Chocolate Snacking Cake
what to expect:
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes| Total Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 8 slices
Single-layer chocolate snacking cake that is just sweet enough and has a moist, tender crumb thanks to the addition of sour cream in the batter.
*For helpful tips and how-to’s, be sure to read the whole post!
Chocolate cake can be easy to hate. Too often, it’s dry and sometimes a bit tough, and maybe it’s too sweet to try and compensate for those things. This chocolate snacking cake has none of those problems – trust me, I normally dislike chocolate cake for all of the reasons listed above.
This chocolate snacking cake has the perfect balance of texture and flavor and is rich without being overwhelming. It’s so delicious on its own that I don’t even bother icing mine.
Perfect with a glass of milk or topped with a bit of whipped cream (if that’s your style), you can’t go wrong with this single-layer chocolate snacking cake.
What You’ll Find in This Post
- What You’ll Need (Ingredients & Tools)
- Helpful Tip: Using Instant Coffee
- Helpful Tip: Bake it Just Right
What You’ll Need to Make Chocolate Snacking Cake
Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour
- Cocoa Powder
- Baking Soda
- Kosher Salt
- Decaf Instant Coffee (optional)
- Brown Sugar
- Granulated Sugar
- Vegetable Oil
- Sour Cream
- Large Egg
- Vanilla Extract
Tools & Equipment
To me, snacking cake = simple cake.
All you need to make this chocolate snacking cake are two medium-sized mixing bowls (one for dry ingredients and another for wet ingredients), a whisk, a spatula (to make sure you get all the batter into your pan), and a 9-inch round cake pan.
My cake pan is non-stick and it’s perfect because I hate having to cut out parchment circles to line the bottom. I grease it just to make sure everything comes out evenly, but you can’t go wrong with a non-stick cake pan.
Instant Coffee is Chocolate’s Hype-Man
A little baker’s secret is to add a smidge of instant coffee to your chocolate batters. Coffee heightens the flavor of chocolate and really brings out its rich dynamic flavor.
It’s totally optional in this chocolate snacking cake recipe, but if you decide to use it you’ll notice that we don’t use much. With just the right amount, you can bring out the flavor of chocolate without introducing the flavor of coffee.
I opt for a decaf option since I’m sensitive to caffeine and keep any extra in my pantry with my baking ingredients. It’s perfect to keep on hand to add a bit to any chocolate bakes you make in the future.
An Over-Baked Cake is a Dry Cake
Dry chocolate cake is criminal and all too common. It’s honestly the reason I rarely choose to eat chocolate cake. To avoid this problem, we’ve added sour cream in the batter, which adds fat and gives it a rich moist texture. But the efforts don’t stop there.
To ensure we don’t get a dry cake, we need to make sure we avoid over-baking the cake.
The cake is done as soon as a chopstick or sharp kitchen knife can be inserted into the center of the cake and comes out clean. I run this test for the first time around the 25-minute mark when baking, but every oven is different.
My cake is done in 28 minutes, but yours could be done anywhere between 25 and 30 minutes. If it fails the test, check it again every few minutes until it passes.
If you make this chocolate snacking cake, let me know how it turned out by leaving a review! And if you post on Instagram, be sure to tag me @ficklebea. I can’t wait to see what you make – happy baking!
If you are new to baking or nervous about spending time in the kitchen, check out My Kitchen Commandments for some helpful tips!
PrintChocolate Snacking Cake
A single-layer chocolate snacking cake that is just sweet enough and has a moist, tender crumb thanks to the addition of sour cream in the batter.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 slices 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
Ingredients
1 cup All-Purpose Flour (110 gram)
1/4 cup Cocoa Powder (35 gram)
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda (2 gram)
1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt (2 gram)
1/2 teaspoon Decaf Instant Coffee – optional (1 gram)
1/2 cup Brown Sugar – packed (130 gram)
1/4 cup Granulated Sugar (58 gram)
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil (100 gram)
1 cup Sour Cream (250 gram)
1 Large Egg (50 gram)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (4 gram)
Instructions
preheat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit (177 Celsius) and grease a 9-inch round cake pan
make the batter
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add the all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, kosher salt, and instant coffee (if using). Whisk together until thoroughly combined – about 1 minute.
- In a separate medium-sized mixing bowl, add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, sour cream, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk together until smooth and there are streaks of oil.
- Add the sour cream mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and whisk together until smooth with no dry patches.
bake the cake
- Add the cake batter to your greased 9-inch cake pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a knife or chopstick can be inserted into the middle of the cake and comes out clean.
- Once removed from the oven, allow to cool in the pan until the pan is cool to the touch.
- Run a sharp kitchen knife between the edge of the cake and the rim of the pan and invert gently until the cake slides out of the pan.
- Allow to cool completely before enjoying. Dust with the top with powdered sugar or or top with whipped cream or your frosting of choice.
Notes
To help with your grocery shopping, I’ve provided the ingredients for this recipe below and organized them by where they’re generally located in the store:
Dairy
- Sour Cream
- Large Egg
Pantry
- All-Purpose Flour
- Cocoa Powder
- Baking Soda
- Kosher Salt
- Brown Sugar
- Granulated Sugar
- Vegetable Oil
- Decaf Instant Coffee (optional)
- Vanilla Extract
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