Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe-Easy & Quick

Moist, chocolatey and easy this chocolate cake recipe is the only recipe you’ll ever need! It makes 3, 6″ or 8″ cake layers and comes together in minutes!

— Get Printable Recipe —

About This Recipe

This recipe is the first of my baking basics series, it’s simple, quick and requires no skills to achieve the most scrumptious chocolate cake you’ve ever had! I use this recipe every time I want to make chocolate cake, and I can safely say that it is foolproof!

This recipe make 3, 6 inch or 8 inch layers, depending on how thick you want each layer to be, the cakes in the picture above are 8 inches. I also decided to keep this recipe simple, so I did not include any frosting or filling recipe to go with this, just a basic chocolate cake recipe so you can frost and fill with any frosting and fillings you’d like! (See below for ideas.)

What makes this chocolate cake so moist? It’s the use of vegetable oil instead of butter in the cake. Unlike butter, vegetable oil does not harden in cooler temperatures, so the chocolate cake remains moist for days even when refrigerated. This recipe also calls for hot brewed coffee, this causes the cocoa powder to bloom, drawing out it’s rich flavor, plus coffee enhances the flavor of chocolate, making the cake nice and chocolatey! And so all these elements come together to create the best cake flavor known to man… CHOCOLATE CAKE! (at least that’s my opinion:). )

What You Need To Make Moist Chocolate Cake

Flour: use regular all purpose flour for this recipe, I have not tried it with any other type of flour!

Cocoa Powder: the better the quality the richer the flavor of chocolate will be in your cake.

Buttermilk: use at room temperature, I used homemade buttermilk, it literally take minutes to make, see how here.

Eggs: use room temperature eggs for the best results.

Coffee: you’ll need hot/warm brewed coffee, this helps enhance/intensify the chocolate flavor, you will not be able to taste it at all.

Vegetable oil: use any flavorless oil like sunflower or canola oil.

Baking soda and baking powder: these are the rising agents, so make sure they aren’t expired or the cake may fail to rise.

Salt: adding a bit of salt to any dessert, helps balance the sweetness and really brings out flavor.

How to Make Moist Chocolate Cake

Step 1: Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl.

Step 2: In a separate bowl combine all the wet ingredients except the hot coffee.

Step 3: Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk to combine until there no lumps of flour in the batter.

Step 4: Finally add in the hot brewed coffee and give it a mix until it’s fully incorporated.

Step 5: Divide the batter between 3 6 inch or 8 inch, greased and lined pans. ( You can also bake the cake layers in 3 batches of you only have one pan) Bake at 180 °C / 350 °F for 30 -35 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs stuck to it. Let the cakes cool for at least 15 minutes before flipping them onto a wire rack to cool completely. Fill and frost your cakes and enjoy!

Storing/Freezing The Chocolate Cake

Wrap your cake layers in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. If your going to frost the cake on the same day, store the cake at room temperature.

To Freeze: To freeze the cake, wrap it with a layer of plastic wrap, then in one layer of aluminum foil and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature, then frost the cake as usual.

Pro Tips

• Measure the dry and wet ingredients properly. For the flour spoon it into a measuring cup and level it using the back of a spoon.
• If you have a convection oven (oven with a fan setting) I recommend reducing the temperature by 20 degrees
• The chocolate cake batter will be a bit runny and this totally normal.
• Baking time may vary: all ovens are different, your cake might take a longer to fully bake, or it might bake faster. So it’s best to start checking on the cake at 25 minutes.
• If the baking time is over and your cake is still raw in the center, cover the top of the cake with some tin foil and bake for an additional 5-7 minutes, or until fully baked. This will prevent the top from burning. You can do the same if the top of the cake browns too fast.
• Don’t skip the hot coffee, this is what brings out the rich flavor of chocolate in this cake recipe, many recipes just use hot water but coffee really enhances the intensity of chocolate, if that makes sense!
• Only got 1 pan? That’s totally ok, bake the cake in 3 batches. While each cake bakes cover and leave the batter at room temperature.

FAQ’s

How can I make buttermilk at home?

It’s super easy, just add 1 tablespoon of vinegar for every 1 cup of milk. Let it sit for a few minutes and it’s ready to use!

What frosting goes well with chocolate cake?

Almost every type of frosting will go incredibly well with chocolate cake, from a regular vanilla buttercream/whipped cream frosting to something like peanut butter frosting. Her are some great options:

• Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
• Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting
• Chocolate Ganache
• Chocolaet Orange frosting
• Lemon frosting
• Salted Caramel Frosting
• Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
• Whipped White Chocolate Ganache Frosting

And the list goes on and on, here’s a cake I made using this cake recipe, Chocolate Cake with Custard Filling.

Here’s an article that talks about frosting that go well with chocolate cake along with their recipes.

Check out my YouTube Channel for more delicious recipe tutorials! Made one of my recipes? Tag me on Instagram, I would love to see your creations!

Recipe Card

Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe

Moist, chocolatey and easy this chocolate cake recipe is the only recipe you’ll ever need! It makes 3, 6″ or 8″ cake layers and comes together in minutes!

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 35 min

Total Time: 45 min

Course: Dessert

Servings: 3, 8 inch layers

Calories: 430kcal

— Print Recipe –—

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour (360g)
• 1 cup cocoa powder (100g)
• 1 Tbsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups granulated sugar (600g)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 large eggs, room temp.
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, room temp. (336g)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (96g)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot brewed coffee

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C / 350 °F. Grease and line 3, 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a large bowl sift in the all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder. Add in the granulated sugar and salt and whisk to combine. Set aside.
3. In a separate medium sized bowl combine the eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together until fully combined.
5. Finally add in the hot coffee and mix to combine until the batter is smooth.
6. Divide the batter between the three pans. Give the pans a few tape to remove any air bubbles and bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs stuck to it. Do not overbake, the cake will finish baking while it cools in the pan.
7. Once baked, let the cakes stay in the pan for 10-15 minutes before flipping them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
8. Frost with any frosting you’d like and enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 429.87kcal

Total Fat: 11.5g

Carbs: 79.48g

Sugars: 51.63g

Protein: 7.14g

Sodium: 601.73mg

Fiber: 3.29g

** Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more. **

Watch Video Tutorial

More Recipes For You!

Follow The Food Flamingo

• TikTok
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Facebook