A Most Reliable, Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe

For my husband’s birthday, I offered to cook him whatever he wanted. Among his requests was my go-to chocolate buttermilk cake. I’ve been using this recipe for (gulp) about twenty-five years. It's trusty like a good friend, undemanding, and I've even taught the recipe to a man who could barely cook and he mastered it many times over. I’ve tweaked it a bunch of ways and it has never failed to rise and bake up beautifully. Thi cake delivers happiness.

“It’s light and chocolatey, and it’s easy for you to make,” he said. He opened the door for a low stress birthday celebration. I gladly walked through that door. I also did not want to go grocery shopping and wanted to use what we had at hand.

Non-Alkalized vs. Alkalized Cocoa

I rummaged through the pantry to find two kinds of unsweetened cocoa powder, a versatile, shelf-stable ingredient. Both were non-alkalized, which means they are both made of only roasted cocoa beans, which had had most of their fat removed before being ground to a powder. Alkalized cocoa is richer (darker) looking but it has been chemically treated to reduce cocoa’s naturally tart and bitter flavors; some people don’t like those attributes.

However, the tart bitterness is what makes cocoa appealing and true to its natural characteristics. Both brands were high quality and both had expired. I used the one that had already been opened since it had only expired last fall. I was not majorly concerned since I’d stored the cocoa in a dark, cool place. If you have other kinds of chocolate in the house, this site offers some substitute options, though the resulting cake will differ from using unsweetened cocoa.

I also found pastry flour lingering in the way back of the pantry. The recipe calls for all-purpose and I usually weigh the ingredients to dial things in. Lower-gluten pastry flour weighs less than all-purpose so had to add to the recipe the weight of the pastry flour. That’s why you see the different weight below.

Buttermilk Substitutes

I lacked buttermilk and only needed about 1 cup for this chocolate cake. Buttermilk used to be sold in pint-size containers at many markets but now I only see it in quart-size cartons. As a workaround, I made a buttermilk substitute, and along the way, made this little video for you too!

Some folks make buttermilk with soymilk but I've not tried it. I imagine that you'd want fresh soy milk for the best flavor (see the first part of the DIY tofu video recipe to make soymilk). Instead of buttermilk, you may use yogurt (regular or vegan), which if it’s thick, will require thinning with water; aim for the texture of kefir. Because of the baking soda, you need tang to help things leaven nicely. Sour cream (regular or vegan) would work too, thinned out a bit.

When this cake is made with buttermilk, it’s light, practically like a feather. My husband likes it that way, but I enjoy the cake the day after, when it’s a bit more fudgy. You can enrich the batter right off the bat by subbing some of the buttermilk with an egg. That’s included in the recipe below.

Cake Unmolding

And, please line the pan with parchment paper. It makes unmolding this chocolate cake (any cake) less potentially traumatic. In this quickie video, I used my trusty folding, stackable cooling racks which I’ve had for decades. It’s perfect for large batch baking and single layer cakes like this one.

I’ve baked this cake in a 9-inch pan for years but for my husband’s birthday, used an 8-inch pan to craft a cake that was taller and looked more ‘special’. It cracked and my husband looked in the oven and happily said, “It looks like a cool souffle.”

He’s a keeper, like this cake recipe.

Print Recipe

Very Versatile Chocolate Cake

You can whip up this cake in no time. It freezes well too. To fancy up the cake, frost it cake or dust it with powdered sugar. Add some berries and call it a day.

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 stick 4 oz unsalted butter, or ½ cup neutral oil
• ¾ cup 2.5 oz unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 ¾ cups 8.75 oz all-purpose flour, gluten-free flour blend (such as Bob’s Red Mill 1:1), or 1 ¾ cups (8.25 oz) pastry flour
• 1 cup 7 oz sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Brimming ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• Optional add-ins: 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ⅓ cup chopped crystallized ginger, or ½ cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk, or scant 13 tablespoons buttermilk plus 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla or bourbon

Instructions

• Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 350F. Oil an 8 or 9-inch, high-sided round cake pan and line it with parchment paper. Flour the pan, tap out the excess flour.
• If using butter, melt it in a small pan and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, in a bowl, sift together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the add-ins, if any. Make a well in the center.
• Add the buttermilk (or buttermilk and egg), melted butter, and vanilla. Stir into the dry ingredients to moisten all dry ingredients well.
• Pour into the prepared cake pan, spreading the thick batter out to the edge. Bang the pan on your counter to even things out.
• Bake for 30 to 40 minutes (the 8-inch pan will take close the maximum time), until the cake has risen, feels dry to the touch, and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 to 20 minutes before unmolding onto a plate. Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Notes

See the main post if you need ingredient substitution tips.