Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake is the very best chocolate cake recipe, and it has been around for decades. I’ve tried so many chocolate cake recipes over the years, and this classic chocolate cake is the easiest, most perfect one-bowl recipe. It has been my go-to recipe for so many years. The recipe comes directly from the back of the Hershey’s cocoa tin!
If you’re looking for a cake for a special celebration, birthday or just for an after-dinner dessert, get a tall glass of milk ready because this Hershey’s Chocolate Cake is the recipe for you. Why make a boxed mix from a store when you can make an easy cake from scratch in just 20 minutes that is going to taste so much better? For those of you who are not so good at baking, don’t worry! This chocolate cake recipe is easy enough- even for beginning bakers. It’s made from Hershey’s cocoa and a few other basic pantry ingredients. How happy will you be that you were able to bake one of the greatest chocolate cake recipes of all time?
Ingredients needed for making Hershey’s Chocolate Cake:
- Sugar: Granulated white sugar is what you need.
- Flour: Use all purpose flour (not cake flour). You can substitute a gluten-free flour blend for the all purpose flour if you need to bake a gluten free cake.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder: Use Hershey’s since that’s where this recipe originated.
- Baking powder, baking soda and salt: Just make sure that your baking powder and baking soda are fairly new and fresh.
- Large eggs: Using room temperature eggs will help your cake layers rise properly.
- Milk: I like to use whole milk for cake recipes!
- Oil: Use canola or vegetable oil for best results.
- Vanilla extract: Use a high quality “real” vanilla extract instead of imitation.
- Boiling water: Using boiling water is just fine. But this is a good opportunity to use some strong, hot coffee instead. It will help give the chocolate a deeper flavor.
- Butter: I like to use salted butter in all of my baking recipes. Salt adds flavor!
- Powdered sugar: Since this is for the frosting, just make sure it’s not old and lumpy. Sift it if you need to, or press it through a fine sieve to get rid of any lumps.
How to make Hershey’s Chocolate Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round pans (better yet, line them with parchment paper too!)
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, and then use an electric mixer to mix in the wet ingredients. Stir in the boiling water last. Divide the cake batter between the prepared pans, and bake. That’s it!
What’s the best frosting to use for chocolate cake?
I’ve included the Hershey’s Chocolate Frosting recipe in the recipe card below. That’s the best frosting recipe to use for this cake if you want a good, old-fashioned chocolate cake. It’s perfectly creamy and delicious! Alternately, you may wish to frost your Hershey’s chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting or white buttercream. It’s going to be a lovely, moist and delicious chocolate cake with a tender texture. The frosting you choose to use will just be the icing on the cake!
Recipe Tips
- Line cake pans with parchment paper, if you have it. That will make cake removal from pans easier (nothing will stick to the bottom).
- Add 1 tablespoon of espresso powder to the recipe to help intensify the chocolate flavor (or use strong coffee in place of the boiling water).
- Use Hershey’s unsweetened dark cocoa powder instead of regular unsweetened cocoa powder to make a dark chocolate version of this cake.
- If you want to make the cake layers ahead of time, wrap them individually in plastic wrap and then slide them into a freezer zip baggie. Freeze for up to 3 months.
What makes this the best chocolate cake recipe?
Hershey’s chocolate cake has a wonderful, rich chocolate flavor that comes simply from using Hershey’s cocoa in the cake batter. It’s super easy to make. The frosting is rich, creamy and so delicious. I like to double the frosting recipe on this cake so it yields a nice, thick layer of frosting. And this cake has been a big hit at every single party where I’ve served it. People love a good chocolate cake, and this is one good chocolate cake!
Variations:
- ONE PAN: You can bake this same cake batter in a 9×13-inch pan (greased and floured) for 35 to 40 minutes.
- CUPCAKES: Put cupcake papers in a muffin pan, fill each 2/3 full with batter, and bake 22 to 25 minutes. You’ll be able to get 24 to 30 cupcakes.
- BUNDT: Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan, fill with cake batter and bake 50 to 55 minutes.
- THREE LAYERS: Grease and flour three 8-inch pans. Divide batter evenly between the pans and bake 30 to 35 minutes.
- GLUTEN FREE: Substitute a gluten free flour baking blend such as Cup4Cup for the all purpose flour in the recipe.
High Altitude tips for baking a cake:
If you are baking at high altitude, you will need to make some adjustments in order to get the same result for those baking at lower elevations. Anything over 3500 feet is considered high altitude, and cakes can be a trickier to bake. Follow these adjustments and your cake is likely to turn out just fine.
- Increase oven temperature 15 to 25 degrees if you are above 5000 feet.
- Your cake might be done about five minutes sooner, so be sure to check on it early.
- Measure out the sugar and then take out 2 tablespoons of sugar in this recipe and put it back in your sugar container.
- Add an extra tablespoon of milk at 3,000 feet. Add an additional 1/2 tablespoon of milk for each additional 1,000 feet above that.
- Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour at 3,000 feet. Add an additional tablespoon of flour for each additional 1,000 feet above that.
- Decrease baking powder by 1/8 teaspoon up to 5,000 feet. Decrease BP by 1/4 at 6000 to 7500 feet.
If you are looking for more cake recipes, you might like to try these:
Hershey’s Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
CAKE:
- 2 cups granulated white sugar
- 1¾ cups all purpose flour
- ¾ cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup vegetable or canola oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
FROSTING:
- ½ cup (1 stick) butter
- ⅔ cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
PREPARE THE CAKE:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; use an electric mixer to beat for 2 minutes. Stir in the water (batter will be thin). Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from the pans to wire racks. Cool completely.
PREPARE THE FROSTING:
- Melt the butter. Stir in the cocoa. Alternately add sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add a small amount of additional milk, if needed. Stir in the vanilla.
Notes
- *Double the frosting recipe if you’d like a good amount of frosting to work with. Pictures in this post show a cake with double the amount of frosting.
- ONE PAN: You can bake this same cake batter in a 9×13-inch pan (greased and floured) for 35 to 40 minutes.
- CUPCAKES: Put cupcake papers in a muffin pan, fill each 2/3 full with batter, and bake 22 to 25 minutes
- BUNDT: Grease and flour a tube pan, fill with cake batter and bake 50 to 55 minutes.
- THREE LAYERS: Grease and flour three 8-inch pans. Divide batter evenly between the pans and bake 30 to 35 minutes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can this recipe be easily used for a rolled cake?
I’ve never tried that, so I’m not sure!