Hershey’s Chocolate Cake

This is the chocolate cake that the back of a cocoa tin made famous – a two-layer cake with a crumb so moist it almost seems too soft to be real, a flavour that is deeply, seriously chocolatey without being bitter, and a buttercream frosting rich enough to stand up to both. It has been made in American home kitchens for decades for good reason: the ingredients are ordinary, the method is simple, and the result consistently outperforms cakes that take twice as long to make.

The distinguishing feature of this batter is the boiling water. Most chocolate cake recipes either cream the butter and sugar first and build from there, or use a simpler one-bowl method with oil. This one does something slightly different: it combines all the dry and wet ingredients together and then stirs in a full cup of boiling water at the end. The hot water blooms the cocoa – it dissolves and deepens the chocolate flavour in a way that room-temperature liquid cannot – and it produces a batter that is very thin and pourable, which looks alarming if you have not done it before. The thin batter is correct. It produces an unusually fine, tender crumb and a cake that stays moist for days.

Oil rather than butter goes into the batter, which is the other reason for the exceptionally moist texture. Butter cakes have a richer flavour but firm up in the fridge and can dry out faster. Oil-based cakes stay softer at room temperature and when refrigerated, and since cocoa powder is providing all the flavour anyway, the trade-off is entirely worth it.

The frosting is a classic chocolate buttercream: softened butter, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and just enough milk to make it spreadable. The key is sifting the powdered sugar and cocoa together before adding them to the butter – unsifted powdered sugar produces a gritty rather than silky result. Beat the frosting long enough for it to lighten slightly and become fluffy rather than dense. It should be thick enough to hold its shape but soft enough to spread easily.

A reliable swap: replace up to half the cocoa with Dutch-process cocoa for a darker colour and a slightly less sharp chocolate flavour. If you prefer ganache over buttercream, heat equal parts heavy cream and good-quality dark chocolate until melted together and smooth, cool to a spreadable consistency, and use that instead.

The most common mistake is opening the oven too early. This batter is thin and the cake is fragile for the first twenty minutes of baking – opening the oven door causes a temperature drop that collapses the rise and leaves a sunken center. Set your timer, leave the door closed until at least the 30-minute mark, and test with a toothpick – it should come out with just a few moist crumbs, not wet batter.

If chocolate cake is your genre, try German Chocolate Cake next for the coconut-pecan frosting version – or Chocolate Pound Cake if you want that same chocolate depth in a pound cake format.