This easy chocolate cake is a quick and tasty recipe that melts in your mouth. It's not your traditional layer cake but a lighter, easier-to-make version.
It has a full chocolate flavor and a light orange aroma. Eat it as is, or top it with our easy chocolate ganache for a family-friendly sweet treat.
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There are many versions of a chocolate cake, from tall cakes with layers covered with frosting to flatter chocolate sheet cakes.
Our chocolate cake recipe makes a simple, round, soft, and moist cake perfect for when you feel like chocolate or cake but don't want to spend the whole day in the kitchen.
You can make this soft chocolate cake with simple ingredients, with little effort, and in less than one hour, including baking and topping.
Eat it as is, or top it with our easy, glossy chocolate ganache.
Alternatively, you can cut the cake in half and stuff it with jam or with one of our easy custards, such as classic egg-free vanilla custard, chocolate custard, coffee custard, and pistachio custard.
Ingredients
Flour
Use all-purpose flour or a mix of 50% all-purpose and 50% whole-wheat flour. For a gluten-free option, use a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour mix for cakes.
Milk
Any milk works, including soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, and any other plant milk. We use soy milk.
Sugar
You can use white sugar or brown sugar.
Oil
Pick an oil with light color and neutral flavor. Good ones for baking are canola, sunflower, avocado, and light olive oil.
We don't use butter in our easy chocolate cake to keep the recipe light and suitable for all.
For an oil-free cake, substitute apple sauce or water for the oil.
Cacao powder
Unsweetened cacao powder (best if dutch processed) gives a rich chocolate flavor.
Bloom the cacao powder with hot water before adding it to the batter to maximize its flavor.
You can also use unsweetened cocoa powder.
Chocolate chips
Dark chocolate chips make the cake even more decadent and more chocolatey.
Baking powder
Baking powder makes the cake light and fluffy.
Make sure your baking powder is fresh and hasn't been sitting in your pantry for too long. Old baking powder might not work.
There's no need for baking soda in this chocolate cake.
Orange
This is an optional ingredient. However, we love mixing in the grated zest of one orange to add freshness and aroma.
Chocolate and orange are a perfect match, and if you haven't tried them yet, you are in for a treat.
Chocolate ganache
We make a super quick and easy ganache with dark chocolate chips (or chopped dark chocolate), water, and vanilla extract.
Note: we don't add espresso powder to our chocolate cake because we don't keep it in our pantry. There's also no need for buttercream, lemon juice, or vinegar, as we don't use baking soda in this easy chocolate cake recipe.
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
Preheat the oven to 340°F or 170°C. Lightly grease your springform pan with oil, then dust it with flour or line it with parchment paper. Set aside.
To a small mixing bowl, add cacao powder and hot, almost boiling water. Whisk until the cacao powder melts. Set aside.
To a large mixing bowl, add orange zest, milk, sugar, oil, salt, and the melted cacao powder and whisk the wet ingredients until well combined.
Sift in the flour and the baking powder and whisk for a few seconds until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined, then mix in the chocolate chips.
Tip: don't overmix the batter. Overmixing develops the gluten, making the cake heavy and gummy. Some lumps are ok.
Pour the chocolate cake batter into the cake pan.
Bake in the oven at 340°F or 170°C for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.
Transfer the cake to a wire rack a let it cool down.
Note: the cake will dome and crack a little, and that's ok. We are not going for perfect looks here.
Chocolate Ganache
Add dark chocolate chips, vanilla extract, and hot water (not boiling).
Stir with a spatula until the chocolate melts.
Note: ganache is a simple chocolate glazing made from melted chocolate and a liquid.
Let the ganache cool down for 15 minutes, then pour it on the chocolate cake. Spread it with the back of a spoon, let it set, and serve.
Variations
Chocolate cake with jam filling
Orange jam, sour cherry, or strawberry jam are all great flavor pairings for this chocolate cake.
You can also fill it with a hazelnut spread or a simple custard for festive occasions.
Chocolate pound cake
Use the chocolate cake batter to make a perfectly moist chocolate pound cake. It's a delicious and week-friendly cake with 9 easy-to-find ingredients.
Check out our chocolate pound cake recipe.
More easy cakes
Lemon cake
Our lemon cake is an easy recipe; you'll have a light and zesty treat made with just 8 ingredients.
You can eat it as is or fill it with lemon curd or custard for an indulgent and party-friendly cake.
Check out our lemon cake recipe.
Orange cake
Make this fruity and light orange cake with freshly squeezed orange juice and easy-to-find ingredients. You can make a quick orange curd as a filling or eat the cake as is.
Check out our orange cake recipe.
Apple cake
You'll love this apple cake because it's soft, moist, light, airy, and easy to make with a few simple ingredients and lots of apples.
This cake is perfect for any occasion and is a sure crowd-pleaser.
Check out our apple cake recipe.
Tips
How to scale this recipe?
This recipe is easy to scale. We calculated the scaling number for you. First, pick the springform pan you want to use for your cake, then multiply all the ingredients in our recipe box by the scaling number in this table.
| Pan size | Scaling Number |
|---|---|
| 4 inch (10 cm) | 0.22 |
| 5 inch (13 cm) | 0.31 |
| 6 inch (15 cm) | 0.44 |
| 7 inch (18 cm) | 0.60 |
| 8 inch (20 cm) | 0.79 |
| 8.5 to 9 inches (21 to 23 cm) | 1 (this is what we used) |
| 10 inches (25 cm) | 1.23 |
| 11 inches (28 cm) | 1.5 |
Questions
1) Melt the cacao powder in hot water for 5 minutes before adding it to the cake batter.
2) Do not use butter, not even vegan butter or coconut oil, but just little vegetable oil.
3) Do not over-mix the batter. Instead, mix it with a spatula for a few seconds. Don't worry about lumps.
4) Add the baking powder last.
5) Prep a springform pan and preheat the oven to bake your cake immediately after mixing the ingredients.
Dark chocolate with a 70% and above cacao content is generally dairy-free and vegan. If you are in doubt, read the label. The same is true for cacao powder, cocoa powder, and dark chocolate chips.
Storage
Room temperature: this cake stores well for up to a week. You can keep it on your kitchen counter, wrapped in foil or plastic wrap.
Fridge: If it's very hot where you live, keep it in the refrigerator, wrapped in plastic.
Freezer: you can freeze this chocolate cake, but it would be best to do it before you add ganache or the filling. Let it cool down completely, transfer it into a freezer-friendly bag, and freeze it for up to 3 months.
When you take it out of the freezer, let it thaw in the refrigerator first, then add the ganache or the filling.
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Recipe
Easy Chocolate Cake
Equipment
- Springform pan 8.5 to 9 inches (23 to 24 cm) in diameter.
Ingredients
WET INGREDIENTS
- ½ cup unsweetened cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup milk any, we use almond milk
- ¾ cups sugar
- ¼ cups vegetable oil sunflower, canola, or other
- 1 orange the grated zest (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
DRY INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ cup dark chocolate chips
GANACHE (optional for topping)
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
- ⅓ cup hot water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 340°F or 170°C. Lightly grease your springform pan with oil, then dust it with flour or line it with parchment paper. Set aside.
- To a small bowl, add cacao powder and hot, almost boiling water. Whisk until the cacao powder melts. Set aside.
- To a large bowl, add orange zest, milk, sugar, oil, salt, and the melted cacao powder and whisk the wet ingredients until well combined.
- Sift in the flour and the baking powder and whisk for a few seconds until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined, then mix in the chocolate chips.Tip: don't overmix the batter. Overmixing develops the gluten, making the cake heavy and gummy. Some lumps are ok.
- Pour the chocolate cake batter into the cake pan.
- Bake in the oven at 340°F or 170°C for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.Transfer the cake to a wire rack a let it cool down.
CHOCOLATE GANACHE
- Add dark chocolate chips, vanilla extract, and hot water (not boiling).Stir with a spatula until the chocolate melts.
- Let the ganache cool down for 15 minutes, then pour it on the chocolate cake. Spread it with the back of a spoon, let it set, and serve.
Notes
Nutritional Values
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Fflur
This cake was so delicious and the texture is incredible!! The best vegan cake I have ever made, thank you .
Chef Nico
Thank you Flur, I am so happy you share my chocolate-cake-passion! What a compliment. Cheers, Nico
Nara
Thank you so much for this recipe! It’s so hard to find good recipes for my allergies without lots of costly ingredients, this recipe is perfect! I made it with the chocolate cream for the filling and used almond milk instead of soy, it turned out perfectly! Once again thanks so much for making these recipes 💕
Nico
Nara, thank you very much for commenting! I am really happy that you like the cake and the ingredients - wonderful idea with the almond milk, that I have to try!! Enjoy your day!
Nico
Shira
A really simple and yummy cake! One problem i had though is it didnt rise like it was supposed to.. really want to make the cake again, and make it right this time. Could you give me any tips or guesses why it didnt rise?
Chef Nico
Hi Shira,
thank you for the message...a few guesses:
- make sure your baking powder is fresh and that it didn't sit in your pantry for too long.
- once you add the baking powder to the batter, try to bake the cake as soon as possible, without letting it sit out for too long (it helps to preheat the oven in advance so you don't have to wait). The baking powder will start losing some of its rising effect once in the batter.
- are you using the right cake pan? This cake is not super tall, if you want it taller you could use a smaller cake pan 🙂
- finally, it could be that your baking powder is different than mine, and you might need to add a little more. Try and read the instructions on the back of the package of your baking powder to see how to best use it.
Hope this helps 🙂
Have a great day!
Nico