This from scratch chocolate butter cake is super moist and easy to make. Because it’s actually a chocolate cake with butter recipe, the cake has a really rich flavor to it that’s perfect for birthdays, or any time you feel like a homemade chocolate cake.
Ok, you might know that vanilla cake is my favorite, especially this one. I feel like most people, except for me, pick chocolate cake as THEIR favorite, so I wanted to give myself a challenge.
The challenge was to create a chocolate cake that I felt was as tasty as my favorite vanilla one. Now, that’s a challenge coming from this vanilla cake enthusiast, but I think I have done it.
This Chocolate Butter Cake is super moist, but it’s not a complete chocolate overload.
I LOVE this chocolate cake. Yep, you heard me right. I actually said I love a chocolate cake. Mark that one down on your calendar.
This cake has a dense crumb, but still light (does that even make sense?). It’s made with real butter with just a bit of oil. I love it because it’s not so overloaded with a super chocolaty flavor and I can still taste the butter flavor coming through. It also doesn’t feel as spongy as some of the oil chocolate cakes do.
LET’S TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE INGREDIENTS IN THE CHOCOLATE BUTTER CAKE:
Butter: Most recipes for chocolate cake that I’ve made, call for all oil and no butter. The oil really makes the cake moist, but I just prefer the denseness and the taste of a butter cake. So, I went about creating a chocolate butter cake that would actually stay moist.
You will be using a bit of oil in this cake to add a bit more moistness to it, but the butter is the shining star.
Brown Sugar: This isn’t normally in a chocolate cake, but I find that brown sugar really gives this cake a deeper flavor and provides extra moisture.
Coffee: For the liquid, I went with coffee. As my mom would always say, “Don’t knock it ’til you try it.” I promise you this cake won’t taste like coffee. In fact, you won’t even taste the coffee at all. It just helps to bring out the other flavors.
Cocoa powder: You’ll want to use unsweetened cocoa powder NOT dutch processed. Why? Because dutch processed cocoa isn’t acidic like regular unsweetened natural cocoa powder is and since you’ll be adding in baking soda, if you use dutch processed, that could mess up the rise and texture of the cake.
MIXING METHOD FOR THE CHOCOLATE BUTTER CAKE:
The mixing method for this cake is just the classic creaming method, but with a few variations.
With the creaming method, you basically whip up the butter and sugar until fluffy, then you alternately add in your dry and liquid ingredients.
The difference with this cake is that you’ll add in the hot coffee (or hot water) at the end.
Tips & FAQs for Making the Chocolate Butter Cake:
If you really can’t stand the idea of adding in coffee (remember, it won’t taste like coffee, it just enhances the flavor of the chocolate), you can actually just use really hot water instead. The cake will still taste great.
Should I use dutch cocoa or regular cocoa powder?
Use regular unsweetened natural cocoa powder. Dutch cocoa powder is made differently and you would need to make adjustments to the baking soda and baking powder if you use dutch processed.
When you say brown sugar, does it matter if it’s dark or light brown sugar?
It doesn’t really matter. Just use what you have. I used light brown, but dark brown is fine too. Also make sure you pack the brown sugar into your measuring cup.
Well this recipe is now my best ‘go to’ chocolate cake. It’s simple to make (no complicated steps) and it’s great for birthdays, or practically any other time you feel like chocolate cake.
I filled and frosted this cake with my double chocolate buttercream.
Now onto the cake recipe!
Chocolate Butter Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa (I used Hershey’s cocoa – not dutch processed)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup brown sugar (packed)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
- 1/4 cup oil
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup hot coffee
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 inch round pans.
- In a mixing bowl, add the room temp butter and the brown and granulated sugar. Beat on medium for about two minutes.
- In another bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the oil, vanilla, milk and eggs. (You’ll add the coffee later.) Set aside.
- Now you’ll add in your dry and liquid ingredients alternately. Take a third of the flour mixture and add into the butter and sugar mixture. Beat on low/medium just until combined.
- Add in half the liquid ingredients (not the coffee yet) and beat on medium just until combined.
- Add in the next third of the flour mixture, mix, then the second half of the liquid mixture and mix just until combined. Now add in the last third of the flour mixture and beat just until combined.
- Add in the hot coffee and mix until well combined. Don’t over mix. Once it’s combined, stop mixing. You don’t want to mix for several minutes, that’s too long.
- Pour into prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 35 to 40 minutes.
- Set on wire racks to cool for about ten minutes, then turn out the cake layers onto the racks and remove the pans to cool completely.
Video
Notes
You are welcome to use the metric converter button to see the weight (gram) measurements, however please note that those are my best estimates on weight as this recipe was tested and developed based on volume and your results may vary a bit from the original recipe by using the weight measurements.
Nutrition
Tools Used to Make This Recipe:
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I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I do!
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Hi,
I’m looking for a dense cake for my petit four and I’m thinking of using this recipe.
Do you think the cake will still be good, structure wise if I decrease the amount of sugar?
Thank you so much.
Hi Edel, This cake is a more dense cake, so I think it should be fine for petit fours. As far as decreasing the sugar, I wouldn’t decrease by much though because that can mess with the texture and moistness of the cake. Hope this helps!
Hi,,I was curious if you could use a bundt cake pan and if so what adjustments if any would need to be made? Thanks;)
Hey Angie, yes this should be just fine baked in a bundt pan. You shouldn’t have to make any adjustments to the ingredients, but you’ll probably need to bake it for a bit longer though. You can start checking it at about 45-50 minutes. You may have to bake a little longer than that. Just stick a skewer or toothpick in the middle and when it comes out with a few crumbs on it and not batter, then it’s good. Make sure to grease and flour the pan really well, or it will stick.
Hello,
For the cocoa powder, I am not sure if you are using sweetened or unsweetened ; I will substitute Frye’s – is it ok if it is unsweetened or do I have to adjust sugar?
Thanks!
Nadine
Hi Nadine, I use unsweetened cocoa powder. I normally just use the Hershey’s brand, but I’m guessing any brand of unsweetened cocoa powder would do.
Hiya Kara,
I’m going to use your recipe using an 8x10x3 oblong cake tin but doing just one cake to the full height of the tin. Would using 1 and a half amounts be enough or would you recommend me splitting this amount and baking two?
Thank you
Yvonne
Yvonne, I’m thinking a recipe and a half would work just fine. I haven’t used an oblong cake pan, but I’m thinking that amount sounds about right for that size. Since it’ll be a little thicker than the average 2″ deep pan, you might have to bake it just a bit longer, but you can eyeball that and see how it looks. Let me know how it works out!
Hiya Kara, thanks a lot for your prompt reply. I will definitely let you know how it turns out! Wish me luck.
Kind Regards
Yvonne
Good luck! 🙂
Hi,
In Iran we have problem with ingredients . sorry whole milk is kink of milk or kind of vegetables oil? what can i add instead of it thanks a lot
Hi there. Whole milk here is a type of milk but with a little more fat content in it than like 2% or skim milk. Any milk should be fine. I just say whole milk because it has fat in it and it works better, but you should be able to substitute it with any milk and it should be okay.
Hello Deal Lady,
I am a single man from Indiana. I recently lost my daughter and two grandaughters.
Understandably I have been feel alone and down so I decided to make myself a birthday cake.
I started my search with butter and chocolate, guess what? Your recipe came up.
I followed the directions to the letter, including the coffee. I needed to go to the store for a few things, like everything but the coffee haha. It was difficult leaving the house for me but good to get out.
Anyway sorry about the side story. I am trying to say this cake is good enough to feed Angel’s. The moistness is a ten and the chocolate flavor explodes on the tongue. Thank you for posting and or inventing this recipe. You made me happy for the first time in a while remembering how I used to bake with my girls. God Bless and keep inspiring you.
Terry
Hi Terry, What a kind person you are for sending me this comment. I am so sorry about your daughter and granddaughters. I have lost parents, but not children and I can’t imagine the trial you are going through. I am so glad my cake recipe was able to bring you some happiness for a little bit and you are so kind to let me know that. May God bless you as well. <3
5/5. I’m a newbie at baking. Googled and found this recipe. This recipe was simple to follow and the cake tasted so professional. Moist and bursting with flavours. My “guinea pigs” loved it! Thank you for the recipe.
SChin
Thanks so much for the wonderful review! I’m so glad you liked it! 😊
Hi i want to try your chocolate cake but I need a white frosting on the outside. What would you suggest?
Hi there, I’ve got a couple buttercream recipes that you might want to look at. The first is the vanilla buttercream. It won’t be bright white though, but more of a cream color, because contains butter. You could do a couple things to it to get it a little whiter and I lay that all out in that blog post. You could even add in some melted white chocolate to give it a little different taste. That post is here: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/vanillabeanbuttercreamrecipe/
If you need a bright white icing, I have that recipe too. It’s different as it uses shortening instead of butter. I prefer the taste of the all butter buttercream, but this one is good as well. You could even try doing half shortening and half butter to try and get the best of both worlds. Here’s the link to that recipe: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/bright-white-heat-stable-pipeable-buttercream/
Hope this helps!
Thank you very much.
I will forgo shortening which is unhealthy.
I will layer the cake with your chocolate buttercream and cover the outside of whole cake with vanilla buttercream.
Sounds good! Hope you like it! 😊
Why do you opt for milk rather than sour cream?
Hi there, I didn’t really want the tang of sour cream in this one, plus I felt like it didn’t needed anything extra to make it more moist. Hope this helps.
Hi! I am a huge fan of your Vanilla Bean Cake! I wanted to know why you don’t use cake flour in this recipe and is the texture the same as the vanilla cake?
Hi there, I like to change up my recipes sometimes, so some will use cake flour and some don’t. You could substitute cake flour for the all purpose flour if you wanted to, but I think it’s good with the all purpose flour. This cake probably isn’t as light and fluffy as the vanilla bean cake. It has a heavier, more dense texture to it, which I think goes really well with the chocolate flavor, but it’s very moist. Hope this helps and I’m so glad you like the vanilla cake!
Hi there! Would this cake be okay to make in advance? Say 3 days.. or should it be frozen in the mean time? TIA!
Hi Melissa, it should still be good on the third day. To get maximum freshness though, if you have time to make it ahead and freeze it, that would work as well.
Hi! Could someone please tell me if the recipe would stay the same for a 9×13 pan? Thanks so much!
I have not tested out this recipe in a 13×9 inch pan, but in theory, it should work just fine. You shouldn’t need to make any adjustments to it.
Hiya,
I’m going to make your chocolate and vanilla bean cakes. Just wondering if the oven temp in Celsius would be with or without the fan? Also roughly how tall would the 3 x 6 inch cakes turn out? Many thanks in advance
Hi Natasha, not sure about baking with the fan, so I’m just gonna say fan off. If you bake it in 3, 6″ pans, it’ll probably be around 4 1/2 – 5 inches tall without the filling and frosting. If you do decide to bake in the 6″ pans instead of the 8″ pans, start checking for doneness a bit earlier than it says. Hope this helps and let me know how it turns out!
Hi Kara
im wondering what exact cake pan size you use for this recipe ?
Thanks
Crystal, I used two, 8″ round pans that were 2″ deep.
Hi there… I wanted to make a 3D car cake. Can I use this recipe for it? Is this recommended for carving cake?
Tq
Hi there, I haven’t used this recipe for a carved cake, so I can’t say for sure whether it would work. I don’t do many carved cakes. This cake is on the dense side, so it may work just fine. It is very moist though, so it would probably be a good idea to keep it chilled to make carving it easier. I hope this helps. 🙂
Hi, Can I use all granulated sugar instead of a mix of brown and granulated sugar as specified in the recipe?
Thanks!
Yes that should work just fine.
Hello myself Ravikiran from India
If I want to make cupcakes what will be the adjustments…..
He there, you’ll just fill the cupcake liners about half way to a little more than halfway up. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I’d start checking them for doneness at about 20 minutes although it might take them a bit longer to bake than that.
Thank you for the early reply . I tried and it took 35 minutes in my otg . Thank you so much
Oh that’s really good to know! Thank you!
Hi, thanks for the recipe. Its difficult getting natural cocoa powder where i stay. Can i go ahead with the other cocoa powder i have? And what do you suggest i do to the baking soda and powder? Thanks
If you are going to use dutch processed cocoa powder then you might want to make some changes. Dutch processed cocoa powder is not acidic like regular cocoa powder is, therefor you may not need the baking soda. Try making this cake with 2 1/2 tsp baking powder instead of one and omit the baking soda. I have not tested that out, but in theory it should work.