The Best Ever Chocolate Cake

The most simple yet decadent eggless chocolate cake with your kitchen pantry staples.

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Today I would like to share a little positive thing that has come out of this pandemic for me. When I first started baking, I would bake things I liked. Obviously! Right? Cakes I had eaten and enjoyed, desserts that made me nostalgic, etc. but over the time, it became more commercial and industry driven. To be honest, on some days it felt very monotonous to bake and I thought I was losing my creative outlet.

However, the last few months, connecting with hundreds of people on Facebook and Instagram, many of them first time bakers, made me realize that it wasn’t always about how much we knew, but how much we could share and inspire. In the last couple months, hundreds of you have tried my recipes. So many have written to me with words of encouragement and appreciation, many have helped me spread the word further by sharing the blog. It’s given me a whole new perspective about my work. The kindness and love shown by all of you makes all my efforts worthwhile.

So today, I would like to thank each one of you for being a part of my journey and I’m sharing a recipe that’s amongst the first few I started to bake. It’s a basic chocolate cake that’s also called the ‘Depression Cake’ because it was invented during the Great Depression of 1929 when resources like eggs, butter, and milk were scarce. Yes! It’s a time-tested recipe that’s used till date because of how simple yet amazing it is. I must have made this cake at least 500 times, if not more in the last 5 years and it’s never failed me. Not even once! My version is nearly the same as the original recipe with very few tweaks. Today, when we are all facing a crisis due to the pandemic, this cake is my way to spread some smiles and savor the simple things in life.

I am not exaggerating when I say this is the simplest chocolate cake recipe ever. You need only a couple of ingredients that are easily available in the kitchen and honestly, there is no technique involved in making this cake. It’s a simple add-mix-bake that one can’t possibly mess up. The only key is to measure your ingredients correctly and you’ll have a great cake in no time.

There’s really nothing technical about the process here but I’ll share a quick step-by-step for you.

Start by mixing the dry ingredients, i.e. flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda in a bowl.

In another bowl, pour water and add oil, vinegar, vanilla extract, coffee powder and sugar to it.

 

Mix well and gradually, add the dry ingredients to this. keep mixing in between to make sure there are no flour pockets.

Make a smooth batter and transfer it to a prepared tin, gently tapping to release air bubbles.

Bake it at 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes and Tada! your fuss-free chocolate cake is ready.

This cake is good to eat as it is, but it also makes a great sponge for celebration cakes. I’ve shared a simple chocolate frosting, if you’d like to frost your cake for any special occasion.

You can also have a look at my Best Chocolate Ganache recipe if you want to make this cake absolutely sinful.

To bake this cake on the stovetop, follow the same steps to make the batter and then read this post to set up your stovetop equipment 

BAKING ON A STOVETOP

Do let me know in the comments if you make this cake and follow me on Instagram for more fun and simple recipes.

If you like this recipe, you may also like

• Vanilla sponge cake
• Coffee Cinnamon Cake
• Semolina rava cake
• Fudgy chocolate hazelnut cake