The Best Chocolate Cake recipe combines cocoa and coffee to create a chocolate lover’s dream. Add your favorite buttercream frosting to make it perfect! Keep reading to find out why coffee, buttermilk, and oil play important roles in this chocolate cake recipe.

We’re a family that loves to double down on chocolate. Peanut butter is a favorite, too, and my No Bake Cookies combine both with oatmeal.

And when birthdays roll around, I always feel like I really need cake. Deep, dark, chocolate cake. The best chocolate cake.

For birthdays, we have to do it up right by making my version of cake bliss.

But, as you may have caught on at some point by reading MBA, I like to do things in excess – you know a little mound of frosting will never do in this household.

I need to swirl a pile of it on top, and then top it off with ganache just for the fun of it. So when I organize birthday parties – I of course go a little overboard.

Is there any other way to be? Not if you’re Jamie.

THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE WITH COFFEE

This cake is dark, moist, rich and incredibly decadent. Seriously, it’s the best chocolate cake I’ve ever tasted.

A little bit of coffee blends amazingly well with the cocoa to create the most intense and delicious chocolate cake that you’ll ever taste.

Don’t freak out if you don’t like the taste of coffee. You actually can’t taste it in this cake!

Coffee simply enhances the flavor of chocolate. In this cake, it deepens that rich, chocolatey flavor.

If you are really opposed to using coffee, you can swap it out for water.

You can also use espresso powder – use a teaspoon of espresso powder along with 1 cup of water in place of the 1 cup of coffee.

USE OIL AND BUTTERMILK FOR A MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE

Buttermilk plays two important roles in making the best chocolate cake.

In addition to adding an ever-so-subtle tang, the acid in the buttermilk helps keep this cake incredibly tender and makes for a moist chocolate cake recipe.

If you don’t have any buttermilk on hand, simply use this buttermilk substitute and you’re golden!

This cake also uses oil instead of butter. While butter provides a lot of flavor in recipes such as 7UP Pound Cake and Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes, oil gives cakes a lovely, light texture.

Since the combo of unsweetened cocoa powder and Dutch-process cocoa give this cake so much chocolatey flavor, we don’t necessarily need the flavor of the butter to compete or overpower the chocolate.

Cocoa can also easily dry out cakes, so using a neutral-flavored oil in combination with the buttermilk makes sure both the chocolate flavor and moist texture of this cake really sing.

HOW MUCH CAKE DOES THIS RECIPE MAKE?

I most often make this recipe into a double-layered cake using two 9-inch cake pans. Occasionally I will bake it into a sheet cake in a 13×9-inch pan.

You can also bake it into chocolate cupcakes, though! You can get anywhere from 24-36 cupcakes, depending on how full you fill the tins. You’ll want to bake the cupcakes for 20-30 minutes.

I have even used this recipe to make a bundt cake. When using a bundt cake pan, I bake it between 35-40 minutes.

You might be wondering if you can bake this in 8-inch cake pans instead of 9-inch cake pans. Yes, you can, but you may have a little bit of batter leftover. Just be sure to start checking for doneness a tiny bit earlier than noted in the recipe card.

HOW TO TOP MY FAVORITE CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE

What’s a cake without some frosting?

My homemade buttercream frosting is a delicious way to top the best chocolate cake.

Rich chocolate cake paired with sweet vanilla buttercream? Sign me up.

If you are a true chocolate fanatic and want double the chocolate, I would go for chocolate buttercream frosting instead.

If you really want to play up the coffee angle, why not try using a coffee buttercream?

And who doesn’t love chocolate and strawberries together? Top your chocolate cake with sweet strawberry frosting for a play on chocolate covered strawberries!

I have even paired this cake recipe with chocolate ganache and salted caramel to make a Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Cake.

DOES HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE CAKE NEED TO BE REFRIGERATED?

Can you store your chocolate cake at room temperature or does it need to be refrigerated?

The answer depends on how long you want to keep it and what kind of frosting you used.

Unfrosted cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days. To make it last longer, you can tightly wrap and refrigerate the cake for up to a week or even freeze it for a few months.

Chilled cake is actually a bit easier to decorate, so a lot of cake decorators prefer to work with cold cake instead of cake that is fresh from the oven.

If you frosted your cake with buttercream, it can be stored safely at room temperature for up to 2 days. Store in the refrigerator if you want it to last longer, up to 5 days.

If you used cream cheese frosting, the cake must be stored in the refrigerator and will keep for up to 3 days.

I don’t recommend freezing frosted cakes.

And remember, frosted cakes are their best the first day or two. After that, the texture won’t be quite the same.

Here’s a little storage cheat sheet for you:

Unfrosted cake:

• Room temperature: Up to 3 days
• Refrigerator: Up to 1 week
• Freezer: Up to 3 months

Cake frosted with buttercream:

• Room temperature: Up to 2 days
• Refrigerator: Up to 5 days

Cake frosted with cream cheese frosting:

• Refrigerator: Up to 3 days

No matter how you frost and decorate it, the best chocolate cake is the perfect sort of cake for a birthday or just a Tuesday. Make sure to enjoy it with a very large glass of ice-cold milk – or coffee!