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This chocolate cake has a super soft crumb yet is sturdy enough for large layer cakes. It’s an oil-based cake that relies on dark chocolate and cocoa powder for an intense chocolate flavor. That, along with the sugar ratios I’ve perfected, creates a super moist crumb that almost melts in your mouth.

As of this writing, I have four chocolate cakes in my Cakeculator. My black cocoa chocolate cake is deep black and tastes like Oreo cookies, my Chocolate Indulgence Cake is fudgier with a dark smoky chocolate flavor, and my Chocolate Chiffon is a fluffier, slightly drier cake with the lightest chocolate flavor. This cake here is a classic chocolate cake. Medium chocolate flavor, sweet from brown sugar, nice fudgy moist crumb.

This Chocolate Cake is in the Single-Stage Cake family. Pretty soon, I’ll have a more explanatory guide about these families. Briefly, Single-Stage Cakes have all the ingredients mixed together pretty much all at once, and there is minor aeration that occurs by whisking. Cakes made in this way have a very moist and denser crumb with a tight crumb framework. This works exceptionally well with chocolate flavors as it lends a “fudgy” texture often associated with chocolate desserts.

Additionally, these types of single-stage mixing chocolate cakes are very forgiving in terms of baking. This one uses cocoa powder, which reduces gluten development and produces a fudgy moist crumb. My single-stage chocolate cakes can also be baked to your preference. Slightly underbaking will give you a fudgy texture, whereas completely baking will give you a spongier texture. You can view the fudgy top in the picture above.

What is the flavor of this chocolate cake?

The flavor of this cake is going to depend on the brands of chocolate that you use. Choose a darker chocolate if you want a robust deep flavor. The higher percentage typically means that less sugar is added to the chocolate bar, which will give you a deeper chocolate flavor. I have successfully used dark chocolate chips in this recipe (chop those as well if you use them in the recipe), but normally I prefer to use dark chocolate bars.

Regarding the cocoas, you can use either natural or Dutch-processed, though I prefer the latter. Natural cocoa is more acidic than Dutch-processed, and you can definitely taste that and more fruity kind of astringent flavors, depending on the brand. The Dutch processing, or alkalization, reduces the acidity and in doing that, generally mellows out the astringency a bit.

Here’s a video on making this cake:

This is an older video, but the process is still somewhat the same. I’m making a half sheet pan cake here, but don’t worry, the Cakeculator will generate the correct recipe for you down below based on your choice. Also, the order of the ingredients may be different in this video, but the recipe down below is the most up-to-date version.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Now we're going to alternate dry (flour mixture) and buttermilk.

1. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, and mix on low speed until almost all the flour has been mixed in. Scape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure all the flour is gone.
2. Add half the buttermilk, mix, and scrape.
3. Add another 1/3 of the flour, mix, and scrape.
4. Add the rest of the buttermilk, mix, and scrape.
5. Add the final 1/3 of the flour, which I like to do by hand with a spatula to avoid over-mixing.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Now we're going to alternate dry (flour mixture) and buttermilk.

1. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, and mix on low speed until almost all the flour has been mixed in. Scape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure all the flour is gone.
2. Add half the buttermilk, mix, and scrape.
3. Add another 1/3 of the flour, mix, and scrape.
4. Add the rest of the buttermilk, mix, and scrape.
5. Add the final 1/3 of the flour, which I like to do by hand with a spatula to avoid over-mixing.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Now we're going to alternate dry (flour mixture) and buttermilk.

1. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, and mix on low speed until almost all the flour has been mixed in. Scape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure all the flour is gone.
2. Add half the buttermilk, mix, and scrape.
3. Add another 1/3 of the flour, mix, and scrape.
4. Add the rest of the buttermilk, mix, and scrape.
5. Add the final 1/3 of the flour, which I like to do by hand with a spatula to avoid over-mixing.