Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

When visiting my local grocery store, I enjoyed stopping at the bakery section to watch the bakers, sporting their floury white toques and jackets, skillfully braid tens of challahs before adroitly popping the doughy twists onto a conveyor belt headed for the commercial proofer. Their well choreographed dance never failed to entice me, as did their chocolate Snickers cake that we ordered for every birthday celebration. Until one day I noticed that the jaunty bakers had disappeared, replaced by grumpy bakery clerks slathering icing from five-gallon buckets onto frozen cakes of indeterminate origin. Goodbye Snickers cake.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

Although homemade birthday cakes had accompanied almost every family celebration when my children were young (Smurf cake anyone?), I had become seduced by the readily available and effortless charms of the birthday cakes in the grocery store. However, now it was time to dust off my baking pans. This recipe for Hershey’s classic Deep Dark Chocolate Cake, originally published on the back of the Hershey’s cocoa box, is a fudgy, moist, no-fail chocolate cake, easily prepared from readily available pantry ingredients. Topped with a slick of creamy frosting and colorful sprinkles, it’s a party just waiting to happen.

Assemble your ingredients. Set a baking rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 F. This cake can be made successfully in your choice of the following pans: one 9X13-inch pan, or, two 8-inch round pans. Spray the pan of your choice with cooking spray and line it with parchment paper. Respray the pan once it has been lined.

Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the flat beater, mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are well blended, about 15 seconds. Add the milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the side of the bowl. Fold in the boiling water on low speed. The batter will be thin. Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s).

Bake 35 minutes for round pans, 40-45 minutes for a rectangular pan or until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with only a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Allow the cake to cool completely before icing it.

To make the icing:

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the icing sugar, butter (dairy or plant-based), cocoa, milk (dairy or plant-based) and vanilla. Process all the ingredients until smooth and blended, about 10 seconds. Scrape down the bowl once or twice. This recipe makes enough icing to completely fill and cover a 2-layer cake or the top and sides of a 9X13-inch cake. Top with sprinkles if desired.

Print Recipe

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

Cookies, Cakes, Pies and Desserts

By Hershey's Chocolate Lover Cookbook – Serves: 12-16

Prep Time: 20 minutes – Cooking Time: 35-45 minutes – Total Time: 55-65 minutes

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake is a fudgy, moist, no-fail chocolate cake, easily prepared from readily available pantry ingredients.

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk (dairy or plant-based)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup boiling water
• Chocolate icing:
• 3 cups icing sugar
• 1/3 cup soft butter butter (dairy or plant-based)
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 4 tablespoons milk (dairy or plant-based)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• sprinkles (optional)

Instructions

Cake:

1

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Spray the pan of your choice with cooking spray and line it with parchment paper. Respray the pan once it has been lined.

2

Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the flat beater, mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are well blended. Add the milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the side of the bowl. Fold in the boiling water on low speed. The batter will be thin. Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s).

3

Bake 35 minutes for round pans, 40-45 minutes for a rectangular pan or until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with only a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Allow the cake to cool completely before icing it.

Icing:

4

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the icing sugar, butter (dairy or plant-based), cocoa, milk (dairy or plant-based) and vanilla. Process all the ingredients until smooth and blended, about 10 seconds. Scrape down the bowl once or twice. This recipe makes enough icing to completely fill and cover a 2-layer cake or the top and sides of a 9X13-inch cake. Top with sprinkles if desired.

Notes

This cake freezes beautifully.