Chocolate Cake from Scratch

How to make a Scratch Chocolate Cake

*You can find the full, printable recipe for this rich chocolate layer cake further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of how we made the cake!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans (We often line our pans with parchment paper as well)

In a mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients: sugar, all purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk these dry ingredients for 1 minute to blend.

Add softened butter a few pieces at a time while the mixer is on low speed. Mix until the dry ingredients look like coarse sand and the dry ingredients are moistened. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, milk , oil and vanilla until blended.

With the mixer on low speed, SLOWLY add about half of the egg mixture to the dry ingredients. Increase the speed to medium and mix for 1 ½ minutes at medium speed. Scrape the bottom and sides of bowl. Add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings, beating for 20 seconds after each pour. Scrape the sides and bottom of bowl.

Next, slowly add the cup of hot coffee (prepared instant coffee or brewed) and mix another 30 seconds until blended. The chocolate cake batter will be very runny. Don't worry!

Pour into 3 prepared 8" pans and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until the center of the cake springs back to the touch or a small wooden pick comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs attached.The cake layers will pull away ever so slightly from the sides of the pan.

Cool the cakes 10 minutes on a wire rack and then turn out of the pans.

*Yields approximately 9 cups of batter, plenty for three 8 inch cake pans and a nice, tall cake!

Recipe FAQs

The Reverse Creaming Method is a popular method for creating a slightly denser, more melt-in-your-mouth texture.

Cakes using the Reverse Creaming Method often have a finer crumb and you'll notice while preparing the recipe that the ingredients are added in a different order than what you may be used to.

With this method, the butter is added to the flour mixture/dry ingredients to create a crumbly moist sand-like mixture rather than creaming it with the sugar. The combined wet ingredients are slowly added to the batter rather than alternating between wet and dry ingredients.

Some of our recipes that use this method are our Orange Dreamsicle Cake, Scratch Strawberry Cake, Yellow Cake, and Pink Lemonade Cake.

If you are new to this method, you may be interested in watching our free video here: The Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing!

**If you prefer to use the traditional creaming method, check out our Chocolate Cupcakes recipe! The only difference in this recipe is the mixing method. You can use this recipe for cake layers as well.

Coffee is a common ingredient in scratch chocolate cakes like this one (as well as our Fudge Cake and Chocolate Sour Cream Cake). The purpose of the coffee is that it enhances the chocolate flavor in the cake.

It is unlikely that you will be able to detect any of the coffee or espresso flavor in the recipe, but it does seem to add a richness to the chocolate that we think you'll really enjoy.

It is fine to use a decaffeinated coffee, or if you need to skip the coffee altogether, you can substitute with hot water instead. Adding hot coffee (or hot water) further develops the cocoa, which deepens the chocolate flavor.

This scratch chocolate cake can be kept in an airtight container or under a cake dome at room temperature for a couple of days. After that, we recommend moving it to the refrigerator for freshness.

If you refrigerate this cake, make sure to move it to the kitchen counter 2-3 hours before serving so that it will have plenty of time to warm and soften.

Because of the butter in the cake as well as the frosting, it will become firm when chilled.

Yes, just as with most of our cake recipes (from lemon cake to orange cake, strawberry cake, and more), these chocolate layers freeze beautifully.

Once the cake have cooled a bit, wrap the warm (or room temperature) layers individually in plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil. For extra support, we like to place each layer on it's own foil-wrapped cake cardboard and then wrap. Freeze for up to three months!

To thaw, move the wrapped chocolate cake layers to the kitchen counter. Unwrap after 30-45 minutes (once condensation is no longer forming on the wrapping).

Assemble and decorate as usual. Some bakers like to assemble the cakes while the layers are still partially frozen as they are less fragile.

More Chocolate Cakes

Aside from today's rich chocolate cake, we have created many more Chocolate Cakes that we love!

The BEST Classic Chocolate Cake from Scratch! So decadent, moist, and delicious! Recipe by MyCakeSchool.com!

373 Comments

BeBe says:

July 5, 2020 at 9:06 am

Hi Mary, I'm so glad you enjoyed the cake!! Thank you for your nice post!

Reply
Tishawn Blue says:

July 7, 2020 at 12:25 am

So the water needs to be hot, it can't be cooled down

Reply
BeBe says:

July 7, 2020 at 7:46 am

Hi Tishawn, The hot water is to aid in dissolving the cocoa powder.

Reply
Lindsay says:

August 7, 2020 at 10:09 pm

This chocolate cake is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Thank you for posting such a great recipe!

I have a question: can this be made in a Bundt cake pan? If so, do you have a suggestion of how long to bake it?

Thank you!

Reply
Melissa Diamond says:

September 9, 2020 at 10:16 am

It is not Dutch Process Cocoa.

Reply
Appyhanie says:

September 11, 2020 at 6:42 pm

What alterations should I make for an 8*8 square pan?

Reply
BeBe says:

September 12, 2020 at 12:06 pm

Hi Appyhanie, This recipes makes approximately 9 cups batter. You can use 4 cups of batter in an 8x2 inch square pan. You can use less batter (making adjustments in baking time) but no more than 4 cups per pan. Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes. Click the link below for a batter amounts chart that you will find helpful.

Reply
Sherrie Willhite says:

November 4, 2020 at 7:40 pm

I have made this cake before and it wasn't near as pretty but it was absolutely moist and delicious but for some reason I was thinking the cocoa powder call for in this recipe was Ghirardelli Cocoa powder but I guess I was mistaken.

Reply
BeBe says:

November 4, 2020 at 8:51 pm

Hi Sherrie, We did use Ghirardelli cocoa powder in this recipe.

Reply
Kimberly L Knapp says:

November 20, 2020 at 3:49 pm

I have two 9 inch pans. How long should I bake cakes for?

Reply
BeBe says:

November 20, 2020 at 8:29 pm

Hi Kimberly, For two 9 inch pans, bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Keep an eye on it, it is done when a toothpick into the center comes out clean or without just a few crumbs attached.

Reply
Grisselle Cougle says:

June 13, 2021 at 1:07 pm

Would there be any difference in amount of flour used if I used cake flour I tread of regular flour?

Reply