Perfectly Chocolate Cake
Some people have to go half their lives (or even longer) without having the perfect chocolate cake recipe. I didn't. When I was a kid, at least once a year my mom would make the best chocolate cake I've ever had. The funny thing is this: there's nothing secret about this recipe. No tricks, secret ingredients, or anything like that. It's on every container of Hershey's Cocoa Powder that you'll find in your grocery store!
Hershey's has a "Perfectly Chocolate" recipe for both chocolate cake as well as chocolate frosting. Both use Hershey's Cocoa Powder, which was actually the Hershey company's first product available to the public, back in 1894! It's been around for a long time, and there's something inherently cool about using an ingredient I know my great-grandparents might have been using in their own baking. Truthfully, you can use a different brand of cocoa powder for these recipes, and I've even used cacao powder too (a little different, but mostly the same thing). Just make sure that whatever kind of cocoa you use is good quality, because it's going to be flavoring your whole cake!
My mom actually uses a slightly different recipe for her frosting, which I won't share, because we do still need some family secrets. But I've used the Hershey's recipe for frosting myself, and I can tell you that it's still spectacular, so I'm not leading you astray! You shouldn't feel limited to using chocolate frosting on this cake, though – peanut butter would be incredible too, or just your standard vanilla buttercream! I'm making this for my birthday, though, so it's going to be allllllll chocolate.
Not only does this cake not require any odd ingredients – it's all standard stuff that a baker would have in their pantry – it's also the most moist cake you'll ever eat. Adding a cup of boiling water to the batter makes it seem really thin, but when it bakes, that water turns into a magical ingredient that waves a wand over your cake and turns it into the greatest thing you'll ever eat.
If you do decide to give this recipe a try, and you should, I have to warn you – after one bite, you'll be furious you didn't know that this gem of a recipe has been hiding in plain sight for years. Oh, and make sure you have some extra milk in the fridge!
Prep Time: 15 minutes for cake, 5 minutes for frosting
Bake Time: 30-35 minutes
Ingredients
2 cups sugar 1 ¾ cups flour ¾ cup cocoa powder 1 ½ t baking powder 1 ½ t baking soda 1 t salt 2 eggs 1 cup milk ½ cup vegetable oil 2 t vanilla 1 cup boiling water
Frosting:
½ cup butter
⅔ cup cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar
⅓ cup milk
1 t vanilla
Directions
Heat oven to 350 F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, but instead of flour, use a little cocoa powder. This way, when you take the baked cakes out, there won't be any white flour stuck to them!
In a large bowl, stir together your dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt). Mix in eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, and stir quickly (or use a mixer on medium) for 2 minutes. Then stir in boiling water – the batter will be thin, but this is how it's meant to be.
Split the batter between the two cake pans, and bake 30-35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool at least 15 minutes, then remove from the pans to cool further on wire racks.
Frosting:
When the cakes are completely cool, start on the frosting. Melt the butter, and stir in the cocoa powder. Alternately add the powdered sugar and milk, beating with a mixer on low or medium to spreading consistency but not beyond – be careful to not over-beat! Last, stir in the vanilla. This makes about 2 cups of frosting.
Happy Eating,
Natalie