Martha Stewart Chocolate Cake

Martha Stewart’s chocolate cake is a one-bowl layer cake built on cocoa powder, buttermilk, and hot water, topped with her easy chocolate frosting. It takes about 1 hour 25 minutes total and serves 12 to 16.

The recipe is an exact match from marthastewart.com, where her team calls it their best chocolate cake and pairs it with her Easy Chocolate Frosting. Ingredients, temperatures, and timings below all follow that published original, including her official storage guidance.

Use two 9-inch (23cm) pans and nothing smaller, because this recipe makes a full 3-cup-flour batch of thin batter. Martha’s team warns that 8-inch pans will overflow in the oven, and no amount of trimming fixes a cake that baked onto the oven floor.

Martha Stewart Chocolate Cake

Recipe by medshi8Course: Desserts, CakeCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

12-16

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

55

minutes

Calories

410

kcal

Total time

1

hour 

35

minutes

A rich cocoa layer cake with a tender, open crumb and a deep, dark color. The same batter also bakes into a sheet cake or a party batch of about 30 cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 1½ cups (130g) unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting

• 3 cups (600g) sugar

• 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon baking soda

• 1½ teaspoons baking powder

• 1½ teaspoons salt

• 1½ cups (360ml) hot water

• ¾ cup (180ml) vegetable oil

• 1½ cups (360ml) buttermilk

• 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten

• Easy Chocolate Frosting

Directions

• Prep the pans. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Grease two 9-inch (23cm) round pans, line the bottoms with parchment, and grease the paper. Dust with cocoa and tap out the extra.
• Combine the dry ingredients. Sift the cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer, then whisk together.
• Add the wet ingredients. On low speed, beat in the hot water, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and eggs one at a time. Beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
• Bake. Divide the batter between the pans. Bake, gently rotating the pans halfway through, until a toothpick in the centers comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes.
• Cool and trim. Cool in the pans on wire racks for 20 minutes, then invert, peel off the parchment, and cool completely top side up. Slice the dome off one layer with a serrated knife.
• Frost. Spread frosting over the trimmed layer, set the second layer on top, then frost the top and sides.

Notes

• Notes (from Martha’s original):
  Sift the dry ingredients: sifting breaks up clumps and aerates the mix, so the cake bakes extra light. Skipping it leaves you with a lumpy batter for one saved minute.
  Beat the wet ingredients in one by one, mixing well after each. They incorporate faster this way, which lowers the risk of over-mixing in a single-bowl batter.
  Handle the baked cakes gently when rotating, unmolding, and stacking. The crumb is tender enough that rough handling can break a layer apart.
• Variation (from Martha’s original):
  No buttermilk? Add 4½ teaspoons lemon juice or white vinegar to a 2-cup measuring cup, pour in milk to the 1½ cup mark, and stir. Wait 5 minutes until lightly curdled. It is thinner and less tangy than store-bought, but it reacts with the leaveners just as well.

FAQs

Why does the batter use hot water instead of cold?

Hot water blooms the cocoa powder, dissolving it fully and waking up flavor compounds that stay muted in cold liquid. The cake tastes darker and more chocolatey for it. Water just off the boil works best.

It also thins the batter, which is why this cake pours rather than scoops. Don’t worry about the eggs, since the water spreads through the full bowl of dry ingredients before they go in.

How do I turn this chocolate cake into cupcakes?

Her page includes the exact conversion. Line two 12-cup muffin tins, fill each liner three-quarters full, and bake at 350F (180C) for 40 to 45 minutes. Minis take 25 to 35.

The batch makes about 30, so bake in rounds and cool them 15 to 20 minutes in the tins first. They travel to parties as well as her banana bread does.

Why does this cake need both baking soda and baking powder?

Each one has a separate job. The full tablespoon of soda reacts with the acidic buttermilk for the first burst of lift, and it deepens the cake’s dark color.

Baking powder carries its own acid and fires again in the oven’s heat, insurance for a batter this heavy with cocoa and sugar. Cut either one and the crumb turns dense. Together they carry the cake tall and keep the crumb open.

Can I skip the frosting entirely?

Yes, and her page offers a built-in alternative called bars with crunch. Pour the batter into a prepared 9-by-13-inch (23x33cm) pan and bake at 350F (180C) for 20 minutes.

Mix 1 cup each of flaked sweetened coconut, walnuts, and semisweet chips with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Sprinkle it over the half-baked cake, cover loosely with foil, and bake about 45 minutes more. The topping toasts as the cake finishes.

How long does the frosted cake keep?

Her official guidance: a frosted cake keeps 2 days at room temperature in an airtight container, or up to 5 days refrigerated. Unfrosted layers wrapped well in plastic hold 2 days on the counter.

Unlike her cheesecake, which lives in the fridge, this cake eats best at room temperature. Give refrigerated slices 30 minutes on the counter so the crumb softens back up.