Chocolate Cake Recipe
This moist chocolate cake is covered in a soft, smooth ganache. We served the cake with sweetened whipped cream and mint leaves.
125g butter
100g dark chocolate
155ml (1/2 cup + 1 1/2 tablespoons) water
12g (1 1/2 tablespoons) cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder
168g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (1/2 teaspoon natural vanilla essence)
1 large egg (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)
125g (1/2 cup + 1/3 cup) self-raising flour
Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Celsius fan-forced). Grease sides and line base of a 20cm diameter round tin.
Place butter, chocolate, water, cocoa, coffee powder and sugar in a large saucepan over low heat. Stir occasionally and remove from heat when chocolate and butter have melted. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and set aside to cool for about 15 minutes.
Add vanilla and egg to chocolate mixture. Using hand-held electric beaters, beat until combined. Add flour and beat for 1-2 minutes, until mixture is smooth.
Pour mixture into prepared tin.
Bake for about 45-50 minutes. When the cake is ready, a skewer or sharp knife inserted into the centre should come out clean, or with moist crumbs (not gooey batter) attached.
Cool cake in tin on a wire rack. When cooled, remove from tin and spread with ganache. Store cake in an airtight container. We store this cake in the refrigerator, but bring it to room temperature before serving.
Ganache Recipe
60g milk chocolate
65g dark chocolate
50ml (2 1/2 tablespoons) thickened cream
Place ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. When chocolate has melted, remove from heat and stir until smooth. Allow ganache to cool to a spreadable consistency before using. © www.exclusivelyfood.com.au
69 Comments:
OH wow that first picture is awesome. I opened the page and here is this delicious-looking chocolate cake pointed at my mouth! I just wanted to take a huge bite!! Mmmm!
Your cake is delicious looking :)
Hi..the cake looks really good. I would like to try it. Which chocolate do you use for the cake...is it bakers chocolate? and for the Ganache is it again bakers chocolate or regualr choclate ..thanks!
Nelsie
Hi Nelsie, we use 'eating chocolate' in this recipe.
What a great website!!!! Why do you used coffee in this recipe, what does it do to the cake, just curious.
Cheers,Gina H
Hi Gina,
The coffee powder just adds a little extra flavour to the cake. If you really don't like coffee, you could just leave it out.
Hello Amanda & Debbie, I tried your chocolate cake and it was fabulously moist!!!! I also did put coffee and it did made a difference to the taste.
If I want to quadruple the recipe how much baking time I need?
Will await for your reply. Cheers, Gina
Hi Gina,
The baking time will be influenced by the size of the cake tin. What size tin will you be using for the quadruple mixture?
I made this cake today after a family friend requested some of my baking skills for them. I made this, I wish I didn't have to give it away.......its AMAZING!
yummy yummy yummy...its like love in my tummy....thank you!
Hi
The cake looks amazing! I was wondering if you could please tell me if this cake work with milk chocolate?
Thanks
We have only ever used dark chocolate in this recipe. So, we are not sure if using only milk chocolate would give a good result. If you do try the recipe with milk chocolate, please let us know how it goes.
Hi
This cake looks really yummy!!!!!!
I cant wait to make it but i wanted to know does the cake have a bitter taste as it uses a lot of dark chocolate.
Thanxs, great website
Hi there,this cake looks fabulous, just wanted to know whether the recipe uses salted or unsalted butter?
Many thanks!
awaiting your reply.
We don't think this cake has a bitter flavour. Is there is a brand of dark chocolate that you are happy to eat? If so, we'd recommend that you use that brand in the cake, and hopefully you won't find the cake bitter.
We use salted butter in this cake, but unsalted butter would also be fine to use.
This cake looks not only mouth watering, it makes me hungry and want to bite it off from the screen of my computer. Its my daughter's birthday today and she has requested for a chocolate cake for her birthday. Will make it later today and will let u know if its ok...grin...
Cynthia
This cake is absolutely delicious!! This recipe works well for cupcakes too. Thank you.
this cake sounds great if i wanted to double the mixture to make a bigger cake would that be ok and how much more time would i cook it for
cheers
Hi Jenny,
If you double the mixture, you'll need to bake it in a larger pan (a 28cm diameter round pan or a 25cm square pan would be suitable). Double mixture in either of these pan sizes should take about 1 hour to bake.
Love the recipe! I'm making a personal sized version for my friend's birthday. I'm going to put the batter in quiche cups and then stack them to make a triple decker with a little buttercream frosting to hold the layers together.
Help! Cake didn't rise and tasted floury. Does chocolate mix have to be completely cold - accidently went to boil point prior.
Kathy
Hi Kathy,
The cake should rise due to the self-raising flour in the recipe. Could you have accidentally used plain flour instead of self-raising flour?
The chocolate mixture should be no warmer than lukewarm when the vanilla and egg are added.
hi..i tried some of your cake recipes and its so delicious. i wanna try this recipe for my sons birthday, i wanted to know if i can use fondant icing for this cake? and can i use an oblong cake pan, instead of round tin? thanks!
Yes, you could use fondant on this cake and an oblong cake pan would be suitable. If you would like to email us the dimensions of the oblong cake pan, we can calculate the ingredient quantities that you'll need.
Delicious!
I have made this twice - once as a cake (using a 20 inch tin) and once as cupcakes (using a muffin pan).
I would not recommend making these as invidual cupcakes, as they are difficult to remove from the pan without falling apart, due to the moist nature of the cake.
This cake tastes similar to mudcake with a fabulous melt-in-the-mouth texture. This cake has a dark chocolate flavour(as opposed to some cakes that use only cocoa).
Rave reviews from the family - I will be making it again and again!
Thanks you so much for sharing this receipe. It's the BEST chocolate cake. For those who haven't tried making it yet if you think it looks good then let me asure you that it tastes even better.
My husband who never likes chocolate cakes,actually had a slice today
Cake was just awesome. I quadrupled it for an 11 inch square tin and cooked for about 75 mins and it came out perfectly. I iced it with a chocolate buttercream icing as my husband was taking it to work for his birthday. He had to snaffle a piece to bring back home for me to try before it all went! Compliments came flying in! It has top place in my best ever recipe book. Thanks
Fantastic recipe! I loved how the ganache made the cake even more chocolatey... the only problem was that i was a little tad bit impatient and ate the cake almost immediately after it came out of the oven... it seemed a little too wet and not firm enough. Maybe i should add more flour the next time.
Thanks
I absolutely adore this recipe. I've made this several times and each time it was a hit with my friends and family. To serve this cake, i like to heat it in the microwave for a few seconds, just so the icing melts a little. It taste divine warm with ice cream
hello, i tried ur recipe of the cake, it tasted well, but the size of the cake didn't increase as expected, but the cake was ok, can u pls suggest me the reason...
Hi Sabila,
The cake should rise due to the raising agents in the self-raising flour. Did you use self-raising flour when you made the cake?
i could not use self raising four, instead i mixed baking powder with all purpose flour, and sifted the flour, i used 1.5 tea spoon full baking powder...
Oh my god the looks really yummy..i want to learn how to make cakes as my fiance loves them. I love cakes too.. I wanna try it today..I will let you know how it goes.i hope it doesn't taste bitter because of the dark chocolate.
I don't like dark chocolate flavour at all. Can I use something else ..please do let me know
Hi ladies, I have a Wilton Butterfly pan that I was hoping to use. The dimensions of the tin are 11 x 8.5 x 2 inches deep. Could you please advise as to the appropriate quanitites to use plus the adjusted cooking time.
Thanks so much, I'm looking forward to trying it out.
lovey asked about using something other than the dark chocolate. Well i substituted the dark for milk chocolate and it tasted just as good. I am eternally grateful for this recipe. I have made it 4 times in the last few weeks. Once for a my brother's birthday and I made two cakes and layered them together using the ganache. Once I completed it I decorated it with chocolate slices and and wrote on the top with white chocolate ganache.
It seems to be a no fail recipe and my 5 year old had fun making it with me just yesterday.
It's a little different to my usual chocolate cake but I am finding that I am using your recipe more, and I am thankful that I found this.
Hi Anonymous,
Could you tell us the capacity of the Wilton butterfly pan (how many cups of water it holds)?
i made this chocolate cake..it tasted yummmmm..it was the chocolate cake i always dreamt of making .i ultimately used half of dark chocolate and half of milk chocolate...It didn't gave the bitter taste at all..I loved it ..I don't know how to decorate cakes..I cudn't find any recipes which described on how to decorate cakes..can u please give me some tips????
I have just made this recipe, and I must say, it is DIVINE! Thank you so much!
Hi Sabila,
All-purpose flour and one and a half teaspoons of baking powder should have been a good substitute for the self-raising flour.
Unfortunately, we don't know what could have caused the problem. Did you make any changes to the recipe?
Amazing cake !!!!! I love it !
I have tried may chocolate cake recipes but this is the best .It was big hit with the family.Again Ur recepies are perfect. I will try the carrot cake too.
Really nice cake! Thanks for another great recipe :-)
In the cake I used Cadbury Old Gold 70% Cocoa dark chocolate and for the icing I just used cadbury dairy milk chocolate, added a splash of milk and melted it in the microwave (on medium).
I decorated it with strawberries too.
Its a moist & crumbly cake that really melts in your mouth when you heat it before serving.
Great recipe ladies.I multiplied the recipe by half to make more batter then halved the total to make two beautiful chocolate cakes as a base for a Black Forest Cake. It turned out perfect.
i just want to noe will the cake still taste nice if i didn't put Ganche recipe......
Hi Lovey,
Here are some decorating ideas:
Sprinkle the cake with grated chocolate or chocolate shavings (this webpage explains how to make a variety of chocolate decorations, including chocolate shavings).
Place sugar flowers (available from the baking section of most supermarkets) or halved strawberries around the edge of the cake.
To the person who asked about making the cake without the ganache: Yes, the cake will taste nice without the ganache.
Oh this looks delicious. And I'm pleased that the ingredients aren't complicated.
I have all the ingredients here, but I use Tasmanian Creamy Butter, is that going to be an issue? Should I get the basic homebrand butter instead?
Thanks :D
If the creamy butter contains about 80 percent fat (80g fat per 100g of butter), then it should be fine to use in this recipe.
is it possible to use cocoa powder instead of dark chocolates for the ganache???
Cocoa powder wouldn't be a suitable substitute for the dark chocolate in the ganache. If you don't wish to use dark chocolate, you could use all milk chocolate. Otherwise, you could make a simple chocolate icing or chocolate butter icing.
I tried to make this cake, but it didn't bind well with the 1 large egg. Will try it again with 2 eggs. The crumbs tasted yummy though!
Do you have a recipe for chocolate icing using cocoa powder, not chocolate?
Thank you.
This cake didnt rise too much, so I made two layers with chocolate ganache and strawberries in the middle...
Turned out quite nice. This is a rich cake, do small slices will do, and since its so moist falls apart easily (mine broke when trying to stack). Yum but beware !
I made this cake on the weekend. I accidentally bought 'orange infused' dark chocolate. I considered going back to the shop, and buying another block - but in the end decided to use it.
It turned out delicious!
Great recipe.
To the person who requested a chocolate icing recipe: Are you looking for a recipe for simple chocolate icing or chocolate butter icing?
I made this for my boyfriends birthday last night and he absolutely loved it! He said it was the best thing i have ever made. it tasted so good and I made it with belgian milk chocolate and decorated it with strawberries. thanks for a great recipie!
Hi I made this cake on the weekend using Cadbury Old Gold 70% cocoa dark chocolate. It didn't rise as expected and turned out more like a brownie although I used self-raising flour. The taste was great especially with vanilla ice cream but just beware - because it is moist it can break easily.
Hi
This looks really yummy, and from the comments above, a keeper.
I have a question though. I don't have an oven in our apartment, so would it be OK to steam this cake instead of baking?
Thanks for sharing the recipe :)
Hi Marlinda,
Unfortunately, we don't have any experience with steaming cakes, so we aren't sure whether this recipe would be suitable. If you do try steaming the cake, please let us know how it turns out.
I am looking for a recipe for a simple chocolate icing, using cocoa, not a chocolate butter icing.
175g (1 1/4 cups) icing sugar
10g (1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon) cocoa powder
10g butter, softened
About 20ml (1 tablespoon) boiling water
Sift icing sugar and cocoa powder together into a bowl. Add butter and enough boiling water to form a spreadable consistency, and stir until smooth. Spread icing over cake.
I've attempted this recipe twice and have had decent results. The main issue is that it always seems to come out denser and drier than I expected. I am substituting self rising flour with cake flour + baking powder.
Does anyone have suggestions for getting a lighter and more moist result?
Hello, I made this cake with white flour before and it was amazing! Is it possible to make it with self raising wholewheat flour instead?
anon above..
I believe if you use whole wheat flour, the result will be denser, so I think it's better to add 1/2 and 1/2 (well thats my experience anyway)
The first time I made this cake it didn't rise as expected although the taste was great and it was soft. I made this cake again on the weekend for my nieces birthday. This time it came out just as expected. I realised the first time I made it I didn't sift the flour before adding it to the mixture whereas the 2nd time I did. COudl that have made a difference? Just wanted to share...
Hello,
Another yummy success! Thanks ladies. I must say the cake turned out a little crispy on the top, but was ok after adding the ganache. I have a fan focred only oven and baked for 45 mins at 140 deg. Is it supposed to turn out crispy? Anyhow, I made it for fathers day and wrote on the top with white chocolate ganache. It looked great! Thanks again.
Beck
Delicious chocolate cake ever! Complement well with Connoisseur Ice Cream Classic Vanilla...Thanks!
The only problem is how to spread the ganache nicely without lines? We tried to spread it swiftly before the ganache hardened...
The cake looks simply fantastic and i cant wait to try it out but the thing is, i have a microwave oven not a regular oven. Could you tell me how i should bake it using a microwave?
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