One-Bowl Chocolate Cake Recipe (2024)

This can take a reduction in sugar if desired, by a quarter cup or a bit more.

This is a smaller sized version of Ina Garten’s recipe for Beatty’s Chocolate Cake: always a hit, keeps very well, can be made with gluten free flour. YUM!I use a few tablespoons of golden syrup or corn syrup in the frosting; keeps it glossy and shiny.

Google "ganache without heavy cream" and you will find some options for using a combination of milk and unsalted butter in the place of cream. You need the fat content to ensure spreadable consistency.

If you've used the gluten free flour in other recipes calling for all purpose flour, then you should be good with this recipe.

The recipe calls for natural cocoa; I admit that when I tried the recipe, I used Dutch process instead. (To me, Dutch process just looks and tastes better.)

This cake is so easy and good!! It’s the perfect just-because cake to reward yourself for finally sending that email you’ve been putting off (and to avoid doing the next task on your list). I only had Greek yogurt, so I did some Greek yogurt and some milk and it came out totally fine! Also baked it in two 6” round pans, bc that’s what I had, and it’s a bit tall and still great!

Made this cake last night for friends. Delicious. Used espresso from my machine. Used Guitard cocoa powder instead of the standard. Added only one 5.3 oz container of the fat-free yogurt, instead of the buttermilk, as that's what I had. Timing in my oven was right on the money at 45 minutes. Double boiled the ganache, which took longer than expected to cool. I'll make that earlier in the process next time. Hey...bravo. Make this.

Teach good food safety practices as you teach baking - a bowl that held raw eggs and flour must be washed before mixing something (like icing) that won’t be cooked. Also, it’s far easier to make ganache in a food processor: pulverize the chocolate, heat up the cream to almost scalding, and slowly pour the cream into the machine with the motor running. Add a tablespoon of the liquid if your choice or done vanilla for added flavor.

Has anyone made this with a standard gluten free flour such as Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur GF flour?

I weigh my ingredients and find it more reliable as to outcome. In this case, the amount of buttermilk that corresponds to 189 grams is more than a half cup of liquid.The resulting batter was more liquid than I expected--poured into the pan and not scraped! Baking time was the same in a 9-inch pan. I adjusted for altitude by reducing sugar slightly. The cake fell in the middle, which is unusual. Could that have been a result of the excess liquid or did I need to adjust more?

I have cooked this twice since the recipe hit my inbox. It was an instant weeknight favorite with the kids! The first time I cooked it with the hot water, the next time with the hot coffee. The coffee imparts a deeper flavor that everyone agreed was better. This recipe is a keeper. It will go off to college with my son next year so that he can make a cake from scratch to impress his friends. :)

Just wanted to note that I used a different bowl when I made the frosting and it turned out fine!

Cake came out dry, even respecting liquid proportions and bake time. I don't think I'll attempt it again, but if I did I'd either use glass instead of metal or cut the baking time by at least 5 minutes.

Amazing recipe!

This is a winner! Used yogurt, espresso a the liquid and extra bittersweet chocolate for the icing. I was surprised at how easy it was to make and how delicious it was to eat. A crowd pleaser to be sure!

A moist, delicious and easy cake. I made it with 1/4 cup less sugar and Dutch cocoa. 40 minutes baking was perfect in my oven. I added 1 tablespoon of corn syrup to the frosting. It’s pretty rich.

This came out great! I decreased sugar by 1/4c used and hot instant espresso and a light peanut butter frosting.

Easy to make and so delicious. My book club loved it,

Don’t over bake. I did 50 mins and it was too much

Love this cake!!! 5 stars!!!

I assume you can put the frosting on completely cooled cake, correct?

I made this exactly as written (used water); came out beautiful, but more on the bitter side than sweet. I measured by weight. I never enjoy too-sweet desserts, but I ended up wishing I’d used semi-sweet or even milk chocolate for the frosting. It was easy and baked like a dream— actually finished baking 10 min early so watch the time.

Teach good food safety practices as you teach baking - a bowl that held raw eggs and flour must be washed before mixing something (like icing) that won’t be cooked. Also, it’s far easier to make ganache in a food processor: pulverize the chocolate, heat up the cream to almost scalding, and slowly pour the cream into the machine with the motor running. Add a tablespoon of the liquid if your choice or done vanilla for added flavor.

Giving this a 3 stars for ease of assembly, baking and cleaning one bowl. However, my official taster (my husband) and I found that the flavor of cake tasted more of the veg oil than chocolate, which was very off-putting and even the frosting couldn't save it. I had used a fresh bottle of veg oil, so it wasn't due to "old" oil. Maybe buttering the dish would have made a difference, rather than oiling it. Sadly, the entire cake went in the trash.