Hershey’s “perfectly chocolate” Chocolate Cake with 5 ingredient chocolate frosting is our favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe! Extra moist, with a perfect rich chocolate flavor and tender, smooth crumb.
Chocolate Cake
This quick and easy chocolate cake recipe has become my all-time favorite over the years, and it’s the base recipe for many of my other favorite chocolate cake recipes.
It’s also one of the very FIRST recipes I ever shared here, way back in 2010! I think I’ve made hundreds of cakes since then, and this is still my favorite recipe. Thank you Hershey’s!
I can confidently say that it’s everything you’d hope for from a homemade chocolate cake, including incredibly moist and tender, with a fantastic homemade chocolate frosting.
And, did I mention how easy it is to make? Let’s me show you:
How to make chocolate cake:
Start by mixing the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls.
Add the wet/buttermilk mixture to the dry flour mixture and mix the batter until well combined. Pour boiling water into the batter and stir until smooth. The batter will be very thin!
Pour the batter into your cake pans and bake the cakes on the middle rack of the oven.
How to make ahead and store the cake and frosting:
The cakes and the chocolate frosting can both be made ahead of time. Allow the cakes to cool completely, and then wrap them really well in plastic wrap and stick each layer in a ziplock freezer bag. Freeze for up to one month. I like to frost the cakes when they are frozen because they’re easier to frost.
The homemade chocolate frosting will keep well in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to two weeks, or in the freezer for up to three months. Remove the frosting from the fridge about an hour before you’re ready to frost your cake to allow it to come to room temperature.
Tips for perfect chocolate cake:
Use room temperature ingredients, particularly eggs.
Eggs at room temperature (as opposed to cold from the fridge) are fluffier and will emulsify in the batter better, which will also help the cake rise properly. A trick for bringing eggs to room temperature quickly is to run hot water over them for one minute, or let them sit in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.
Use buttermilk (or easily make your own):
The original Hershey’s recipe does not use buttermilk, but buttermilk is a great ingredient to make cakes like this extra moist. If you don’t have buttermilk, use a simple trick of mixing 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar into 1 cup of milk. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes and you’ll notice it curdle slightly, to form buttermilk.
Line the bottom of your cake pan, before adding the batter.
I learned early on to never skip the step of lining the bottom of my cake pans with parchment or wax paper. Then you never have to stress about the cake sticking to the bottom of the pan. I also spray the bottom of the paper and the sides of the pan lightly with cooking spray.
Consider trying these popular desserts:
- German Chocolate Cake
- Mississippi Mud Brownies
- Snickerdoodles Bars
- Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Tres Leches Cake
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Hershey's "perfectly chocolate" chocolate cake with 5 ingredient chocolate frosting is our favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe.
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup oil (vegetable or canola oil)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup butter (*see note)
- 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.
Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes
Grease 9x13'' pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.
Combine butter and cocoa powder.
Add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract.
You might also love my German Chocolate Cake!
Recipe Video
*For a richer flavored chocolate frosting, try melting the butter before stirring in the cocoa powder
*Read my tips for making perfect chocolate cake, above in the post.
*I originally shared this recipe June 2010. Updated April 2018.
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
Recipe adapted from Hershey’s.
Bobby says
Thank you so much I just redused baking powder and baking soda to 1 teaspoon each.
Lx says
This was simply amazing. Thank you for the recipe.
EJ says
I am not a baker by any stretch of the imagination, but I followed the directions/recipe and was very pleased with the result! My daughters thought it was the best thing ever and the youngest said it was so good she wanted to eat the whole cake lol
Bernice says
Thank you for sharing! This cake was so tasty and moist. I made a 9 inch cake with a blackberry mid-layer and covered with ganache. Yum! Shared about my experience here: https://memroars.wordpress.com/2018/10/21/engagement-cake/
Nadia Rahman says
hi ,
Could i please ask the oven temperature for fan assisted would the same ? 350 f will be 180 c in fan assisted or should i decrease to 170/160 ?
I am only asking because i made the cupcakes yesterday they tasted delicious but they did not rise evenly and when i took them out of the oven they shrunk not sure what went wrong . ? oven temp
any ideas ?
Katie says
I would certainly try that amd see if it helps. Possibly try 165°C if you have that option.
Kathy Delisle says
My first scratch cake that was edible. Too many doorstops! It turned out fabulous…. Thanks for sharing .
Karht says
The recipe made 24 delicious cupcakes. They were a huge hit at an adult birthday celebration. Thank you for an amazing recipe!
Sarah Lynne Landsaw says
What did you set your heat on for the cupcakes?
Steph Warner says
Hi ,
Whats the time for cupcakes? I’m not a baker, first time I’ll try without ingredients from a box. 🙂
Lauren Allen says
Cupcakes will take about 22-25 minutes to bake. 🙂
Grace says
I’m making my second time cake mix…..this time for our church cake walk …..yes we all love it so must spend the wealth of goodness
FG says
I’ve used this recipe for a long time. I was a baker in Alaska and works great every time. I’ve baked it in a cast iron pan on a fire and it’s great. You’ve got to use the Hershey’s cocoa though.
Penny Dobie says
Absolutely scrumptious! Followed the directions to a “T” and it came out perfect. I made this for my nephews birthday and everyone loved it. I would definitely make it again and again. Thanks so much for sharing. Can’t wait to try the “German Chocolate” variety.
Nadia says
Hi
I was thinking of making this for my daughters birthday
Did you so 3x 8 inch cakes or 2 x 9 inch cakes ?
Would you mind sharing a picture how you decorated it. Thanks
Baker says
Great cake recipe. Whipped it up in no time.
Shama Mubayi says
defintely going to give it a try, but please can you tell me, if I don’t want to make it a double layered cake, can I just use a 13inch x 9 inch rectangular pan? Any difference in baking time or result?
Lauren Allen says
You can find the directions for a 9×13 cake under the “instructions” in the recipe card. (takes 35 to 40 minutes to bake).
Angelika says
Hi! For the temp. setting, is the 350F with fan assist or without? My oven is fan assisted so wanted to see if the time or temp. would change?
Nadia Rahman says
Hi i recently baked these again using a fan assisted oven at 165 the rise slight uneven but they were certainly better than baking at 180.
I think the next time i bake them i will do 160 , check at 22 mins .
Please do let me know what your experience is ?
I have bake a batch for my daughters birthday.
Nirmala says
Hi, how can I modify this recipe to omit the egg? I am a vegetarian thus should like to substitute the egg with any other ingredient.
Thanks
Lauren Allen says
I have not tried any of these but these are all recommended substitutes for eggs. For each whole egg you could substitute any of the following: 1/2 medium banana mashed or
1/4 cup apple sauce or 1 Tb. ground flax seed and 3 Tbl. water
Best Wishes
Kaitlyn says
This cake recipe seemed delightful at first, I tried it out the first time and the cake was delicious. I attempted a second try but when I tried to cook it, the water kept rising to the top and the cake wasn’t cooking at all. In all, I ended up cooking it for over an hour. I tried every way to fix it, but it just stayed exactly the same.
zelvatko says
Awesome, thank you very much, I hope my dad will love it. However, I definitely do!
Summer Heaton says
Wow this is amazing! I was so scared since the batter was so thin. But it turned out so good. I used 3 pans instead of 2. And make sure to sift all dry ingredients. Nobody tell on me for getting a second piece 😋
Nancy says
I’m not a baker at all but decided to make this chocolate cake for my sister’s birthday. Much to my surprise and everyone else’s it turned out great! If I can make it, ANYONE can! Thanks for sharing!
Rita Vann says
Two things: Every time I bake a cake with cocoa powder, the cake sticks to the pans–they are non-stick pans and I use a baking spray w/flour. This doesn’t happen with any other cake.
Also, I reduced the oven temperature to 325 F., as that is usually recommended for non-stick pans. I increased the baking time for five more minutes, but the centers still didn’t seem quite done. Should I have baked at 350 F. as the recipe instructs, even considering the type pans I used?
Lauren Allen says
My suggestions: Use parchment paper rounds in the bottom of your cake pans. Also spray them with cooking spray.
Then bake at 350.