Delicious classic Chocolate Cake made only with the ingredients in your cupboard! The BEST simple cake with gorgeous chocolate frosting

Bookmark this recipe! It’s a classic easy one-bowl chocolate cake with just butter, sugar, eggs, cocoa, flour!

I don’t know about you but I’m always searching for a perfectly simple chocolate cake that don’t use any out of the ordinary ingredients.

I often search online when I need a foolproof, straightforward recipe but the ‘classic, simple’ cakes I find require buttermilk, sour cream and other stuff that I don’t have to hand. I wanted a basic chocolate cake that tasted awesome but only had the most basic of ingredients. This is that cake!

OKAY I realise that you may not believe me that this really is The Best Classic Easy One-Bowl Chocolate Cake {in the whole world}. And admittedly I haven’t eaten every cake in the world…. (yet).

But when I made it for a dinner of six cake lovers (who love cake so much they started a cake club!) they all raved about it!



They especially couldn’t get enough of the decadent chocolate frosting. This stuff is seriously good! In fact, I definitely won’t judge you if you just make the frosting and eat it from the bowl. #servingsuggestion

This recipe is based on one that I made with my mum a lot when I was younger. There really isn’t anything simpler! Just equal quantities of butter and sugar, self-raising flour, cocoa powder, eggs, and some salt and vanilla.

No buttermilk, no sour cream no NOTHING that you don’t already have in your cupboard (or at least I hope not!). There is cream cheese in the frosting, though you CAN leave that out if you don’t have it – cream cheese tempers the sweetness of the frosting though so it’s worth including if you can.

This cake can be made completely by hand, though you can break out a mixer if you like. I actually prefer to make the cake batter by hand – and the bonus is that you can do it all in one-bowl!

The frosting is a little easier to make in a mixer, though you can also make it by hand just as well. As soon as you’ve made it, it’s ready to frost your cake with!

And the really extraordinary thing? The utterly decadent, chocolate cake and frosting are made only with cocoa powder – no melted chocolate! What helps make this cake so delicious is using a really good quality chocolate – I bought myself some Callebaut cocoa powder (see the fantastic reviews here, but buy here as it’s cheaper – fyi I have no affiliation with these guys) and was amazed by the difference.

I first learned about it when I visited Matlock to learn how to make proper chocolate truffles, the chocolatier used this cocoa powder and even just the smell of it…. it smells like a chocolate cake in powder form!

Best of all, it’s actually cheaper than any other kind of cocoa powder you can get – though you have to buy it in bulk (1kg) – I shared some with other baker friends.

By the way, this is the cake tin I used to bake all three layers of this recipe, but you can also use individual 8 inch victoria sponge pans.

4.9 from 7 reviews The Best Easy One-Bowl Chocolate Cake Save Print Prep time 15 mins Cook time 30 mins Total time 45 mins Author: Kerry @ Kerry Cooks Serves: 1 8 inch cake Ingredients For the cakes:





200g unsalted butter

200g light brown sugar (or use caster sugar)

4 free-range eggs

150g self-raising flour

75g cocoa powder (Callebaut will make this cake really delicious!)

1 tbsp coffee powder

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste or extract (or leave it out if you don't have any)

large pinch salt





For the frosting:





250g full fat cream cheese (I prefer Lidl's one - Goldessa)

100g very soft unsalted butter

80g cocoa powder

300-400g icing sugar (you can use less if you prefer it less sweet)

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste or extract

pinch salt Instructions For the cakes:

Preheat your oven to 180C (160 fan) or gas mark 4 and prepare your baking tins by greasing with plenty of butter and dusting with a little cocoa powder. I made an 8 inch cake and used one cake tin, and then cut my cake into three layers.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter (it needs to be very soft first, so pop it into the microwave for a few seconds if it's not) with the sugar until it's light and incorporated. Measure out the flour, coffee powder and cocoa powder and whisk them together (with an actual whisk - this will remove lumps. I do this in the scales!).

Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mix and beat together, and add the vanilla and salt. Next, gradually add the flour, cocoa and coffee mix a third at a time, stirring the bowl well (a spatula is great to get to the bottom) each time. Once everything is incorporated, get your cakes straight into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the edges are starting to pull away from the side of the tin and the cake springs back to a light touch.

Obviously your baking times will vary if you use one tin to cook all three layers, in that case it will take more like 50 minutes to bake, but as always, keep a close eye on the cakes the whole time they're cooking.

For the frosting: In a mixer or in a large bowl, beat together the butter (it needs to be very soft!) with the icing sugar and cocoa - sieve these both into the bowl together to make sure we don't get any lumps.

Beat that mixture together until its fluffy and smooth (a couple of minutes) and then beat in the cream cheese, vanilla and pinch of salt.

This keeps best at room temperature until you're ready to use it. Chocolate cream cheese frosting is a dream to frost a cake with, so go crazy with artistic swirls, and sprinkles! 3.5.3208

PIN IT FOR LATER

If you make this cake – let me know! I’d love to see your creation on Instagram – tag me @kerryedwards! Oh, and godspeed and good luck not eating all the frosting before it gets onto the cake….

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