Ruth Reichl’s Giant Chocolate Cake Recipe (2024)

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My New Go-To Chocolate Cake Recipe

I'm 63; I've made at least 300 chocolate cakes with recipes from Southern Living, Better Homes and Gardens, Martha, Cook's Illustrated, Alton Brown and Shirley Corriher.

Eight people ate dessert in dead silence until each asked for seconds. Because of that, this recipe is the only one for chocolate cake that I will use for the rest of my life.

I'm going to order the book right now.

Philly Mama

Definitely look at Ruth Reichl's recipe on her webpage: http://ruthreichl.com/?s=chocolate+cake Much clearer directions -- e.g. a stand mixer is preferred but not required; beat ("mix" being a trifle imprecise) the butter and cream cheese in step 5, etc. Cake was easy to make and looks delicious!

Kathleen

American cakes usually use too much sugar. A good rule of thumb is to use, by volume, one part sugar to two parts flour (include the cocoa as part of the flour). This recipe calls for 4 1/8 cups flour plus cocoa. I would use 1 cup white sugar and one cup brown sugar. This sugar reduction also adjusts the recipe to high altitude baking. I learned this practice from Rose Levy Berenbaum's The Cake Bible.

doug

Dear Ruth~

I am sore afraid to make this, lest I eat the whole thing and die!

LEL

If you cut the recipe in half it should work with TWO 9" round pans. Baking time should fall within the (wide) range stated in the recipe.
If all you have are 8" pans, it may work but I'd use 3 1/2"-->4"parchment strips to line the sides of the pans or use 15% less than all the batter. Otherwise you may need to clean your oven.

DaDa

I have made my partner a chocolate cake for his last 8 birthdays without fail...and this recipe was by far the easiest and tastiest I've made to date. Easier than Martha and Ina's with less steps and ingredients. Didn't want a sheet cake look, so I cut each cake in half and stacked all four together and put it on a tall cake plate. Raspberry jam in between layers was great too.

eavers

I halved both the cake and the frosting (because I wasn't feeding an army) and I didn't have nearly enough frosting. I ended up frosting between the layers and on top of the cake, which looked nice but didn't have the frosting/cake ratio I like. I will definitely be making this again, but I'll make a full recipe of frosting to a half recipe of cake.

JCB

Prepare frosting 1.5-times the quantities, using entire 12 oz. tub of Philadelphia whipped cream cheese—much simpler!; use most of the two 4oz boxes of unsweetened chocolate (Baker’s); and adjust other ingredients for increase. Freeze extra if you don’t use it all. Makes 3 9-inch layers; using them all in one cake is dramatic and monumental! (I used organic Turbinado sugar, and all-purpose flour.) Check individual layers for doneness starting at 25 minutes. Leftovers freeze beautifully.

Melody

Hidden in the instructions for what to do with the cocoa you will find the 1 1/2 cups of boiling water, not listed in the ingredients. This part is important! Whisking the cocoa in hot water is essential.

Dr B Milwaukee

This was the hit of my Downton Abbey party this weekend.It is very important to have the amount of batter in the layers equal. Weighing them works best. If they are uneven take the smaller one out early. Put the larger one on the bottom when you assemble. I had to beat in 3 cups of powdered sugar with a little milk to get the mix sweet enough and have enough to frost the whole cake.To make your own whipped cream cheese, use regular and beat a few tablespoons of milk into it until fluffy

Harriettbakes

This is a scrumptious chocolate cake, very moist and chocolatey.
I added 1/4 teaspoon instant coffee to the cocoa to deepen the flavor -- any more and you would taste the coffee, which I didn't want.
I also used 1/2 of the entire recipe, which fit perfectly into two 9 inch pans!
As was noted in other comments, the icing recipe is a bit skimpy. It iced my two 9 inch layers completely with none leftover.
This recipe is definitely a keeper!

SB

It looks nothing like a pepperidge farm cake. It's completely normal for people who bake a lot, and especially for food professionals, to have a supply of cardboard bases for cakes. It's a big rectangular cake, exactly as it says in the recipe and description. Why does that make it look like a pepperidge fair cake? What a strange thing to say.

Ann from Sonoma

I cut this recipe in half and made a lovely 8" tall birthday cake. Finally, a frosting that stands up without eventually collapsing. I refrigerated it for 12 hours before serving too!

My New Go-To Chocolate Cake Recipe

For the record, I halved the recipe, baked it in a 10" round pan, cooled it, then split the layers. I didn't have cream cheese, so I filled and frosted it with chocolate whipped cream and topped it with chocolate curls from a bar of Hershey's Special Dark.

Next time I make it (next month for my birthday), I'll sub brewed coffee for the water and will whip my own cream cheese for the icing.

A friend brought a Malbec from Grocery Outlet called Unsung Hero and it was excellent with this cake.

Catalina

I baked in Santa Fe NM for 10 years and followed high altitude baking recommendations in Joy of Cooking (pg. 648, 1964 edition).
How I would adjust this recipe:
Increase milk by one tablespoon.
Decrease white sugar and brown sugar each by 1/4 cup.
Reduce baking soda by 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon.
Keep eggs refrigerated until almost ready to use.
Increase the oven temp. by 25 degrees F.
Cakes at high altitude have a tendency to stick; butter and flour (use cocoa in this case) parchment paper well.

Stephanie

So good made a third recipe using two loaf pans. Perfect for 6-8 (or 4 with leftovers! Yey). Made 1/2 recipe icing and there was more than enough. Added ~ 1/3 less powdered sugar. Would be good with ganache too.

MysteryDancer

For baby bunny cakelets: fill molds 1/2 full. 18 minutes at 350. Half a recipe will make 12 bunnies. Half a recipe:50 g cocoa88 ml milk3/4 t vanilla188 g flour1 t baking soda170 g butter178 g dark brown sugar150 g granulated sugar3 eggs

Stephanie

I don’t usually love creme cheese frostings. Any ideas on subbing creme fraiche?

DC

Any ideas why mine looked nothing like this photo? Not nearly has high and not nearly as dark. I feel like I’ve been duped by a food stylist again?!?

Angela

5 stars for the cake portion as I didn't use the frosting recipe. I've found my forever chocolate cake, and it feels good. Perfect texture and flavour. I love that it's made with butter, because I can't abide the taste of oil in baked goods, and it's not the slightest bit dry, which can sometimes be an issue with butter based cake. I reduced the sugars to 250g each, because of personal preference, but other than that made no changes. I've never loved chocolate cake before, but I loved this.

Sophia Lyons

35-45 mins for 2 6" filled with 550 g. each

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jillian

one of the best chocolate cakes i've ever had. i've baked this twice. excellent both times. light, not too sweet, perfect. one full recipe filled two 6" rounds and one 16x9 sheet cake. very happy with the frosting, too -- fluffy and not overly sweet and cream cheese flavor is subtle.

nancy

This icing is incredible! It comes together very nicely in the kitchen aid. I hate icing because it never seems to come together - this was perfect. I used regular cream cheese, not whipped!

jw

Delicious and easy! I halved the cake recipe and baked it in two 9in round cake pans. I made the whole frosting recipe and had about 1 cup left over. For the frosting, I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet instead of the unsweetened chocolate, and halved the amount of powdered sugar. The frosting wasn't overly sweet and had a nice tang. I didn't have whipped cream cheese so I used regular cream cheese and whipped it in my stand mixer w/ a tablespoon of milk.

Cynthia

Best. Chocolate. Cake. Ever. Worth the effort and extensive ingredients (do NOT skimp on anything) The crumb of this cake bakes up velvety soft and melts in your mouth. Will be my go-to chocolate cake recipe forever!

Lolly

I recommend adding take-home containers to the list of ingredients. I brought this to a pot luck with nine friends. Everyone loved the cake and they were more than happy to take some home in the containers I had brought for that purpose.

sloane k.

Made this for my son’s first birthday party. Everyone raved about it and said how delicious it was!

Ilana

Made half of the cake recipe in two round forms but all of the frosting. Filled the middle of the cake with frosting and defrosted raspberries. It was appreciated!

Heidi

I made half the recipe. I baked it in a 13x9 pan, and cut that in half. I did make the full about of frosting. I could have added more between the lays as I had some left over. It was delicious!

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Ruth Reichl’s Giant Chocolate Cake Recipe (2024)

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