The Best Chocolate Cake Ever – One Bowl Recipe

A good chocolate cake never gets old. Its also something thats can be the easiest thing to bake or the most complicated  depending on what you want to do. I always end up looking for the simplest recipes which take the least amount of time to make and are the easiest to clean up after. And this one is pretty close to perfection in all those categories. It uses one big bowl, and turns out perfectly moist and delicious every time!

I recently made this for our wedding anniversary, it took me around 30 mins to bake and another 15 to decorate or ice. The icing ended up not being enough to do the swirly thing I was trying to do over the entire cake so I pretty much gave up and just did the top part properly 😀 Anyways it tasted amazing! This is where the original one bowl chocolate cake recipe is from. I’ve made it a couple of times and I’ve changed it according to what I like and I feel like I now have the perfect version down. You can of course modify and add things you like and leave out others. I’ve heard that you should strictly follow recipes, but I just cannot ever do that. I always end up changing things to suit my palate and honestly that’s just more fun 🙂

This cake was baked in 2 round 6′ baking tins and I sliced each cake in half to make 4 layers. I added a coffee cream cheese frosting between the layers and generously sprinkled butterscotch chips on top of the frosting between each layer. For the top I made a buttercream frosting and added red food coloring to make it red. Then I used a piping bag and a simple cake decorating tip to pipe these swirls all over the cake. Since it was our anniversary and I wanted a really decadent cake, I added some whiskey but thats completely optional and you can totally leave that out.

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup prepared hot black coffee (without milk)

For the  buttercream:

• Red food coloring
• 3 cups of icing sugar
• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla
• 1 to 2 tablespoons of black coffee

For the Creme cheese frosting:

• 250 grams cream cheese at room temperature
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups icing suger
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 – 3 tablespoons of black coffee till it reaches desired consistency

Directions:

Preheat over to 180 degree C or 350 degree F. Prepare two round cake tins by lining with parchment paper or butter paper and grease with butter and then flour.

Sift in the flour and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Then add all other dry ingredients and mix with a whisk or a spatula. Them add all the wet ingredients and mix this mixture for two minutes. Add the warm black coffee last. The mixture will be watery, don’t worry this is what makes a moist cake. Divide batter evenly in two cake tins and bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 mins till a toothpick inserted in the centre of cake comes our clean.

Once cakes are ready, let them cool for 10 mins and then gently take them out of the cake tins. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate the cakes for about 10 – 15 mins. Now we can make the frosting.

For the red buttercream:

Whisk the butter and icing sugar for 2 mins, then add vanilla extract and continue whisking while adding the coffee slowly till it reaches the desired consistency. Add the red food coloring in the end and whisk throughly till combined. Use an electric mixer if you have one for this part, it really helps. Otherwise you can do this by hand as well and develop really toned arms.

For the cream cheese frosting:

Whisk the softened room temperature butter and cream cheese for 2 -3 mins. Then add vanilla extract and one cup of icing sugar at a time and continue whisking till smooth and creamy. Add the coffee as needed to reach desired consistency.

Now we have everything ready lets decorate the cake. Bring the two cake layers our cake of the fridge. Slice each layer carefully in half horizontally to create 4 layers. Frost each layer generously with the cream cheese frosting and add butter scotch chips on top. Place the next cake layer and repeat till we reach the top layer. Now we use the red buttercream to frost the top and outside part of the cake. You can frost the cake normally using a spatula or use a piping bah with a regular tip to create swirls to cover entire cake. Now refrigerate cake for at least an hour or overnight to set. Then our cake is ready!

Hope you enjoyed the recipe. If you make it don’t forget to tag us on your picture on Twitter or Instagram. I would love to see them. Also lots of holiday dresses and posts to come so make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything. Happy Holidays! Till next time 🙂

–Sat