Best Ever Chocolate Cake Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9 x 13 inch pan.
• Sift 2 cups white sugar and 2 cups flour together; set aside.
• In a sauce pan; combine 1/2 cup butter or margarine, oil, water, and 1/4 cup cocoa. Bring mixture to a boil, remove from heat and add to dry ingredients.
• Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk; add with eggs, salt, cinnamon and 1 teaspoon vanilla to cocoa, flour mixture and stir well.
• Pour batter into a 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 20 minutes.
• To Make Frosting: Five minutes before cake is done combine 1/2 cup butter,1/4 cup cocoa and 1/4 cup milk in saucepan and bring to a boil.
• Remove from heat and stir in confectioners' sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and chopped pecans. Pour frosting over hot cake. Cake remains moist and may be frozen. Serves 20.

Steps:

• Sift together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
• Add oil, coffee, and milk; mix at medium speed for 2 minutes.
• Add eggs and vanilla; beat for 2 more minutes. Batter will be thin.
• Pour into 2 greased and floured 9 inch cake pans.
• Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes.
• Cool cakes for 15 minutes before removing from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.
• To make the icing, combine the milk and flour in a saucepan and cook until thick, stirring often to prevent it from being lumpy. Cover and refrigerate until cool.
• In a mixing bowl, beat butter, shortening, sugar, and vanilla until creamy.
• Add chilled milk/flour mixture and beat for 10 minutes.
• Frost cake after is it completely cool.
• Refrigerate cake until just before serving.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Brush a 10-inch Bundt pan with the room-temperature (but still firm) unsalted butter. Pour 1/2 cup sugar into the pan, swirling the sugar in the pan so that the chimney and sides are covered well. Turn the pan upside down to remove any excess sugar and set aside.
• Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, cream the butter on medium speed. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beating at medium speed, add the eggs, one by one, beating only until they are well blended.
• Beating on low speed, add a third of the flour mixture and a third of the buttermilk. Do this twice more with the remaining dry ingredients and buttermilk, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula in between. Finally, beat the batter on medium speed for 30 seconds, until it is smooth.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the top feels springy and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
• Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for about 20 minutes. Then turn it out onto the wire rack to finish cooling.
• To finish, dust the cake with cocoa or confectioners' sugar.

Steps:

• For the cake: Arrange a rack in the center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottoms with parchment paper rounds and lightly coat the paper with nonstick spray. Dust the bottom and sides of each pan with Dutch-process cocoa powder, tapping out excess.
• Sift the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and baking powder into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on low speed to combine. Add the eggs, egg yolks, brown sugar, sour cream, oil, vanilla, salt and 1 cup of hot water. Beat on medium speed until completely smooth, about 3 minutes.
• Scrape the batter evenly into the prepared pans. Smooth the tops. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through, until a tester inserted into the centers comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and let the cakes cool for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the cakes and invert onto the wire rack. Remove the parchment and let the cakes cool completely.
• Trim the domes of the cake rounds with a large serrated knife so the tops are flat.
• For the frosting: Melt the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set over simmering water in a medium saucepan. Remove from the simmering water and let it cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
• Beat the butter and salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low, drizzle in the chocolate and beat until completely blended. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla. Increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
• To assemble the cake: Place one cake, cut-side down, on a platter. Spread 1 1/2 cups of the frosting evenly over the top. Place the remaining cake, cut-side down, on top. Spread the top with 1 1/2 cups of the frosting. Frost the sides of the cake with 3/4 cup of the frosting and smooth out completely to make an even crumb coat. (It's ok if some of the cake shows through. This is just a base layer.) Refrigerate for 30 minutes to let the frosting set.
• Spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides, swirling decoratively.

Steps:

• Grease and line a 23cm/9" round cake tin. Preheat oven to 170C/325F. This mixture is quite runny, use a solid cake tin not a springform tin. Line tin with baking paper, this will make the cake easier to remove from the tin, no sticking to the sides
• For the Cake: In a saucepan over low heat, heat chocolate, butter and water. Stir frequently until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and cool slightly
• In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs. Gradually beat cooled chocolate mixture into eggs
• Whisk sugar and flour into chocolate mixture, continue beating until smooth and well blended
• Pour mixture into cake tin. Bake for 45 minutes or until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean
• Turn cake onto wire rack to cool
• Truffle mixture:
• In a bowl over a pan of simmering water melt chocolate, stirring frequently.
• Cool slightly, then stir in icing sugar, butter and cream until well blended.
• Chocolate Glaze:
• In a saucepan over low heat, heat chocolate and cream, stirring frequently until melted and smooth. Keep warm
• Assembling The Cake:
• Cut cooled mud cake into layers.
• Spread truffle mixture between layers with a palette knife.
• Position cake on wire cake rack and pour warm glaze over the top.

Steps:

• Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, lightly grease bottoms of two 8x8x2-inch square or 9x1-1/2-inch round cake pans.
• Line bottom of pans with waxed paper.
• Grease and lightly flour waxed paper and sides of pans (or grease one 13x9x2-inch baking pan) and set aside.
• In a mixing bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder; and salt; set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.
• Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined (3 to 4 minutes).
• Scrape sides of bowl; continue beating on medium speed for 2 minutes.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition (about 1 minute total).
• Beat in vanilla.
• Alternately add flour mixture and milk to beaten mixture, beating on low speed just until combined after each addition.
• Beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more.
• Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan(s).
• Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 35 to 40 minutes for 8-inch pans and the 13x9x2-inch pan, 30 to 35 minutes for 9-inch pans, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Cool cake layers in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans.
• Peel off waxed paper and cool thoroughly on wire racks.
• Or place 13x9x2-inch cake in pan on a wire rack; cool thoroughly.
• CHOCOLATE-SOUR CREAM FROSTING:.
• In a large saucepan melt 1 12-ounce package (2 cups) semisweet chocolate pieces and 1/2 cup butter over low heat, stirring frequently.
• Cool for 5 minutes.
• Stir in 1 8-ounce carton dairy sour cream. Gradually add 4-1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar (about 1 pound), beating with an electric mixer until smooth.
• This frosts tops and sides of two or three 8- or 9-inch cake layers (halve the recipe to frost the top of a 13x9x2-inch cake).
• Cover and store frosted cake in the refrigerator.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/170 degrees Celsius. Grease a 9-inch/23-centimeter round springform pan with butter and line with parchment paper, then set aside.
• Make the cake: Place butter, chocolate and hot coffee in a large heatproof bowl and mix well until everything is melted, combined and smooth. Whisk in sugar by hand until dissolved. Add eggs and vanilla extract and whisk again until thoroughly combined and smooth. Sift flour, cocoa powder and salt together into a bowl and then whisk this into the melted chocolate mixture. The batter here is liquid, but don't think you have missed something; this is how it should be.
• Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, or until the cake is cooked and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few dry crumbs attached. The top will form a crust and crack a little, but don't worry, this is expected. Leave the cake to cool for 20 minutes before removing from the pan, then set aside until completely cool.
• Make the chocolate ganache, if desired: Place chocolate pieces in a food processor, process until fine and set aside. Combine cream and corn syrup in a small pan and place over medium-high heat. As soon as bubbles begin to appear (just before it comes to a boil), remove from the heat. Get the food processor running again, with the chocolate still inside, and pour in the hot cream in a steady stream. Process for 10 seconds, then add butter. Continue to process until mixture is shiny and smooth. (You can also make the ganache by hand; just make sure the chocolate is chopped fairly finely before adding the cream mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until almost melted, then add the butter. Stir again until the ganache is smooth.)
• Use a rubber spatula to scrape the ganache into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, with the plastic actually touching the top of the ganache. Set aside until it has set to the consistency you want. If you want a thin layer to spread over the cake, it can be poured over while liquid so that you get an even, light and shiny coating. For a thicker ganache with a spreading consistency, leave it for about 2 hours at room temperature. (The ganache can be stored at room temperature, providing it's not too warm, for 3 days or kept in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. It can also be frozen, although it will lose a bit of its shine when defrosted.)
• Make the espresso cinnamon mascarpone cream, if desired: Place all the ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat for 1 to 2 minutes, until soft peaks form.
• Peel the parchment from the cake and discard. Transfer to a serving platter and spread the ganache, if using, on top of the cake. Slice into wedges, divide the cake among plates and, if using, spoon the mascarpone cream alongside. With or without icing, the cake will keep well for 4 to 5 days in an airtight container.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F.
• Chop 2 oz. chocolate. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil and water in large bowl with mixer until blended. Stir in chopped chocolate. Pour into 2 (9-inch) round pans sprayed with cooking spray.
• Bake 30 to 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Loosen cakes from sides of pans. Invert onto wire racks; gently remove pans. Cool cakes completely.
• Microwave COOL WHIP and remaining chocolate in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 min. or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after 1 min. Let stand 15 min. to thicken.
• Stack cake layers on plate, filling and frosting with COOL WHIP mixture. Sprinkle with nuts.

Steps:

• In a bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Add the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Beat on low speed for 1 minute. Beat on medium for 1 minute. , Pour into a greased 13x9-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack., For frosting, in a bowl, beat the milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Beat in whipped topping. Spread over cake. Refrigerate leftovers.