, no-stand-mixer-needed kind of cake, making it perfect for birthdays, afternoon tea, celebrations, or simply when you’re craving a really good piece of chocolate cake.
There’s a little secret to getting that rich, intense chocolate flavour. The recipe starts by combining hot water, cocoa powder and coffee. It might seem like an unusual extra step, but it’s an important one! The hot water helps bloom the cocoa powder, bringing out its deep chocolate flavour, while the coffee enhances the chocolate without making the cake taste like coffee. The result is a cake that tastes incredibly rich and chocolatey.
I’ve also added yoghurt to the batter, which helps keep the cake beautifully soft and moist. It gives the crumb that lovely tender texture without making the cake feel heavy, and means it stays deliciously moist for days.
This recipe took me months and months to perfect, and I genuinely couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. It has everything I want in a chocolate cake… deep chocolate flavour, a soft and fudgy crumb, plenty of moisture and it’s super simple to make.
The buttery milk chocolate ganache on top takes it to another level, but the decorating is just as simple. I love keeping this cake really rustic and finishing it with a generous scattering of chocolate shavings. And here’s my little secret: you don’t need any fancy equipment to make them! Grab a vegetable peeler and run it along the edge of a block of chocolate to create beautiful little chocolate curls and shavings. It takes seconds and makes the cake look so much more impressive.
You can keep it simple as a single-layer cake, or layer it up to make the most epic chocolate layer cake. Either way, it’s a real showstopper without any complicated decorating required.
This is the chocolate cake you’ll make once, fall completely in love with, and then find yourself making over and over and over again.
Recipe FAQs:
Yes! If you don’t have coffee or would prefer not to use it, you can simply replace it with the same amount of hot water. Just keep in mind that the coffee helps enhance the chocolate flavour, so the cake won’t have quite the same depth of flavour without it. You won’t get a strong coffee flavour from the amount used in the recipe, it simply makes the chocolate taste richer.
Absolutely! Instant coffee works perfectly in this recipe. Simply dissolve the instant coffee in the hot water before adding it to the cocoa powder. You can use whatever instant coffee you have on hand.
Yes! This recipe can easily be doubled, but I recommend dividing the batter between two cake tins rather than baking it all in one large tin. This will give you a much more even bake and prevent the centre from sinking.
If you do want to double the recipe and bake it all in one tin, I recommend reducing the total amount of yoghurt by 50g. Because there is so much batter in the tin, the extra moisture can make the centre more likely to sink as it bakes.
YES!! This is the perfect recipe for layering up into the ultimate chocolate layer cake. You can duplicate the recipe based on how many layers you want to make. Bake the cakes in separate tins, allow them to cool completely, then sandwich them together with the buttery milk chocolate ganache.
A split ganache is usually caused by the chocolate and butter getting too hot. When making the ganache over a bain-marie, take the bowl off the heat when the chocolate and butter are almost completely melted, then continue stirring until everything has melted together. The residual heat will finish melting the chocolate without overheating it.
I’ve also found that the quality of the chocolate can make a difference. A good-quality chocolate tends to give you a much smoother and delicious ganache.
Choose a heatproof bowl that sits comfortably on top of a pot. Fill the pot with a few centimetres of water — it’s important that the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Place the pot over low to medium heat and bring the water to a gentle simmer. Place the bowl on top, making sure it sits securely over the pot. The steam from the simmering water will gently heat the bottom of the bowl, allowing ingredients to melt slowly and evenly without getting too hot.
No this is not a crucial step at all, it’s just a little trick to give a lovely level top to your cake making it really easy to ice. It’s also really helpful if you are going to layer together more than one layer of cake.
Storage:
Store this cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Alternatively you can store this cake in the fridge but it is best enjoyed at room temperature, so take it out of the fridge to come to room temperature before enjoying.
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The Ultimate Chocolate Cake Recipe (easy and delicious)
Equipment
- 20cm cake tin 8 inches
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 120 g hot strong coffee I used a double shot of espresso and boiling water but you could mix a heaped teaspoon of instant coffee in 120g of boiling water
- 60 g neutral oil vegetable or canola
- 200 g caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 100 g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 100 g plain yoghurt
- 1 tsp salt
Buttery Milk Chocolate Ganache
- 150 g good quality milk chocolate
- 75 g butter
- 75 g cream
To Decorate
- 50 g milk chocolate
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat the oven to 170ºC (fan bake). Grease a 20cm cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper.
- In a mixing bowl, start by whisking together the hot coffee and cocoa powder until it is silky and glossy. Allow to cool to room temperature (5-10 mins)
- Whisk in the oil, sugar and egg until combined and glossy.
- Sieve in the baking soda, baking powder, salt and plain flour and mix until just just incorporated. Switch to a spatular or wooden spoon and gently fold in the yogurt then pour the cake batter into the cake tin. Tap the tin on the side of your bench a few times to allow any air bubbles to release.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the cake is beautifully cooked, it should spring back when you press on the top. Pop a skewer/knife into the middle, if it comes out clean or with just a few crumbs it is ready.
- Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes in the tin then flip the cake out onto a sheet of baking paper and allow to cool fully. Cooling the cake upside down will give it a lovely level top ready for decorating.
Buttery Chocolate Ganache
- Break up the chocolate and place into a large heatproof bowl along with the butter. Gently melt together over a bain-marie while stirring with a spatular until fully melted. (Alternatively you can melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments mixing in between each)
- Once almost fully melted, remove the bowl from the heat and continue mixing until fully melted. Slowly pour in the cream while stirring with a spatular until incorporated and glossy.
- Allow to cool completely until the ganache thickens, ideally at room temperature but you can pop it into the fridge if you don’t have the time. Just make sure to give it a mix every 10 minutes or so to help it cool evenly.
To Assemble
- Place the cooled cake onto a plate or cake board.
- Top with the chocolate ganache and use the back of a spoon or an off set spatular to rustically lather over the top of the cake.
- Use a peeler to shave chocolate curls onto the top of the cake to decorate then enjoy! This cake is best kept and enjoyed at room temperature. You can absolutely store it in the fridge, just remove it 30-60 minutes before serving.
Video
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