Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe for Beginners _ Wilton

Hi , everyone .

I'm Katie here at Wilson .

And today's video is for all you chocolate lovers out there myself included today .

I'm gonna show you how to make a delicious homemade chocolate cake .

If you're used to box cake mixes , this is the perfect recipe to start with .

It's super easy and pretty foolproof , which means it's great for beginners .

Now , chocolate cake is actually my absolute favorite .

It's what I always make for myself on my birthday .

Yes , I make my own cake .

So I have pretty high standards and this recipe totally checks all the boxes for me .

It's light and fluffy and just a really great chocolate cake .

And I'd really like some right now .

So let's get started before we do .

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First , you're gonna want to preheat your oven to 350 F with your rack in the center position .

Now , you know your oven best .

I keep an oven thermometer in mind just because an accurate reading will save you from a whole bunch of problems if your oven runs too hot , your cake could over bake and become dry or it can bake too quickly leaving you with a gooey center and overdone edges .

So if you really want that perfect bake , just get to know your oven a little better .

You also want to make sure that you use the proper cake pan size for the recipe .

This recipe calls for 29 inch round pans .

If you need to use a different size , you might need to adjust the recipe or the baking time .

A little , I'm gonna prepare these pans with our bake easy spray , which is like a vegetable spray .

This will make sure that the cake releases cleanly from the pan .

One pro tip is to make sure that all of your ingredients are at room temperature before you start .

This will just make sure everything blends together nicely and it'll give you a lighter , more tender texture in your cake .

You also wanna make sure to measure your ingredients carefully for dry ingredients .

I like to spoon it into a measuring cup and then level off the top or you can use a scale if you prefer changing the ratios of the ingredients will change the structure and the taste of the recipe .

So we wanna try and avoid that .

You wanna make sure you use real chocolate in the recipe , which is usually in those bars you can find in the baking aisle and not chocolate chips .

I don't think I've ever bad chocolate chocolate chip before , but they do have other ingredients added and they just won't produce the same results in this recipe .

Same pill for your cookie .

If you need a good chocolate chip cookie recipe , we've linked the video with me below .

I'm gonna go ahead and combine 2.5 cups of flour , one teaspoon of baking soda and half a teaspoon of salt in a medium bowl .

So then in a microwave safe bowl , we're gonna combine six ounces of chocolate and three quarters of a cup of butter .

We're gonna microwave this at half power for one minute and then get it a stir .

Then after that , just keep microwaving at half power in 32nd intervals .

Stirring after each time , just until the mixture is smooth and melted .

I didn't really feel like messing with a double boiler for this , but that could be an option too .

Now I'm gonna transfer this chocolate butter mixture to a mixing bowl and then I'm gonna add 1.5 cups of sugar and beat it with an electric mixer on medium speed until well blended .

Next , we can add our three eggs one at a time and two teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix that together .

Then it's time to add our flour mixture .

And we're gonna do this alternately with our 1.5 cups of milk .

I like to do flour , milk , flour , milk flour just to make sure nothing puffs up in your face , then beat this until it's smooth and well blended .

Just don't go too crazy here over beating the batter will make it denser and it won't rise as well .

Don't forget to scrape the sides down a little just to make sure it's all incorporated .

Then we can divide our mixture into the prepared pans .

I'm just gonna eyeball this .

But if you want to be more precise , you could use a scale or the toothpick test we showed in our yellow cake video .

If you wanted to use bake even strips , this would be the time to put them on .

But just be aware , you'll probably need to add about seven minutes to your bake time as we place our cakes in the oven , just be sure to leave about an inch of space between the two pans .

This will help with air flow and just making sure you get a nice even bake .

We're gonna bake these for about 33 to 37 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean .

Trust me as lions attempting to cut into this right away .

Chocolate cake tends to be tender and slightly crumbly .

So it's really best to let your cake fully cool so that it can set properly .

I'm gonna leave these guys in the pans for about 10 minutes , then I'll take them out and move them over to a cooling grid to cool completely once your cake is completely cool .

You can break out the icing if you don't want to try and frost this guy until it is fully cooled .

Otherwise , your icing is just gonna melt right off the cake , which will give the cake a weird sticky texture if I'm feeling in the mood for a bit of a chocolate explosion , which is always , I usually just whip up a batch of Wilton's chocolate buttercream frosting to make it nice and pretty .

You can either add some sprinkles or my favorite chocolate curls or find more inspiration on Wilton dot com .

Ok .

I've waited long enough .

Let's cut a slice of this guy .

Oh , look at that chocolatey goodness .

I hope this video was helpful and then it becomes your go-to chocolate cake recipe as it is mine .

If you have any questions or suggestions for other videos you'd like to see next , please leave a comment below and we'll be sure to get back to you .

If you like this video , don't forget to give us a thumbs up and share this video with all your chocolate loving friends .

Well , thank you .

I promise and be sure to subscribe to our channel if you haven't already done .

So , I'm Katie from Wilton Happy Baking .