Basic Chocolate Cake
Here is a basic chocolate cake recipe. It’s simple and awesome and yummy. Can be sliced and layered, or baked into cupcakes, or had as is.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 5 eggs room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 heaped tbsp. cadbury's drinking chocolate powder sweetened
- 3 heaped tbsp. cocoa powder unsweetened
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract or essence
- 1 1/4 cup milk or buttermilk
Instructions
- You can bake this in a 9×13 pan or use two 9″ pans then layer your cakes with frosting or ganache. You can even make cupcakes out of this, it would yield about 24 small cupcakes.Preheat oven to 180C.
- Grease and put some parchment in your pans. Then grease the parchments as well and dust with a bit of flour.Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Add the cocoa and drinking chocolate into the flour. Set aside.Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape sides of bowl every few minutes using the whisk attachment or a rubber spatula. This is crucial. Otherwise you’re going to be left with chunks of butter in your finished batter. So make sure you cream it well and don’t rush! 🙂Add eggs one at a time. Making sure each egg is perfectly incorporated before you add another. If you skip too quickly past this stage, you will have a cake that smells of eggs because the bits of egg that aren’t fully beaten in will bake separately in the cake and it will be like having scrambled eggs cooking in your cake, eww! So incorporate the eggs whenever you reach this stage for any cake recipe!! Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl after every few eggs. Add vanilla.
- Add flour and buttermilk in three alternative pours, starting and ending with flour. Mix on slow speed and scrape the bowl during the process. I know, it’s a pain in the butt. It’s worth it. At this stage do NOT over mix, just combine until the batter is incorporated. Over mixing can ruin your cake.Once everything is well incorporated, use a plasticspatula to fold the batter a few more times to makeperfectly sure you’ve got everything will mixed.Divide the batter between your cake pans. Bake in preheated oven for twenty-five to forty minutes. Check for doneness by pressing gently on the cake. If you leave an indent, not done. If it bounces back gently without leaving a mark, done. You can use a toothpick to check also. Don’t over bake the cake! 🙂Let the cake cool in the pan for a few minutes then turn it out onto a rack to finish cooling completely.Now you can frost it, slice and layer it, ganache it with chocolate…anything you want!Enjoy!!HERE is my frosting recipe.
av recently been introduced to this website by my friends cooking has never been this much fun av been trying 2bake a simple cake like 4ever & 4 the first time ALHAMDULILAHI. may ALLAH reward you
can i use oil instead of butter???
No, best to use butter for this recipe.
can i have a recipe for a oil cake
Please check for Moist Chocolate Cake in this folder.
Hi,what do u mean by scraping the bowl?can u olso blend the ingredients when creaming the butter and sugar then the eggs?Shukran
Hi, it means using the spoon to collect all the batter from the sides of the bowl so it is well mixed. Don’t blend, use a cake machine or whisk.
Sorry another thing can i use margarine/blueband instead of butter?
Yes you can.
hw much is one cup because cups differ in sizes, your 2 cups do they amount to half a kilo of flour??
Please refer to this note for my measurement conversions: My Measurements
When u say all purpose flour do u mean plan flour
Yes, same thing.
Assalamu Alaikum, how do I store the cake and for how long? Or do I hav to add any preserving ingredients?
W/Salaam, the cake will keep for up to 1 week in the fridge and up to 2 months in the freezer. Just wrap it very well in cling film so that it doesn’t dry out.
u r a gr8cook MA,God bless u:)
Do you need to use salted butter or unsalted?
I prefer unsalted but either will be fine.
plz tell me that do u use electric oven for baking or gas oven… plz reply meee….
I use an electric fan-assisted oven.
thanks for replying plz tell me how should i use gas oven for baking… becoz i have larger gas oven but i don’t know how to use it properly….
Am not familiar with gas ovens, sorry! I have only ever used electric ones.
Hi fauzia,
I have tried this recipie a few times and did it with cupcakes . The problem that I have if the cupcakes flatten upon taking out of the oven. The cake taste nice though . I have look through your tips on cakes and seems to have comply on all .
Could u assist ?
Tq
jenny
Hi, try changing the baking powder and see if that helps.
Can I use plain milk instead of buttermilk?
Yes you can, although you can make the buttermilk and use that.
hii fauzia… i made this basic chocolate cake and used chocolate frosting making it layered chocolate cake but it really got high eulogy…… it tasted nice and yummy also looked very beautiful… Thanks a lot for a wonderful recipe like this…
Salam fauzy ur recipes are awesome. Pl can u tell me hw to make d chocolate for garnishing?
W/Salaam, check the rest of the folder for assorted ganache and frostings.
salam can u name some unsalted butters? i couldn’t find it
W/Salaam, different countries have different brands. You can use salted if you cannot find unsalted. Just reduce the salt in the recipe.
salam, I’ve heard vanilla essence and extract have a tiny ammount of alcohol in them making them haram. What brand or type do you use in your recipes please? Do you know if they are halal versions? or is there a substitute i could use instead?
W/Salaam, there are many brands of halal vanilla essence, check for them online or from asian/muslim grocers. Otherwise use any flavouring of your choice or vanilla powder.
Salams may I. Know how many grams equals 1 cup of butter
W/Salaam. Please refer to this note for my measurement conversions: My Measurements
Salams fauzia, i only have unsweetened cocoa powder. Is there any way to sweeten it? Thanks for all the recipes!
W/Salaam, add a bit of sugar to it.
Asalaamu alaikum Fauzia,
Is it okay if I leave out the “drinking chocolate powder” and continue with the rest of the recipe? If yes, then do I need to increase the amount of cocoa powder & sugar in the recipe?
Thanks..
One li’l doubt Fauzia :
If I need to make half quantity of the recipe then how many eggs do i use? I’m confused about halving the eggs in the recipe as they are totally 5 in number 🙂
W/Salaam, yes you will need to add the equivalent amount in cocoa and a tiny bit extra sugar, about 1 tbsp.
Either beat one egg and then divide it in half or use 3 smaller eggs.
Thank you for ur quick reply 🙂 I really appreciate it!!
Plz tell me can v use convection oven for baking.
Yes you can
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…………… Fauzia i made last week its was awsom………..and tasty
I have a pack of cooking chocolate. How can I use it n cake? Can u tell me some recipe that includes cooking chocolate?
Check the dessert folder for chocolate mousse, or use the fudge cake recipe in this cake folder. 🙂
Jazakillah
Salaam, is parchment same as baking paper?
W/Salaam, yes it is.
what if i use 3 eggs instead of 5 in this recipe?
I would not recommend it, the cake will not be as soft.
Salam dr …cn i use da salted butter? coz n sri lanka its difficult to find unsalted butter dr wht shall do nw?
W/Salaam. Yes you can use salted butter. Avoid the salt in the recipe though.
Thanks dr.
Made this cake on my sons birthday ..will upload the pic on ur fb page.
It was soft,moist and tasted great.electrical mixers do work!
salams!! can i just use cocoa powder without mixing cadbury’s drinking chocolate powder?
W/Salaam, have responded to this question please check the comments.
Salaam, is it essential to use vanilla essence. I live in America so not sure about the halal status of vanilla extract/essence. Can we bake the cake without it. JazakAllah
W/Salaam. Yes you can bake without vanilla or try and search for halal versions, they are easily available online.
Salam Fouzia. I made this on the stove top and it turned out good alhamdulillah. I have some questions though, it was salty can we omit salt? As I have seen it is required in your other cake recipes too. I have tried your marble cake and this choco cake on stove top and the only problem I have is they remain slightly uncooked in the middle top? I tried baking it longer but didn’t help much. I was afraid it’ll harden from the bottom so took it out. Other than that they rose perfectly and were super soft! And can you please tell me how deep the pot should be when used for stove top baking? I want to try in pressure cooker but its not too deep, just the average size.
Thanks a lot may Allah swt reward you guys tremendously. Aameen
W/Salaam, if you are using salted butter then yes omit the salt. Maybe you used salted butter and then added salt too. And yes you can omit the salt entirely if you like. Although it always gives a good depth of flavour. I use a pretty large pot for stove-top baking, try seeing if that will make a difference to your baking.
Thanks for the quick reply dear!
I used homemade unsalted butter. I just measured my pot and its almost 9.5 inches deep and 14 inches in diameter. Is it enough? If not then can you please recommend me the right size I’ll buy it inshaAllah. Gonna try your brownies recipe now! 😀
Normally I use two 8 inch pans. 🙂
I think I’m a little confused here. Is that the size of the pot you used for stove top baking?
That is the size of the PANS used for baking the cakes. The pot needs to be at least 2 inches bigger all around for air to move around easily.
Can we use dark unsweetened chocolate instead of cadburys drinking chocolate powder if yea how do I incorporate it n the quantity
Simply use extra cocoa in place of the drinking chocolate, and add an extra tbsp of sugar.
Dear Fauzia can you tell me which brand of unsalted butter is best for baking? i cant find unsalted butter
You can use salted, just leave out the salt from the recipe.
hey fauzia we are vegetarians can i substitute anything else instead of eggs?
Use this eggless recipe: http://www.fauziaskitchenfun.com/eggless-chocolate-cake/
lovely recipe. please can i get fondant icing,gumpaste and sharwama recipe
Thanks, please use the search option to find the shawarma recipe. For now no fondant or gumpaste recipes.
salam please can i use two 8 inch square pan to bake this cake or one 8 inch that’s the only pan i have thank you.
W/Salaam. An 8″ square pan would be bigger in size than an 8″ round pan, but yes you can bake in it. See where the batter reaches in the pan (depending on the depth of your pan). If it gets to three-quarters of the pan, then you can use it to bake one cake. Otherwise split the batter in half and make two cakes.
hi sis can you plzzzz tell me is there any substitute of: cadbury’s drinking chocolate powder ??? because it is un available at my side 🙁
You can use extra cocoa powder in it’s place. Add 1-2 tbsp sugar extra because the drinking chocolate powder is normally sweetened.
xtra cocoa powder means , u already mentioned 3heaped tbsp of cocoa powder so how many tbsp add more in it ,in place of drinking chocolate powder ??plzzz sis guide me
I mean, replace the drinking chocolate amount with cocoa powder. So that means aside from the ORIGINAL 3 tbsp of cocoa, add an extra 4 tbsp of cocoa to replace the drinking chocolate.
Hi apa,
The colour of my chocolate cake is always light brown not dark brown. It tastes great but doesn’t look so :(. I use Harshey’ cocoa powder.
Thanks
Farah
Hi! Try using Cadbury’s Cocoa, I find it gives better results.
What if we do not have proper oven can we bake it in microwave?
Aoa. I don’t have and oven so can u put up choclate cake’s recipe which can be made in microwave?
Sorry but I do not believe that baking in the microwave is a healthy option so I do not have any microwave recipes.
I do not recommend using the microwave, personally I never use it for baking/cooking as it is not healthy.
Hi…I was wondering whether
Hi…I was wondering whether i could used sweetened cocoa powder instead of unsweetened??? Do i have to change any quantities?
Hi! Yes that is fine but you
Hi! Yes that is fine but you will need to reduce the amount of sugar from the recipe by about 2-3 tbsp. 🙂
Salam
Salam
I dont have an electric mixer,can I mix it with a hand whisk??
W/Salaam. Yes that is fine.
W/Salaam. Yes that is fine.
Salaam walekum,can we add
Salaam walekum,can we add just coco powder in this recipe if yes how much?? Please help me
W/Salaam, please refer to the
W/Salaam, please refer to the comments above, have responded to that. 🙂
could i use horlicks instead
could i use horlicks instead of chocolate drinking powder
Yes I think horlicks will be
Yes I think horlicks will be fine.
salaam.. i baked the cake
salaam.. i baked the cake today but the top was very hard.. y was it like this
W/Salaam, could be that the
W/Salaam, could be that the heat from top was too high and the cake got overbaked?
Aoa fauzia .can I use
Aoa fauzia .can I use sweetened coco powder .if yes then what will b the amount of coco .drinking chocolate and sugar ? Thanks
Please refer to the comments
Please refer to the comments above.
Plzzz tell how can I make it
Plzzz tell how can I make it on stobe I dont have oven. Please hrlp me out.
Use this method: http://www
Use this method: http://www.fauziaskitchenfun.com/cake-no-oven
Asalaamu alaikum Fauzia,
Asalaamu alaikum Fauzia,
Is it okay if I leave out the “drinking chocolate powder” and continue with the rest of the recipe? If yes, then do I need to increase the amount of cocoa powder & sugar in the recipe?
Thanks..
W/Salaam, yes you can sub the
W/Salaam, yes you can sub the DC with cocoa powder, and add a couple tbsp sugar to compensate for the bitterness of the cocoa as DC is sweet.
Aslm.hope you are dng well
Aslm.hope you are dng well,is it ok to soak the cake in syrup for more moistness?jazakAllah.
W/Salaam, yes you can.
W/Salaam, yes you can.
THANX AND HAPPY WITH YOU
THANX AND HAPPY WITH YOU QUICK RESPONSE.
How is the batter to be
How is the batter to be prepared and stirred ? using a beater machine or can be prepared by mixing wd hand ?
Use a mixer except when
Use a mixer except when adding the flour, at which point you can stir that in gently with a spatula.
Salam,
Salam,
Sister i want to make this cake double the amount you made
i mean should i double the amount of all the ingredients?
how much of eggs and buttermilk if so?
W/Salaam, yes double all the
W/Salaam, yes double all the ingredients.
what if i dont have cadbury
what if i dont have cadbury drinking chocolate???
Please refer to previous
Please refer to previous comments.
Salam i want to know if i
Salam i want to know if i will add lemon or vinegar to milk wont it turn to curd?
W/Salaam, it will curdle yes.
W/Salaam, it will curdle yes. That is how you make buttermilk.
Assalam alaikum. Pls can I
Assalam alaikum. Pls can I use evaporated milk?
W/Salaam, for this recipe
W/Salaam, for this recipe evaporated milk is not necessary.
What can i use instead of
What can i use instead of cadbury’s chocolate powder?
Please read comments above.
Please read comments above.
Aoa can i use oil instead of butter