Best 3-Ingredient Chocolate Cake Recipe

This post describes two recipes of a homemade chocolate cake using just 3 ingredients. Check out the best 3 ingredient chocolate cake recipe. 

What makes a chocolate cake extraordinary? Well, to make this scrumptious chocolate cake, you will only need one bowl and a few ingredients, in fact, only 3 ingredients to be precise. That’s right. No oil, eggs, or vanilla extract are required either. You could make a chocolate cake that is soft, moist, and fluffy, with just the right amount of sweetness while using minimal ingredients!

Chocolate Cake Fun-Facts!

Chocolate Cake Slice
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I thought of including this fun little segment to help boost your excitement about eating the cake you later bake!

1. Chocolate Cake Day!

Did you know 27th January is celebrated as Chocolate Cake Day?

2. Viennese’s Most Expensive Chocolate Cake.

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The most expensive type of chocolate cake is Sachertorte. Austrian Franz Sacher baked and decorated a Viennese cake for Prince Denzel Metternich.

3. Love chocolate!

One of the main reasons for the popularity of chocolate cake – and chocolate in general – is that it makes you feel good. But, how does chocolate accomplish this?

It’s because cocoa contains a chemical that stimulates the production of serotonin and endorphins in the brain. Aside from that, eating chocolate cake makes you feel ‘in love,’ since another chemical present in cacao can engage the same brain areas activated when you’re in love with someone.

4. More Than 30 chocolate cakes.

There are several types of chocolate cakes. Worldwide, there are 30+ different types of chocolate cakes.

5. 72,585 Birthday candles!

Yes, that’s right. Ashrita Furman and the Sri Chinmoy Centre in New York set the world record for the largest number of birthday candles lit on a cake in 2016.

6. Cakes were originally flat

The cakes we come across today didn’t make an appearance in the market until the 18th century. Before this time, a cake’s resemblance was closer to a slice of bread.

But back in the golden times, when the concept of a cake was just fresh in town, cakes were simply flat discs compacted together.

A Little About These Recipes

Now that was just the factual content. Let’s get started with an amazing chocolate cake recipe.

My mum passed down this great chocolate cake recipe. My mom is a good baker and bakes cakes with more ingredients than these, but I adopted this particular chocolate cake recipe, being the lousy one.

You must be wondering if this is the recipe for the best chocolate cake EVER! It’s certainly the best chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten! By the end of this recipe, you will master baking the best chocolate cake you’ve ever eaten.

If you are a chocolate cake lover, this chocolate cake recipe is for you. Mark my words folks, this is a 5 stars recipe for an exceptional chocolate cake, and you will ALWAYS use this chocolate cake recipe for every birthday cake.

In all honesty, this cake recipe has got to be the easiest one of all. And it doesn’t even require fancy ingredients! If you are just as lazy as me, this has got to be the classic chocolate cake recipe for you. And if you are a health freak, let me earn you this is not a gluten-free cake, and you are about to witness a whole chocolate attack.

Another amazing thing about this recipe is that you need only a handful of utensils. No dirtying multiple bowls, spatulas, and cake pans and having to wash them later. Phew, that is a real hassle after cooking every meal.

Now, get this, being only a 3 ingredient cake recipe takes away the privilege to decorate your chocolate cake unless you bake using a ready-made box mix.

However, you can always spice things up and add additional details to your delicious chocolate cake by garnishing it with chocolate chips, melted chocolate, chocolate frosting, and much more.

These 2 Chocolate Cakes Are:

  1. super moist and delicious
  2. can be made into a layer cake
  3. packed with chocolate flavor
  4. makes a perfect last-minute birthday cake
  5. equivalent to 5 chocolate cupcakes!

Let’s get baking!

To Make This 3 Ingredient Chocolate Cake Recipe You Will Require:

  • 4 eggs- whites and yolks separated
  • 9 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
  • Vanilla ice cream- we need this when serving, so go crazy with the quantity!

3 Ingredient Chocolate Cake Recipe: Directions To Make The Best Chocolate Cake With Vanilla Icecream:

1. Firstly, preheat the oven to 170°C or 325°F

2. Now, place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and melt it completely for about 1 minute. Melt the chocolate in short time spans to avoid it from burning. Melt the chocolate at 20-seconds intervals while you keep stirring it in between.

3. Next, crack the eggs. Once done, start separating the egg whites and the egg yolks. Make sure the eggs are at room temperature.

Eggs at room temperature tend to combine with the cake batter properly and give a good rise to the chocolate cake. Now, whisk the egg whites and make sure you get soft peaks while doing so.

4. Add the egg yolks, one by one, into the bowl of melted chocolate and whisk to combine the two.

5. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold 1/3 of the whipped egg whites into the yolk and the melted chocolate mixture.

6. Repeat this process with the remaining egg whites, adding 1/3 part at a time.

7. Grease a 6-inch cake pan with cooking/ vegetable oil and line it with parchment paper.

8. Pour batter (the chocolate cake batter), and bake it for 30 minutes.

9. After the cake is baked, test it with a toothpick to be double sure. Then let the cake cool completely at normal room temperature.

10. After the cake is cool. Cut a slice of the chocolate cake and place a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. And voila! The easiest and the best chocolate cake recipe comes to an end with a mouthwatering result!

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Note: You can decorate this cake however you like. To exemplify, you could make buttercream frosting and frost the cake with it. (I have provided the recipe below, go check it out!)

You could also spread some Nutella over the moist cake or even sprinkle powdered sugar and top it with a cherry or chocolate syrup and add to the chocolate flavor! Yum!

But, this is not where it ends. I have a recipe for all the vegetarian readers too! This vegetarian chocolate cake recipe is just as easy as the previous one. Here’s how it goes…

3 Ingredient Chocolate Cake Recipe: To Make This Vegetarian Chocolate Cake You Will Need:

  • 3 cups chocolate cookies- yes, no cake flour or cocoa powder is required; just some choco cookies will do the trick. You would have to measure these cookies after crushing them into a fine powder. 3 cups are about 350 grams.
  • 1.5 cups milk- that’s about 370 grams.
  • 2 + 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder- yes, baking powder and NOT baking soda. Many people get themselves confused between baking powder and baking soda. Please make sure you get it right.

Chocolate Cake Recipe: Directions To Bake The Vegetarian Chocolate Cake

By now, you must’ve agreed that this chocolate cake recipe is the easiest of all the cake recipes you must have come across. So let’s get baking!

1. To begin with, you will have to crush some cookies and measure out 3 cups of the crushed cookie goodness. Remember, the chocolate flavor of the cake will solely depend on the cookies you choose.

By: Jenn/Flickr @All Rights Reserved

Oreos will give a different taste from chocolate cookies or Chips, Ahoy. How exciting! You get to experiment with additional cookies every time you make this recipe.

2. Next, transfer the crushed cookies into a large bowl and sift your measured baking powder into the bowl.

3. Give these dry ingredients a rough mix using a fork, add your milk part by part, and gently fold the ingredients together until they form a rich brown cake batter.

I found that using warm milk instead of cold milk hydrates the mixture properly. So that’s a tip you might want to consider. You can also experiment with the type of milk you use for this cake recipe.

For instance, you could use almond milk instead of whole/ regular milk. Using almond milk would give your cake a slightly nutty flavor. However, it might make the cake comparatively denser. But almond milk adds the same amount of moistness to the cake as whole milk does.

4. At this stage, your cake batter will have some small lumps, which is completely fine. Although, if you wish to remove these lumps, you can blend the cake batter using a blender at medium speed.

5. This is the point where you can get a little fancy with your chocolate cake recipe. Although this recipe demands only 3 ingredients, you can add some cocoa powder, chocolate chips, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, or even some instant coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor of your cake.

6. Set your large bowl of delicious chocolate cake batter aside. And now, grease a cake pan with vegetable oil and align it with parchment paper. An alternative to parchment paper is dusting your cake pan with powdered sugar or cocoa powder after the vegetable oil coating.

Cake pans come in various shapes and sizes. The most classic one being round cake pans. But you can switch things up with different cake pan shapes, like a bundt pan! This is the step where you get the chance to go all creative.

7. After prepping the cake tin, pour in your chocolate cake batter. A very crucial step is to tap your pan after pouring the batter. So, make sure you tap the cake tin multiple times. We need to do this step so that any air bubbles trapped inside the batter are removed.

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8. Next, it’s time to bake our delicious cake finally. Bake your cake in a preheated oven at 170°C or 325 F for around 15 minutes. You heard that right. Just 15 minutes!

Do not over-bake this chocolate cake. Test the chocolate cake with a toothpick to check if it’s done. If you find the toothpick coming out clean, you are all set.

9. After it’s baked, let the chocolate cake cool completely at room temperature. And once the cake sponge is completely cool, you can cut the chocolate cake into slices, squares, or shape them with different cookie cutters, and there you have it! The best chocolate cake ever!

Furthermore, an additional decor detail would be icing your chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.

I’ll save you some research. Here’s a quick bonus chocolate buttercream recipe.

By: Jeremy Poland/Unsplash @All Rights Reserved

Chocolate Cake Recipe: Ingredients For Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

  • 3 + 1/4 cups powdered sugar- which is also 400 grams
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder- 80 grams
  • 150 grams softened butter- 1 + 1/3 sticks
  • 100 grams boiling water- 1/3 cup and also keep 1.5 tablespoons aside
  • 60 grams melted dark chocolate- 2 ounces
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • A few drops of vanilla extract (optional)

Directions To Make Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

1. First, sift all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, i.e., powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt.

2. Now add butter and 1/3 cup boiling water to the bowl and blend the mixture with a blender until its consistency is smooth. If you fail to achieve consistency, add the 1.5 tablespoon boiling water we kept aside from earlier to smoothen the mix.

3. Pour the melted chocolate and blend again.

4. Next, refrigerate this wet ingredients mix for 30 minutes.

5. After 30 minutes, the chocolate buttercream frosting should be of the perfect thickness, and you can now use it on our chocolate cake.

This chocolate frosting recipe is truly simple and requires no fancy whipping cream. This cake recipe makes the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had in my entire life! The additional chocolate frosting on top makes this a 5 stars recipe for sure.

Moreover, you can also use cream cheese to decorate your chocolate cake, and it would taste just as good.

By: Pushpak Dsilva/Unsplash @All Rights Reserved

Can I make these recipes dairy-free?

You can use almond milk as well as coconut milk in place of dairy. While not dairy-free, You can also use buttermilk in place of the milk with great results.

For how long can I store these cakes?

Storage isn’t a problem at all. You can store these in an air-tight container for up to 5 days, and they will remain just as moist and soft. Many say you shouldn’t refrigerate your cake. But I haven’t faced any problems with storing it in the fridge.

The only thing you need to take care of is, removing the cake from the refrigerator before 15-20 minutes of consumption to go back to its soft texture.

What’s the difference between baking powder and baking soda?

Now, this is a very commonly asked question, and many people confuse themselves between the two.

Baking powder:

The baking powder creates carbon dioxide bubbles when it reacts with heat and moisture, making batters and doughs lighter. Baking powder performs two functions in the baking process: first, during the mixing process, and later in the oven.

Baking soda:

Baking soda helps a dough or batter rise by creating bubbles during baking. However, there must be enough acidity in the mixture, such as from milk, buttermilk, lemon juice, or yogurt, for it to operate as a leavening agent.

Baking Tips for a chocolate cake recipe

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Throughout my baking experience, I’ve learned a few tips that I’d like to share. These tips will come in handy when you work on the chocolate cake recipe.

Tip #1: After your chocolate cake is ready, you must cut your cake into layers before frosting. Always do a layer cake technique to acquire perfection in the decoration of your cake.

Tip #2: Always brush your cake layers with sugar water. This will make it super moist and delicious.

Tip #3: To make your eating experience delightful, you can sprinkle chocolate chips between the cake layers. For instance, if you are making a pineapple cake instead of a chocolate cake, you can put pineapple pieces between the cake layers.

Tip #4: Always make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature.

Tip #5: Always sift your dry ingredients- right from cake flour to cocoa powder to icing sugar, to obtain the smooth consistency of your batter.

Tip #6: Do NOT over mix. In times like whipping the frosting, over mixing can lead to a very bad consistency. However, when blending sugar, make sure it is properly blended.

Tip #7: Bang/ tap your cake pans after pouring the batter in; it will remove any air bubbles present.

Tip #8: If you struggle to melt your chocolate, add some melted coconut oil to help thin it.

Tip #9: Put your beaters in the fridge before you begin to beat your buttercream frosting.

Tip #10: For cake recipes that demand vinegar, lemon juice can be used as a healthier and natural alternative to vinegar.

Tip #11: Always keep your dry and wet ingredients separately. This is to keep organized and follow a systematic recipe.

So what are you now waiting for? Go grab your 3 basic ingredients that might be sitting on your kitchen counter and get baking this moist chocolate cake.

Share this simple 3 ingredient chocolate cake recipe with your mum, friends, and everyone cause why keep the yummy-ness to yourself? A chocolate cake recipe is an ultimate dessert you’d want to enjoy after a long tiring day.

Published by
Hasti-Desai