Ever! This is really the best, most moist, most rich, most chocolatiest cake I’ve ever made. I know there are other chocolate cakes out there that claim to be the best. Folks, let me tell you, I’ve tried them. And I can still assure you that this one, no really, THIS one…. This one’s the best. Just try it. Just once.
Are you ready? :D Let’s get started… Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Here’s your ingredients for the cake.
You know what the best part about this cake is? Okay, well, it’s the taste. But the second best part is that it’s so easy!
All you do is dump everything except the chocolate chips into a very large bowl– A 4 qt bowl or larger is perfect, but be warned, one of those 8 cup mixing bowls is too small. Then mix well with a beater. The batter will be thick.
Then stir in 2 cups of chocolate chips– pictured here are regular sized chocolate chips. I prefer the mini ones for this cake, but Kevin prefers the regular size. These were are all I had on hand today, so regular size it is!
Now, pour your batter into your cake pan of choice. Okay, it doesn’t really pour. It’s very thick. “Scoop” your batter into your cake pan of choice.
I like to bake my cakes in two, 9-inch pie pans. But this batter is very versatile and you can definitely use it to make any kind of cake — sheet cake, cupcakes, bundt cake, etc. It tells you the cooking times for specific cakes on the back of the cake mix box. I use that as a guide. Usually I need to add about 10 mins to whatever they say. I usually end up baking my two, 9-inch pie pans for 45 mins. You definitely don’t want to overbake or it won’t be moist. Do the toothpick check, but remember, you may get some of the chocolate from the melted chips on your toothpick so don’t let that fool you. :)
Oh man… It’s so hard to not just rip into right now while it’s warm and fresh out of the oven… But wait! Let’s let it cool… Let’s put some frosting on this baby.
While it’s cooling, we’ll make The Best Buttercream Frosting Ever.
Here are your ingredients for the frosting.
In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening until fluffy. Add the sugar slowly and continue creaming until well blended. Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream. Blend on low speed until moistened. Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.
After your cake has cooled completely it’s time to frost it! Don’t forget to put a nice helping of icing between the layers.
Yes, I conveniently did not take a picture of the finished iced cake. But that is because I am terrible at icing cakes and really, no one would want to see that anyway. But I will leave you with this…
This rather large piece of cake did not last very long. At all. And no… I did not share.
The Best Chocolate Cake Ever
1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small pkg Jello instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a very large bowl, mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into cake pan of choice (I normally use two 9-inch pie pans). For cooking time, I use the cooking times on the back of the devil’s food cake box as a guide and usually add 10 mins to whatever it says. Then I do the toothpick check, and if it’s not done, I check on it every 5 mins after that. It usually takes around 45 mins for two, 9-inch pie pans.
Buttercream Frosting
1 cup shortening (Crisco)
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
In a mixing bowl, cream shortening until fluffy. Add sugar and continue creaming until well blended. Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream. Blend on low speed until moistened. Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.
Make for: Dessert
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474 Comments
we didn’t use choc chips because we didn’t have any :( keep up the great work gtg pearl
omg i’m eating the cake now and its soooooo good :) i love it and so does everyone else does too keep up the great work gtg pearl
Hi ! I’m italian and … I don’t know English lenguage ^^” XDXD but this recipe is great !!!
thanks for your recipes, they are fantastic : )
kiss by Silvana96 : D
I have to make a cake this weekend and I’m going to try this. I just discovered your website and I love it. A quick question, what size of pudding mix the small or large? Sullifam@gmail.com
My mouth is watering from just looking at this chocolate cake recipe!!!
Gabby
recipebuddys.com
I have always made this in a bundt cake with no frosting, just powdered sugar. Love the ease of starting with a box when time is tight….
I made this when my cousin and his family came for a visit and they absolutely loved it! It was soooo good! THANKS! :)
OMG!!!!!!! Best cake EVER! I just made this cake and I can’t stop eating it!
Oh wow – that looks heavenly! YUM!
yay cake!
Made these again for Easter, using Bakerella’s cupcake decorations. AMAZING. And, I had some extra batter, so I made a square cake and frosted it with, once again, confectioner’s sugar frosting. OMG. This will forever be my favorite cake. My husband had a piece last night and agreed that this is his favorite cake in the world. THANK YOU!
this looks yum, but what can we substitute for Jello instant pudding mix here in the UK? Any ideas? Angel Delight?
Wondering if you can help…my mom used to make a chocolate cake that used 1/2 of the chocolate icing in the cake batter. Have you any idea of where I might find it? Thank you.
Love your web site!
I LOVE YOUR SiTE! its so cool,the letters,the recipes,so cool!! wishes 4 you two amanda
and kevin,!!! :D and i love chocolate :P yumm
have a nice day,
Jocy,
Oh my gosh this was so good! I have never made my own frosting before, and it was easy! I did half as the recipe called for and added 1/4 cup peanut butter to the other half and frosted each side different. Both sides were amazing. Thanks to whoever suggested peanut butter!
Yum – this sounds (and the pics look) delicious! And, I love the style of your site – creative, simple and eye pleasing. Great job!
Jan ~ Founder, PantryConnection.com
I too use a recipe almost exactly like yours, but I sub melted butter for the oil (mine calls for less butter, but is still delish-going to try the whole cup of it now!!) and also sub Ultimate Whole-Fat Chocolate milk for the regular milk….mmmmm! Thanks for this great site!!!
All of these recipes look amazing! I’m going to try out this cake recipe first for my mom…she is a real chocolate lover!
A big hunk of chocolate & icing goodness… there goes my clean eating for today… it’s futile! :-) I’m off to make chocolate cake! (Thanks for the amazing looking recipe!)
This cake sounds great. But I don’t understand the frosting – how can you have buttercream frosting, with no butter? I’ve never heard making it with crisco. That can’t be right.
Hey Chessie, you can replace the Crisco for the same amount of butter. I just prefer the taste of the icing using Crisco. I’ve tried it with butter, half butter / half Crisco, and with butter flavored crisco, and just the plain ole’ regular Crisco makes it taste the best to me. But feel free to experiment and come back and post your results! :)
I made this for Mother’s Day and have since heard several times that we need to make this cake again very soon! Everyone raved about the cake and it didn’t last long! THANK YOU for the great recipe and the awesome website!
I’ve been making this cake for about 6 years now and it’s my family’s favorite of course! I use *MINT* chocolate chips in my cake… ooooh its so yummy! We just finished one today in fact!
I wanna use a devils food cake recipe instead of a box mix, is that possible and do you have a basis for the recipie, or would you say stick to the box mix?
Made this cake for my neice’s birthday, it was AWESOME. I was showered with compliments all night long! Can’t wait to make it again and to try some of the other recipes on your site. THANK YOU!
Amanda,
I have been a fan of yours since I saw your postings on Woofboard. The beautiful pics you take of the dogs are what caught my attention. I have two Boston’s myself, and have always been so envious of your work! Anyway, I saw this recipe a few days ago and can’t stop thinking about it. I plan to make it to share with my family on 4th of July. It looks mighty YUMMY!
I made this last week. Ohhhh myyyyy godddd. And it’s really easy, too! Great, now I’m going to get fat. :)
Hi! this cake looks so delicious! wanna try it!
there’s just one small problem, and that is, where I live (in Italy) I obviously do not manage to find any devil’s food cake mix… I wanted to ask if you could suggest some REALLY GOOD and TESTED recipe I could use to replace the “missing” devil’s food cake mix… just for the dry ingredients, I suppose, because then I’ll have to add the ingredients your amazing recipe calls for… thanks :)
I tried this over the weekend and loved the cake but too would prefer a recipe for devils food over using the boxed. Anyone have any ideas how to modify into a 100% homemade recipe?
tried this recipe for a bday party this weekend and it was such a huge hit. everyone was singing high praises over it. i also used swiss meringue buttercream frosting which was melt in your mouth good! thank you for sharing. this is the best chocolate cake recipe ever!
I made this cake for my daughter’s birthday – left out the chips at her request. It was fabulous – easily the best cake I’ve ever made and I have five kids ages 17-27 so I’ve made a FEW. HOWever (notice how everyone has her own ideas…) I used this frosting – oh, my – yummy!
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1918,153191-241196,00.html
Amanda,
This truly is the best Chocolate Cake Recipe I’ve ever made and eaten. I like it even better than the Miracle Whip Chocolate Cake recipe I’ve used for years.
Thanks for sharing! I love your website
Denise
hehe im the computer kid at school and i set some of these pics as the desktop XD everyone was starving by the end of class this looks so delicious
i was just looking for the perfect chocolate cake to make for the person i love. this is the very first one i came across and im glad i looked no further! i dont even need to wait to find out if it is the best, its kinda obvious it must be! THANK YOU!!
I tend to bake quite a few cakes, but this was BY FAR the best chocolate cake I’ve tasted/made. I got so many compliments about how good it was, I didn’t want to say how easy it was to make! Thank you very much, it was delicious!
I made cupcakes using this recipe last night and they came out great. I couldn’t find chocolate pudding mix but i found a recipe to make it from scratch
90g Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
60g cornflour
180g icing sugar
45g instant non-fat powdered milk
1 tsp salt
This will make more than you need (which is about 0.8 Cups or 4oz) but you can store the rest in the freezer for the next time and trust me there will be a next time ;) Hope this helps those who couldn’t find the pudding mix either.
Thank you so much for an easy way to make such a delicious chocolate cake. I made this into an island cake for a LOST theme baby shower–complete with ocean, beach, palm trees and a crashed plane. Everyone loved the cake!
Comment says it all. That was the best chocolate cake i ever made.
Am new to your website- I’m trying this recipe to make tomorrow for a dinner party my family is going to (I’m 13)..I was browsing the internet for a fabulous recipe and hit upon this beauty.
Thanks for the great post! I am looking forward to continuing to read your blog.
Love, Alyssa
This sounds absolutely delicious! I stumbled across your site and love it. The pictures are great. I really can’t wait to make some cake!!
Hi I’m Rayen from Singapore… I really like your website… The recipe looks so tempting and the cake in the picture looks soooooo deliciousssss… Will try them today…
omg, peanut butter and chocolate, I’m totally doing this for my bday, I love baking so it’s fun for me to make my own cake! I think I’m gonna subsitute the chocolate chips with reses peanut butter chips, alot easier then open all those little wrappers. Do you know if it would be okay to freeze this cake? I dont want my dad sitting down stairs binging on it all night and I must resist the urge to hole up in my room and finish the whole cake in one sitting, so I was thinking of freezing whatever we dont eat and thawing peices as i need them, I know it sounds crazy! but Its the only way I can make sure that this cake doesnt come with a big serving of guilt along with it
I honestly have no idea how I found your website, but I love it! We actually have the same cake recipe! My bro-in-law got it from his Gma. It’s the best!! We usually make a yellow cake with vanilla pudding with homemade chocolate frosting. The reason…well first because it’s heavenly, but second because I have never found a really really good home made white frosting!! I can’t wait to try your frosting recipe with this cake!!! Thanks for sharing all your wonderful recipes with the world!
Oh also, sometimes we add almond extract instead of vanilla….SOOOOO yummy!!!
I made this cake for my Mom’s Birthday a few weeks ago. It was rich and yummy. I used store bought chocolate buttercream icing but I defintiely want to try your frosting recipe next time. Thanks for the great recipe.
Evil Evil Woman lol. So I had this plan that while my husband was deployed I was going to lose some weight. Well my birthday is coming up and I’m throwing a party. I saw your recipe and decided to try it……Thanks for making such a yummy cake recipe lol!!!! So I’ll start my diet a little later!!! Thanks again the cake is sooooooo YUMMY!!!!
Amanda- Made your best ever chocolate cake (into cupcakes) today during the football game. YUM! it is sooo good, although I did make the frosting, it is so good and rich even without it.
Thanks for sharing the goodness!
Am making this cake for a co-worker’s birthday (tomorrow) and for my husband’s birthday next week. Last time I made this cake I used two 9 in. pans and put a layer of raspberry preserves and cheesecake in between the two layers then put on chocolate frosting and sprinkled fresh rasperries over the top, it was TO DIE FOR!! Thank you so much for this recipe! : ) You have obviously made a lot of happy people because of it.
Great cake – thank you. To make a “barely chocolate cake” take this recipe and substitute yellow box cake and put some cocoa in the icing. I really enjoy this website – way to go!
War Eagle – Heather Coughlin
Sweet chocolate goddess of love…. that was effing incredible cake. As the reigning cake queen in my circle, I was tapped for cake for a trivia night. Thought I’d give this recipe a try. Baked in a bundt pan. Used a splash of rum instead of vanilla and 1 pkg 60% cacao chips. Used 2 Tbsp rum in a chocolate ganache glaze (2 Tbsp butter, 1 pkg 60% cacao chips, and 8 oz whipping cream with a splash of rum). Will be my go-to chocolate cake recipe from here on out. Quite close to orgasmic cake.
I made this cake for a friend’s birthday a few months ago and it was very well received! Am making it again, will try adding mini-marshmallows in with the chocolate chips to give it a little twist! Thanks so much for this amazing recipe!
I made this cake for my birthday too, except I switched out the vanilla for mint extract and made a mint buttercream frosting. It was AWESOME. Mint-chocolate is my fave, and no one else in my house really loves it. I ate the whole cake myself, and I’m not even sorry! :)
Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing…mmmmmmmm.
I think I’ve died and gone to heaven!!!!
Made this for a potluck at church yesterday…wanna make it again…right now!!! Absolutely divine!!!!
Amanda, wanted to know that I posted this recipe on my blog (with appropriate Kudos to you)! I tried it this weekend and all I can say is “OH MY WORD!” Where have I been? What a perfect Chocolate Cake! Heaven is nearer!! You can find my post here: http://catchingupwiththeconners.blogspot.com/2009/10/best-chocolate-cake-ever.html
Thanks for sharing!!
Hey Amanda, I live in Australia, and we don’t have crisco here, and it is really hard to find any vegetable shortening anywhere. Is it possible to use butter as a substitute? What can you suggest?
Cheers Nancy
Hola Amanda,
I have been searching for a great choco cake recipe, so far no luck with the one’s I have tried, but this one looks mighty tasty, I am going to try it out for turkey day along with a maple pecan cake, i am sure they will be a hit! Thanks for the amazing recipe!!
I finally got to try this yummy cake on Halloween. We had 48 party guests….loads of food and goodies, but this was a hit of young & old! It will definitely be a keeper! I am already thinking about making it again for the Thanksgiving crowd!! Amanda….get out of that new car and give me some more new recipes!!
Absolutely love the design of your blog, can you tell me who designed it?
This recipe was a hit this Thanskgiving. It was easy and your step by step instructions really made it easy to prepare. Thank you Thank you. The cake was moist and chocolatey which is always a great hit. I can’t wait to try the other recipes.
Thanks! Gotta try this for Christmas for my 6 nieces. They luuurvve chocolate. Have you tried using Crisco instead of that 1cup of veg oil for the cake?
If you did, how did it turn out and how much of Crisco?
Thanks again
Okay Mrs. Amanda I am going to try this recipe out today! Wish me luck. My son’s third birthday is tomorrow and he wants me to make him a spider cake!!! I think I will tint the frosting black or purple or something. Will let you know how it turns out!
I made this recipe for my son’s 5th birthday, I’ve made many cakes from scratch before but this year since his birthday is so close to Christmas and I have a 4 month old now too, I decided to ease my burden a bit and use a “doctored box recipe,” as I call it. This was honestly the BEST chocolate cake I’ve made and a week later I’m still snacking on it since it’s STILL SO MOIST! I had numerous comments at the party and am eagerly sharing your site. Thank you!!!
Wow! This cake turned out beautifully and was a huge hit for my husband’s office birthday party a few months ago. They all loved it so much that they asked me to bake another one for the Christmas Party this week – can’t wait to eat this yummy cake again. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for this recipe. I have made it 3 times already. My husband loves it. I found that when I added 2 tablespoons water to the Crisco (similar to the directions from Crisco when substituting for butter) the frosting turns out a little more creamier.
I am throwing away all my other chocolate cake recipes!!
I’ve been *REALLY* wanting to try this cake for a while now, (about a year!) and I think (hopefully?) I’ll find the time to make it for my birthday in January. :) I’m really looking forward to trying this delicious cake! it looks SOOO good!
Amanda, I made this cake this weekend for our church Christmas party and it literally is THE BEST chocolate cake I’ve ever had! My mom is a chocolate fiend so I am making one to surprise her for Christmas. Thanks for posting the recipe!!
I made this cake for my dad’s birthday tomorrow! It smells great! Can’t wait to try it after Christmas dinner tomorrow!
this looks very delicious. Me and my cousin will definitely try it out. Thank you for the step by step pictures. ^-^
Thanks Kevin and Amanda for sharing. I just made this for our 2009 Christmas get together and it was a big hit. I have been ask to make another one for my sister-in-law’s 83rd birthday on January 18, 2010. My husband has been telling everyone they will have to taste it that it’s the BEST chocolate cake he has ever tasted.
Just a little question…….do I have to refrigerate the cake after making it????
i would like to spin, a “grown-up” party flavor to
this by adding maybe Godiva chocolate liquor to the cake mix? i haven’t tried it yet, but I am
thinking this may put a cool spin on this recipe for a gal’s night out or birthday party for grown ups??
Okay, even like another recipe for this cake in vanilla flavor,
mini vanilla chips, vanilla cake mix,
vanilla pudding mix & real vanilla bean buttercream icing with strawberries or blueberries on top.. yummy!!!
Let me just start off by saying that I was looking into making this amazing cake for my boyfriend but only problem was that I had no idea how to come up with one. I decided to google “the best chocolate cake recipe” and guess what popped up? this website. So as I am looking through your recipe I notice you provided step by step directions with the corresponding picture! Need i say “AMAZING”. See I love to cook, only problem is that a lot of times when following directions on a recipe I feel like it doesn’t look right” lol. But Yes I look forward to making many of the recipes that you provide” and I will start off by making the best chocolate cake EVER. :)
This IS the BEST chocolate cake EVER and it is SO easy to make. I lost the recipe I used for years and found yours while searching for something just as good. WELL, yours is BETTER! I made it with chocolate icing and it was AWESOME for my son’s birthday!
i loved this recipe i made it for my sons first birthday last week and it was such a hit!…the chocolate cake was so moist and rich! thank you so much! i love all your recipes.
my sister would make this for me when i was pregnant with my first kid. we called it better than sex cake. it truly is amazing!
This chocolate was soooo yummy!! I’ve been searching for a delicious cake to make for my son’s 1st birthday and this is it! I made it as a test run and everyone was begging for more, so delicious!! Great job! I showed my husband your website and he thinks I should be more like you: cook, blog, scrapbook, photograph..hmmm :)
Mmmmmmmmmmmm…I gotta try making this. My mouth is watching. TFS!
xoxo,
Lori
I just came across this blog in looking for a moist choclate cake recipe, I did a trial cake and WOW! I am not a lover of choclate cake, but I just feel in love. I did an oreo choclate mousse for the filling instead and everyone loved it. I will be repeating this cake for a birthday cake this weekend. Thanks a bunch.
I love everything on this page. The deco is gorgeous. the cake looks so fine. I’m doing it tomorrow!! I love everything!! the polka dot background is AWESOME!!!!
my birthday is coming up and i just couldnt get the ingredients for my faverot cake but this one looks just as good and i am looking forward to making (and eating with school mates) this cake!!!!!!!!!!!
I make ALOT of cakes because i have a huge family and one day i found this recipe and everyone loved it! Now everyone wants me to make this cake for their birthday! Thank you so much its the best chocolate cake i ever ate! and its sooo easy to make!
Amanda, bottom line you and your chocolate cake ROCK! It was amazing!
This is SOOOO YuMmY!!! I love the cake and the frosting!!! I have been searching for a really good buttercream frosting for my little girls 1 year old birthday cake, and I found both a good cake and awesome frosting!! Thanks so much for posting this!!! I ♥ this cake & frosting!!
Really very pleased with this cake. I made it for Valentine’s Day and decorated it with red sugar. My family enjoyed it! Thanks.
This cake and frosty totally rock!
It turned out so great.
Thanks for posting.
Hi, my name is Sarah and I’m a chocolate addict. I’ve spent the last year of my life trying and tasting every chocolate cake I could possibly make and then today I found ‘The One’. Thank you so much Amanda!
Baked the cake. So simple and the taste was out of world. Took leftover to work just to save me for eating it all and the plate was clean in mins.
I will try this cake recipe it sounds awesome but I think I will use Red Velvet Icing, which is a boiled icing. I like that icing better than buttercream because it isn’t so sweet like buttercream frosting.
I made this cake for the second time with a seven-minute/marshmallow frosting – TO.DIE.FOR! Can’t even begin to say how moist the cake is. Would love to see a version using ingredients other than a box tho.
I bake a cake very similar to this “Best Chocolate Cake” recipe, and when I go overboard on the amount of chocolate chips, I’ve noticed the following– the chips that sink to the bottom of the cake end up with white dots and the dots are noticeable when the cake has fully cooled. Is this fat that has separated from the chips?
Amanda – You made three hungry people VERY satisfied. Thank you so much for your Creamy Chicken Enchilada recipe and your Chocolate Cake… It most definitely is THE best chocolate cake. Thank you for sharing and i look forward to cooking many more of your wonderful recipes.
Love & Recipes!
Maya
Going to try it out
going to try
Wow!! I’m impressed by how easy this looks….I only have one problem…I live in Europe and I don’t believe they sell Jell-o istant pudding mix. We do have instant pudding mixes, where you add milk and let it cool, or where you have to add warm milk and stir and heat it.. so please help me…I really want to make this cake :-P
Hey Amanda! I have my own little baking business, and now I just added another recipe to my collection! Just one question, what size is the box of pudding? Thank you SO much for sharing! Please reply, thanks! ~Molly
Tested your recipe out..and..JUMMMMYYY great recipe, many thanks!
This really is the best Chocolate Cake Ever, so thanks for the recipe! I however drizzle a really yummy Chocolate gnosh over the top instead of icing and it’s heavenly!
i try it yesterday…hmmm i love it! love it love it….
but i using ganache to cover the cake. :D