A while ago I began the process of “unprocessing” the food my family eats. We cut out a lot of convenience foods and boxed items. I really had a hard time giving up boxed cake mixes due to both the convenience of them and not having good replacement recipes. Well, after not making cakes for a while (a true tragedy in my home), I decided to put an end to this dilemma.
And were my kids ever excited about the method. I baked several recipes at a time and let the taste testing begin!! The chocolate cakes with oil as a fat were much moister and had a softer crumb than butter based, and they tasted better. This recipe won hands down for taste, texture and ease of preparation!
I have tested this cake as a 9×13, two 9 inch rounds, and as cupcakes. It has worked out perfect every time!
A couple of hints:
Please sift. I know I hate having to sift and often skip it but just look at the clumps left behind! 
Don’t be worried at how thin and liquid the batter is- this is how it should be!
I really hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we have and hopefully soon I will be able to share some of the great frosting and creations I have made with this awesome chocolate cake!
The Best Chocolate Cake and Cupcake
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups cocoa powder
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 ½ cups sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
- 2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
- 1 ¼ cups warm coffee OR 1 ¼ cups of warm water
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil I use light olive oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Prepare pans by cutting out parchment to line bottom of pan. Lightly grease pan(s) (so parchment will lay flat), then place parchment in bottom of pan. Lightly grease parchment and then dust with flour. For cupcakes- place cupcake liners in pan.
- Using a fine strainer over your mixing bowl sift: cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Add egg, egg yolk, coffee (or water), buttermilk, oil, and vanilla
- Mix on low speed in stand mixer or with hand mixer until smooth- just a few minutes.
- Pour batter evenly into prepared pans. Or fill cupcake liners 2/3 full- an ice cream scoop works great here.
- Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean- be careful not to over bake!
- Approx: 30-35 min for round pans, 16-20 min for cupcakes, 40-45 min for 9x13 pan (These times are approximates as every oven can be very different- so just check towards end of baking times and adjust times as necessary!)
- Remove from oven and place pans on cooling racks for 15min then run a knife around edges, remove from pans and allow to cool top side up on cooling racks. After completely cool, frost and enjoy!!
Notes
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Looks great! thanks for the recipe!
Hope you enjoy it as much as we do 🙂
I can say from experience this is very moist and extremely delicious!!!!
Thanks!!