Photography: John Paul Urizar, Styling: Michele Cranston
This moist chocolate cake recipe is quick mix, easy to make and delicious to eat. It’s the never-fail moist chocolate cake recipe you’ll turn to for birthdays, celebrations, afternoon tea or just because!
Ingredients
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Lightly grease and line the base and side of a deep 20cm round cake pan with non-stick baking paper. (We don’t recommend a springform pan as the cake batter is quite runny).
Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Add sugars and salt; whisk to combine.
Combine eggs, oil, sour cream and vanilla in a separate bowl; whisk to combine. Whisk into flour mixture until a thick batter then gradually whisk in hot water until batter is smooth and well combined.
Pour into prepared tin. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Set aside to cool in tin for 15 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate with one of the two recipes below.
Place the butter and cream cheese in an electric mixer and beat for about 3 minutes or until smooth and creamy.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the icing sugar and cocoa and beat for a further 3 minutes or until pale and fluffy. Set aside.
Trim the top off the cooled cake if needed. Halve the cake horizontally. Place one cake base on a cardboard cake board or cake stand. Spread with 1 ¼ cups of frosting and sandwich with remaining cake. Spread icing over the top and sides of cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, for icing to set.
To decorate, press the chocolate chips on the side of the cake. Top the cake with the remaining chocolate chips. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
We used Callebaut Milk Chocolate Callets for the outside of the cake.
Test Kitchen tip
Another way to decorate this moist chocolate cake
Easy hazelnut ganache
Ingredients
- 1 moist chocolate cake, cooled
- 180g dark chocolate (45%), chopped finely
- ½ cup (165g) Nutella at room temperature
- 200ml pure cream
- 1/3 cup (50g) roasted hazelnuts, toasted, finely chopped, plus extra to serve
Method
- Combine chocolate and Nutella in a medium heatproof bowl. Place cream in a small saucepan over medium heat; bring just to a simmer.
- Pour over the chocolate mixture and set aside without stirring for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, stir until smooth. Fold through hazelnuts and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until spreadable.
- Place cake on a cake stand. Spread top and sides with ganache and decorate with chopped hazelnuts and Easter eggs, to serve.
How to make whipped ganache
For a whipped ganache, allow the ganache to chill completely in the fridge. Place cold ganache in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk for 2 minutes, or until thickened and pale. Fold through hazelnuts.
What is the secret to moist chocolate cake?
The secret to this super moist chocolate cake recipe is the combination of oil and sour cream. It guarantees a perfectly moist crumb.
The hot liquid dissolves the granulated sugar and activates the leavening agents so the cake begins to rise fast and evenly, resulting in the perfect crumb.
How to store this chocolate cake
The cake can be decorated up to two days ahead. Store in the refrigerator.
This moist chocolate cake recipe can be made a few days in advance and the cake kept wrapped in plastic wrap, or frozen for up to 1 month.
Moist chocolate cake recipe variation
In place of the hot water, you can use hot strong coffee for a mild mocha flavour which adds an extra rich depth to the chocolate.
Easy cake layers
If you choose the chocolate cream cheese frosting, or simply want to create a layered chocolate cake, an option is to divide the cake batter between two 20cm cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes. This eliminates the need to trim the top and split it in half.
