Who doesn’t love chocolate cake? It’s a total crowd pleaser for any occasion! I’ve modified this recipe to meet all your chocolatey needs and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as my friends and family do!
What I love about this recipe is that it’s so simple and totally foolproof but you still get to enjoy a moist, luscious and good mood-enhancing chocolate cake. It’s everything I want when I think of chocolate cake just pure indulgence !

Ingredient Substituions
Sometimes we want to bake on a whim, but we might not always have everything the recipe calls for, you can check out my list of possible ingredient substitutions you can make so you don;t get to miss out on all of this yummyness!
- Flour
If you have a gluten intolerance, you can most definitely use a gluten free flour in equal parts, no problem.
- Castor Sugar
Sugar alternatives that won’t significantly affect this recipe would be honey, Coconut sugar or even golden syrup. Using a light or dark SOFT brown sugar can work as well but reduce the amount of water you use by 50mls and do not add the coffee.
- Cocoa Powder
Drinking chocolate is unfortunately not the best option to use as a replacement for cocoa podwer because it is a blend of cocoa powder and sugar and is typically only about 25% cocoa as a result you get a very pale chocolate cake with not much chocolate flavor. Good cocoa powder will be 100% cocoa and nothing else so you get a cake with a beautiful chocolatey colour and flavour. If you really have no choice you may use it but reduce the amount of sugar by 100g.
- 4 Eggs
The eggs can be replaced for “flaxseed eggs”, 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed, 1 Tbsp water per egg.
- 350ml Buttermilk
Plain natural or greek yoghurt can be used inplace of this, or even whole 250ml whole milk + 100ml lemon juice/ white vinegar
- 350ml Coffee (350ml Boiling water + 1 Tsp Coffee)
The sole purpose of coffee in this recipe is to enhance the chocolate flavour, you won’t taste the coffee in the end product. However, if you don’t want to add it in, simply leave it out and use the water as it is, boiled of course.
- 120ml Vegetable Oil
Any oil except olive oil can be used, or even melted butter.
If you want to check out my video method on this cake recipe: Here it is!
So, without further ado, here is my recipe!

Recipe
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Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Universal
Key words: Chocolate, cake, coco
Makes: One 9″ 3 layer cake
Author: Sheneece
Ingredients:
- 380g Self-raising Flour
- 420g Castor Sugar
- 160g Cocoa Powder
- 1 Tbsp Baking Soda
- 1.5 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1.5 Tsp Salt
- 4 Eggs
- 350ml Buttermilk
- 350ml Coffee (350ml Boiling water + 1 Tsp Coffee)
- 120ml Vegetable Oil
- 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- 340g Butter
- 220g Cream Cheese
- 155g Cocoa Powder
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 840g Icing Sugar
- Milk (optional)
Preparation:
For the Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C/ 350 degrees F, and line three 9″ inch baking tins.
- Sieve all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda & salt) into a mixing bowl.
- To that add all the wet ingredients ( oil, eggs, buttermilk & vanilla), except the coffee.
- Mix the everything together until the mixture is smooth, scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again while slowly adding the coffee.
- Stop mixing once the coffee is fully incorporated and scrape the sides of the bowl once more.
- Divide the mixture into the 3 lined baking tins and bake in the preheated oven for 30- 35 minutes.
- Allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting them.
For the frosting:
- Mix the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the vanilla extract.
- Sieve in the cocoa powder and icing sugar. Mix everything until the frosting is creamy and spreadable
- If the frosting is too thick, feel free to add milk, but you shouldn’t have to.
Enjoy xx
