This triple chocolate cake is SO delicious. It’s easy and is made in just one bowl! This scratch chocolate cake recipe mixes together in just minutes and comes out super moist. There’s no cake mix for this one, it’s all homemade and is packed with so much chocolaty goodness.
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Hey there! Before you scroll, there’s lot’s of important stuff in the post!…including the FAQ section, which may answer any questions you might have about this recipe. Enjoy!
Alright, let’s talk about the ingredients in this one.
INGREDIENTS FOR THE ONE BOWL TRIPLE CHOCOLATE CAKE:
Of course there’s chocolate, but we’re using three different kinds of chocolate…hence the name ‘triple’ chocolate cake.
Cocoa powder – The majority of the chocolate taste comes from cocoa powder. You’ll be using unsweetened cocoa powder, and NOT the dutch type of cocoa powder.
Unsweetened chocolate baking bar – This adds a little more chocolate flavor without adding any extra sweetness.
Mini chocolate chips – Here’s where it gets fun. We are kicking up the chocolate flavor even more by adding in some mini chocolate chips. Using the mini chips helps keep them suspended in the cake batter, rather than using full sized chips, which would sink to the bottom.
I also decided to go with regular all purpose flour on this one instead of cake flour, because I figure most people have that on hand and frankly, if you’re wanting to mix up a quick cake in one bowl, you probably don’t have a lot of fancy ingredients, or time to go and get fancy ingredients, right?
We ARE adding hot water or coffee to this, but don’t worry, you will not taste the coffee…it just seems to bring out the flavor of the chocolate more.
MIXING METHOD FOR THIS CAKE:
The mixing method for this one is a little different. In order for this all to be mixed in one bowl, I had to put my thinking cap on.
We are doing things a little different with this one and going with a modified creaming method here, which I explain in the recipe card below. Don’t worry though, it’s not complicated…hey we’re trying to save our sanity by mixing in just one bowl, so why make things complicated, right?
TIPS & FAQs FOR THE ONE BOWL TRIPLE CHOCOLATE CAKE:
- I just used my hand mixer for this one, but you can use a stand mixer as well if you have one.
- Make sure to melt the chocolate and butter ahead of time, as referenced in the recipe, so that they have time to cool down a bit before adding in the other ingredients.
- You want to use unsalted butter, not salted butter or margarine.
- What if I don’t have vanilla bean paste? That’s okay, you can use vanilla extract in the same amount.
- Make sure you’re using unsweetened cocoa powder. I used the Hershey’s brand. Also make sure you’re not using the dutch processed kind. There is a difference.
- The hot coffee really helps bring out the chocolate flavor, but the cake will NOT taste like coffee. You won’t even know it’s in there. But, if you don’t have coffee or can’t stand the idea of adding it in there, just use really hot water instead. Don’t just omit the liquid altogether though.
- If you can’t find mini chocolate chips, you can use regular sized chocolate chips and either put them in a large ziplock bag and break them up with a rolling pin, or add them to a food processor and break them up. Then toss them with a tablespoon or so of flour to coat them. This well help them not to sink as much.
- If you don’t have mini chocolate chips and don’t care to add them, that’s okay. You can omit them if you need to. They do add some extra chocolate flavor and moistness to the cake, but they aren’t critical.
- As always, try really hard not to over-mix. (And by over-mixing, I mean once you get all your ingredients added to the bowl, you don’t need to mix the batter for several minutes, that’s too long. Just mix until everything is incorporated.)
- Make sure you preheat your oven…we’re baking at 325 F for this cake.
- These cake layers will bake up with a bit of a dome on the top and may have a few cracks in the top. Just ignore it. It doesn’t hurt anything and you can take a knife or cake leveler and just level off the top if it bothers you.
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SUPPLIES & TOOLS USED TO MAKE THIS CAKE:
- Large Glass Mixing Bowl
- Hand Mixer
- 8″ Round Cake Pans
- Cooling Racks
- Large Icing Spatula
- Double Chocolate Buttercream Recipe
Note About Recipe Measurements: I write recipes using volume (cups) measurements because here in the U.S., this is what people are more familiar with and I don’t want anyone to feel intimidated when baking. For metric/weight measurements, click the ‘metric’ button under the ingredients in the recipe card below. The weights are converted by a program, not me, and it’s just a best guess. I can’t guarantee that weighing the ingredients will produce the exact same results, since I test recipes using volume measurements.
Recipe:
One Bowl Triple Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 4 oz bar unsweetened chocolate baking bar (melted and cooled a bit-see instructions below)
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 tablespoon vegetable or canola oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not dutch cocoa powder)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup hot coffee (or hot water)
- 1 ½ cups mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk chocolate)
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Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Grease and flour two, 8 inch round cake pans and set aside.
- Break up the baking chocolate bar and place in a large microwaveable mixing bowl. Heat in the microwave about one minute, stir and heat again for another minute and stir. If not melted, microwave in 20 second increments, stirring in between until melted.
- Once melted, add in the 1 cup of butter (2 sticks). It’s helpful to cut up the butter before adding it to the bowl. (You can also just melt the butter in another bowl, but then it would be a two bowl cake and not a one bowl cake.)
- Stir the sliced butter into the melted chocolate until all the butter is melted. If the butter needs help melting, just pop in the microwave for a few more seconds until fully melted.
- Set the mixing bowl with the chocolate and the butter aside to cool a bit. It needs to be closer to room temperature when you add in the rest of the ingredients. (You can pop it into the fridge for about 15 minutes, then stir.)
- Once it’s a bit closer to room temperature, stir it again and add in the sugar and oil and mix well on medium speed for a couple minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing on medium only until just combined.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again for a few seconds only.
- Add in one cup of the flour only and mix on medium until just combined.
- Add in the milk and vanilla extract and mix again on medium only until just combined.
- Add the rest of the flour (1 cup), the cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt to your bowl and mix on medium speed only until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again for only a few seconds. Do not over-mix.
- Add in the hot coffee or water and mix again with an electric mixer on medium speed only until incorporated. Do not over-mix. Mixing for several minutes is too long.
- Add in the mini chocolate chips and fold in with a rubber spatula or spoon.
- Pour into prepared pans and bake at 325 degrees for approximately 55 – 60 minutes.
- It’s going to have a bit of a dome and crack just a bit on the top, but don’t worry about that. You can take a knife or a cake leveler and level the tops of the cake layers if you want.
- Cool on a wired rack, in the pans, for about 15-20 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto the rack and allow them to cool completely before covering with buttercream or freezing them.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
How to Share
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OTHER RECIPES YOU MIGHT LIKE:
- Chocolate Butter Cake
- Double Chocolate Buttercream
- Red Velvet Buttercream
- Milk Chocolate Chip Cake
- Double Chocolate Black Forest Cake
Don’t forget to pin it below!
Eunice
Thank u so much
Kara Jane
You’re welcome! ❤️
Alyce
Hello,
I made the triple chocolate cake and came out a little dense. The recipe on the card calls for 8oz semi-sweet chocolate baking bar and recipe in this blog calls for 4oz. You may want to change the recipe card to show 4oz instead of 8oz. I also used 1 cup of coffee and seemed like it was a little runny. Will try using a little less than a cup of coffee next time when making g this cake. The frosting tasted great!
Kara Jane
Thank you for letting me know about my typo in the recipe card! I will go and adjust that. Yes, it should be 4 oz. As far as the cake being dense, I tested this recipe several times and although it isn’t as light as a cake mix recipe, I didn’t find it to be super dense. We each have our own preference though. I really wouldn’t use less liquid though because that could cause it to be even more dense and dry. The batter in this cake is a bit runnier than your average cake batter…you might take a look at the video and see if your batter was about the same consistency as that one. Also, just be real careful not to mix too much or too long as that can make a cake very dense as well.
Alyce
I forgot to add that I used cake flour instead of the all purpose flour in the one bowl triple chocolate cake.
Maybe this is why it was a little runny. Cake flour is a little bit lighter than all purpose flour.
Kara Jane
It’s possible that may have contributed to it, but I’m not sure how much though. Generally if you’re using cake flour instead of all purpose flour, you’d actually use a bit more cake flour. They don’t really substitute cup for cup, so that may have contributed to it. I would still be real hesitant to lessen the amount of coffee or water added to the cake, because that’s going to throw the ingredient ratios off and you could get a dry cake.
Mindy Port
I am so glad that I came across this recipe! OMG!!! it’s amazing! Thank you so much for this recipe!
Kara Jane
Thanks Mindy! I’m so glad you liked it! ?
Kayla
Hi! Would this work well for 6inch round cake pans?
Kara Jane
Yes you could use three 6 inch round pans for this one. The layers will be a little thinner than if you use two 8″ round pans. Also, you’ll probably need to bake them for a little less time since they’re smaller cake layers. Start checking them at about 30 minutes or so.