Easy chocolate cake
This easy chocolate cake with ganache is deliciously moist and rich. Best of all, it’s all mixed together in one bowl so it’s a really simple homemade cake for kids to make.
This easy chocolate cake is deliciously moist and rich, making it perfect for any celebration or special occasion.
When I’m baking a cake with my kids, I prefer recipes like this, that use the ‘all in one method’, where everything just gets mixed together in one bowl. Recipes like this tend to be easier, quicker, and less messy – all important factors when baking with kids.
This chocolate cake is quite dark and rich, so potentially more popular with grown ups than children. If you want a lighter chocolate cake, why not try this easy chocolate fudge cake – one of our most popular recipes.
How can kids help make this easy chocolate cake?
This cake is so simple to bake making it the perfect cake for children to make.
They’ll enjoy getting to measure everything out, and cracking the eggs in. Instead of butter, this chocolate cake recipe uses oil and milk, so kids get the chance to practice their liquid measuring and pouring skills too.
What is ganache?
We decorated this cake with a tasty chocolate ganache, which is simply icing made from whisking together melted chocolate and double cream.
My kids loved getting to whisk the chocolate and cream together and watching how the ganache thickens it as it cools.
None of us are great cake decorators so we just piled some Maltesers on top. A nice stash of sweets or fruit is a great, easy way to decorate a cake and is something even the youngest kids can help with.
Other chocolate cake recipes
If you liked this chocolate Victoria sponge recipe you’ll love some of our other easy cakes and cupcakes:
Chocolate fudge cake
Boston cream pie
Nutella cupcakes
Easy chocolate cupcakes
Chocolate loaf cake
Chocolate Victoria sponge
Chocolate traybake
Chocolate fudge cupcakes
Difficulty: East
Time: 30 minutes + 30 minutes baking + a few hours chilling
Serves: 10 – 12 slices
Ingredients
225g (2 cups) plain /all-purpose flour
350g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
85g (2/3 cup) cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
250ml (1 cup) milk
125ml (½ cup) vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
150ml (¾ cup) boiling water
For the ganache
200g (1 cup) plain chocolate
200g (¾ cup) double cream
how to make the moist chocolate cake
Preheat the oven to 170C / 160C Fan / 340F and grease and line 2 x 20cm (8inches) round cake tins.
Make the chocolate cake batter
Measure everything, except the boiling water, out and add them to a large bowl or free-standing mixer.
We started by adding the dry ingredients to our mixer. Then used a small bowl to crack the eggs in before adding them to our mixer. Doing this just makes it a lot easier to get any rogue shell out.
Next we added the wet ingredients. When you measure the milk and vegetable oil out, the best way of doing this accurately is to use the ml setting of your digital scales if you have them.
Mix everything together with a hand held mixer, the k paddle of your free-standing mixer or some wooden spoons until the batter is nice and smooth.
Add the water
Finally, add the boiling water, a little at a time, mixing all the time.
The batter will end up very liquid/runny, but don’t worry that’s what makes the cake so light and moist.
Bake the chocolate cake
Divide the cake batter equally into each cake tin. We found the easiest way of doing this was using a soup ladle.
Pop the cakes in the oven for around 30-35 minutes. They’re ready once they’ve risen and a skewer put in the middle comes out (mostly) clean.
Remove the cakes from the oven and leave them to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before taking them out of their tins and leaving them to cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the chocolate ganache
Put the chocolate and cream in a small pan and slowly melt over a low heat.
Once the chocolate has completely melted remove it from the heat and whisk until it looks thick and glossy. If it looks like it has separated just keep whisking until it comes together.
You need to leave it for a few hours so it can cool and thicken before you add it to the cake.
Assemble the chocolate cake
Lay the first layer of cake on your serving dish/cake stand.
If you need to level the top, use a bread knife to take a slither off the top.
Using a palette knife (or butter knife/spatula if you don’t have one), spread a little ganache on the top of the first cake. Add the second cake on top.
Spread the remaining ganache over the top of the cake and around the sides. Finally, use your palette knife to smooth it all down.
Decorate with fruit (raspberries or strawberries would work well), or some extra chocolate treats like the Maltesers we use. Don’t forget more is often more when decorating a cake!
Serve and enjoy!
Easy chocolate cake
Ingredients
- 225 g (2 cups) plain /all-purpose flour
- 350 g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
- 85 g (2/3 cup) cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 eggs
- 250 ml (1 cup) milk
- 125 ml ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 150 ml ¾ cup boiling water
For the ganache
- 200 g (1 cup) plain chocolate
- 200 g (¾ cup) double cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170C / 160C Fan / 340F and grease and line 2 x 20cm (8inches) round cake tins.
Make the cake batter
- Measure everything, except the boiling water, out and add them to a large bowl or free-standing mixer.
- We started by adding the dry ingredients to our mixer. Then used a small bowl to crack the eggs in before adding them to our mixer.
- Next we added the wet ingredients. When you measure the milk and vegetable oil out, the best way of doing this accurately is to use the ml setting of your digital scales if you have them.
- Mix everything together with a hand held mixer, the k paddle of your free-standing mixer or some wooden spoons until the batter is nice and smooth.
Add the water
- Finally, add the boiling water, a little at a time, mixing all the time.
- The batter will end up very liquid/runny, but that's what makes the cake so light and moist.
Bake the chocolate cake
- Divide the cake batter equally into each cake tin. We found the easiest way of doing this was using a soup ladle.
- Pop the cakes in the oven for around 30-35 minutes. They're ready once they've risen and a skewer put in the middle comes out (mostly) clean.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and leave them to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before taking them out of their tins and leaving them to cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the chocolate ganache
- Put the chocolate and cream in a small pan and slowly melt over a low heat.
- Once the chocolate has completely melted remove it from the heat and whisk until it looks thick and glossy. If it looks like it has separated just keep whisking until it comes together.
- You need to leave it for a few hours so it can cool and thicken before you add it to the cake.
Assemble the chocolate cake
- Lay the first layer of cake on your serving dish/cake stand.
- If you need to level the top, use a bread knife to take a slither off the top.
- Using a palette knife (or butter knife/spatula if you don't have one), spread a little ganache on the top of the first cake. Add the second cake on top.
- Spread the remaining ganache over the top of the cake and around the sides. Finally, use your palette knife to smooth it all down.
- Decorate with fruit (raspberries or strawberries would work well), or some extra chocolate treats like the Maltesers we use. Don't forget more is often more when decorating a cake!
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Similar recipes
If you liked this easy chocolate cake, you’ll love our chocolate fudge cake our chocolate loaf cake, chocolate traybake and other easy cake recipes.
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