Looking for a moist chocolate cake recipe? Look no further! My recipe is an easy chocolate cake recipe made from scratch with secret ingredients of sour cream and coffee! It is a creamy and fudgy chocolate cake recipe that will satisfy your chocolate craving.
This simple chocolate cake recipe can be altered to make milk chocolate cake or dark chocolate cake. To make this as a dark chocolate cake recipe, all you need to do is use dark chocolate chips.
What does sour cream do for cake?
Have you ever heard of chocolate cake with sour cream recipe? Sour cream is a great secret ingredient to cake because it adds a lot of moisture to your batter but does not make it thin or runny. The slight sourness and tang in sour cream means that it has some acidity which is great at activating baking soda in the cake batter.
Why is baking soda used in cake and why is it important?
Baking soda is a base ingredient in your cake mixture which means when activated with acid it will form a chemical reaction that fluffs up your cake batter. The secret to fluffy chocolate cake is the baking soda and sour cream having the chemical reaction to one another, and that is why my popular chocolate cake recipe has sour cream as a secret ingredient! This chocolate sour cream cake is so creamy and rich with chocolate.
Coffee in Cake?
My second secret ingredient in my chocolate cake recipe is coffee! You may be surprised that coffee is in this cake. Coffee is not a dominate flavor in this cake – you will not even know that it is in the cake. You may think, why even put coffee in chocolate cake if we cannot taste it? Well coffee is such a great ingredient for chocolate cake because it brings out the richness of the chocolate. It adds depth of flavor into the cake because it will be an underlining flavor profile and aroma. Chocolate and coffee complement each other so well that there are many branded coffees with the flavor café mocha (chocolate) coffee!
I will be using regular coffee which has caffeine, but you can use decaffeinated coffee if you do not like caffeine.
Frosting
You can top this chocolate cake with your favorite frosting. I frosted my moist chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. You can view my chocolate buttercream frosting recipe here.
Chocolate Cake Recipe
Serving Size = one 8″ round cake pan
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsweetened quality cocoa
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
2 large eggs (room temperature)
1 cup sour cream (room temperature)
1/2 cup hot coffee
1 cup chocolate chips (milk or dark chocolate)
Step 1:
Prep your oven preheating the oven at 350 degree Fahrenheit. Prep your 8″ round cake pan by lightly coating the pan with oil.
Step 2:
In a large bowl, mix your dry ingredients together (cocoa, sugar, all purpose flour, baking soda, and salt).
Step 3:
Slowly add the wet ingredients into your bowl of dry ingredients one at a time excluding the hot coffee; (sour cream, egg, vanilla extract). Make sure there are no clumps and that your mixture is smooth. I recommend using a hand mixer or standing mixer for a smooth batter.
Step 4:
Add in the chocolate chips to the batter, and add in the hot coffee on top. The hot coffee will partially melt the chocolate chips giving the batter the creamy chocolate texture while still having some pieces not melted to add texture to the cake.
At this point, I recommend stirring by hand to mix the batter with the chocolate chip and hot coffee.
Step 5:
Pour your cake batter into your prepped cake pan. Bake the cake in your 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until the cake is fully cooked at your desired texture (check the cake to see if it is fully cooked by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake and if the tooth pick comes out clean then the cake is fully cooked).
Let your cake cool and add your favorite frosting to the cake.
I would love to know what you thought about this recipe, and if you made alternations. Feel free to share your comments below. ENJOY!
Chocolate Cake Recipe, Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1½ cup white granulated sugar
- 1½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 large egg at room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream at room temperature
- ½ cup coffee hot
- 1 cup chocolate chip
Instructions
- Prep your oven preheating the oven at 350° Fahrenheit. Prep a 8″ round cake pan by lightly coating the pan with oil.
- In a large bowl, mix your dry ingredients together (cocoa, sugar, all purpose flour, baking soda, and salt).
- Slowly add the wet ingredients into your bowl of dry ingredients one at a time excluding the hot coffee; (sour cream, egg, vanilla extract). Make sure there are no clumps and that your mixture is smooth. I recommend using a hand mixer or standing mixer for a smooth batter.
- Add in the chocolate chips to the batter, and add in the hot coffee on top. The hot coffee will partially melt the chocolate chips giving the batter the creamy chocolate texture while still having some pieces not melted to add texture to the cake.At this point, I recommend stirring by hand to mix the batter with the chocolate chip and hot coffee.
- Pour your cake batter into your prepped cake pan. Bake the cake in your 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until the cake is fully cooked at your desired texture (check the cake to see if it is fully cooked by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake and if the tooth pick comes out clean then the cake is fully cooked). Let your cake cool and add your favorite frosting to the cake.
