Hershey’s Black Magic Cake Recipe

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How To Make Black Magic Cake

Black Magic Chocolate Cake Recipe !

This cake is fun and easy to make.

To start, if you have parchment paper, line the bottoms of your pans with it. Its not a must, but its always a nice extra bit of insurance to ensure your cakes come out of the pan cleanly.

All of the cake ingredients should be at room temperature for even baking.

You will start making the cake batter by combining all of the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Then, add the wet ingredients.

You have to be careful here because you are adding boiling water and eggs in the same step. If youre not careful, the boiling water will cook/curdle your eggs. I recommend the following order of steps to avoid this:

  • Whisk your eggs and stir them into your buttermilk, then set them aside for a moment.
  • Add the hot water, espresso powder, oil, and vanilla to the dry goods. Combine them with a mixer on low.
  • Then with the mixer still on low, stream in the buttermilk and egg mixture. Bring the mixer up to medium speed as the liquid is absorbed into the batter.
  • Mix until all ingredients are incorporated and the batter is fully formed.
  • The batter for this cake is very thin, thats normal.

    Once you pour batter into the prepared pans, give the pans a few taps on the counter to release any air bubbles from the batter.

    How To Make It

    What I love most about black magic cake, aside from its amazing flavour and texture, of course, is how easy this is to make! This cake is literally a dump, mix, bake and done style cake.

    Detailed quantities and instructions in the recipe card below.

    The dry ingredients are mixed together in one bowl, then the wet ingredients in another . As there is no butter in this cake, there is no creaming of butter and sugar, saving time.

    Mix together the wet and dry ingredients with a handheld beater for about 90 seconds and the batter is done.

    Now pour this evenly between 2 greased and lined 8-inch round baking tins. You can use kitchen scales like I do if you want to get perfect layers otherwise just eyeball it.

    The cakes bake for around 35 minutes. When you take them out of the oven and after theyve cooled for just a couple of minutes, very gently, press down on the top of the cakes just to flatten them out a little. Dont press down too hard or they may collapse.

    The last 2 photos above show frosting the cake.

    What Is A Black Magic Cake

    The Black Magic Chocolate Cake is originally from Hersheys. In their words its

    A moist and magical buttermilk chocolate cake recipe that will have your friends demanding seconds.

    And they arent wrong! Its everything a great chocolate cake should be, moist, bursting with chocolate flavor and easy to make. Maybe thats why its called black magic, something this delicious shouldnt be this simple to pull together

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    Tips To Make The Best Black Magic Cake

    If you dont have buttermilk, you can quickly prepare the homemade one. To make 1 cup buttermilk add 1 tbsp white vinegar to the measuring cup. Then, add enough milk to measure 1 cup. Mix together. Lets sit for 5-10 minutes.

    We have used two different types of frosting in this recipe, but you can double one of them and use only one. You can also use any of your favorite frostings for this cake.

    What Makes This Chocolate Cake Moist

    I Tried Hershey

    Youll notice when you make it, this is quite a runny batter. Not only is there a whole cup of water that goes into this but also 1 cup of buttermilk and ½ a cup of oil. While all of these contribute to making this a moist chocolate cake, its the latter two that do most of the work. They also help to keep the texture tender.

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    My Honest Review Of Hersheys Black Magic Cake

    Sticking issues aside, the cake itself was delicious: moist, not too dense, with a deep chocolate flavor that the coffeehelped enhance . It was tasty enough that I was determined to try the cake again, this time trusting my instincts and drawing on past baking experience to fix the sticking issue.

    For greasing and flouring the pan, Cooks Illustrated has a great tip for coating intricately designed Bundt cake pans so that cakes slide out easily: brushing the interior with a paste made of equal parts flour or cocoa and melted butter. This is an ingenious move: Ive always found butter sticks to the nonstick surface of cakes pans better than oil or cooking spray, and the smooth paste means that there arent any pockets of flour or cocoa. I chose cocoa for this cake since I wanted the outside to stay nice and dark.

    As for cooling, I let my second cake cool for a full 45 minutes before flipping it out, something I do for my apple cider doughnut cake. It was still warm, but when I shook the pan, the cake moved from the sides easily. After saying a quick prayer, I flipped the pan over and hooray! The cake slid out like a dream. I let it fully cool, then poured on an easy chocolate glaze that I also found on Hersheys website. After the glaze set, I boxed up some of the slices and distributed them to grateful friends and families at my daughters school, and everyone raved. Bundt cake success.

    How To Make This Black Magic Cake

    Be sure to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!

    Sift the dry ingredients and mix in an electric mixer. In another bowl mix buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla.

    Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry in the mixer. Mix until incorporated. Then add the coffee.

    Pour the batter into the cake pans and bake. Then top with your favorite icing, serve and enjoy!

    Also Check: Baskin Robbins Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

    How To Make This Black Magic Cake Recipe

    STEP ONE: Preheat the oven to 350°F.

    STEP TWO: Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.

    STEP THREE: Add the milk, eggs, coffee, vanilla extract, and oil into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Turn the electric mixer on to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl halfway through mixing.

    STEP FOUR: Divide the batter between the two 8-inch round cake pans lined on the bottom with parchment paper and sprayed around the sides with non-stick cooking spray.

    OUR RECIPE DEVELOPER SAYS

    Ideally, you should use shiny pans rather than dark pans for this recipe, as the dark pans can cause your chocolate cake to brown too early around the edges.

    You can buy pre-cut parchment paper rounds to make lining the pans easier.

    STEP FIVE: Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cakes comes out with just a few crumbs.

    PRO TIP:

    Oven temperatures vary and may need to be recalibrated periodically to ensure they are accurate. Make sure to keep a close eye on your cake as the suggested baking time approaches.

    STEP SIX: Cool the cakes for 10 to 15 minutes in their pans and then remove them from the pans to cool the rest of the way on wire racks.

    STEP EIGHT: Level the tops of the cakes with a serrated knife.

    STEP NINE: Pour about ½ cup of the ganache over the top of one cake layer and spread just to the edges to form the filling.

    PRO TIP:

    Black Magic Cake Ingredients

    How to Make Hershey’s Black Magic Chocolate Cake
    • 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
    • ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    • 2 cups granulated sugar
    • 1 cup buttermilk or milk
    • 2 large eggs, room temperature
    • 1 cup black coffee
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 12 ounces of dark chocolate chips
    • 1½ cups heavy whipping cream

    SUBSTITUTIONS AND ADDITIONS

    BUTTERMILK: You can make your own buttermilk using whole or 2% milk and lemon juice or distilled white vinegar. For every 1 cup of regular milk, stir in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar.

    CAKE FROSTING: While this cake is traditionally iced with chocolate ganache frosting, you could choose your favorite frosting flavor to frost the cake. Vanilla frosting or even a cream cheese frosting would work well. Add a few drops of food coloring to a white frosting for a fun color if this cake is for a childs birthday.

    DRIED CHERRIES: Cherry is such a fantastic combination with chocolate. Add 1 cup of dried cherries to the cake batter for a hint of cherry in every bite.

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    Tips For Making Black Magic Cake

    Our black magic cake is inspired by Hersheys original recipe. The mix of cocoa and coffee gives it a bold and creamy chocolate flavor, while the addition of buttermilk makes it extremely moist and soft. Altogether, this version just ticks all the boxes of what we want in a moist chocolate cake. And what we love even more about it is that it only takes an hour to make!

    For tips on how to best make your black magic cake at home, take note of the following:

    • Use black coffee. The strong bitter taste of the black coffee will complement the sweet and rich flavor of the chocolate.
    • Dont overmix the batter. Mix the batter and stop when everythings just about incorporated. Mixing past this stage will give you a tough cake.
    • Dont over bake or youll end up with a dry cake texture. Make sure to check the cake minutes before the allotted cooking time. But dont go checking your cake every few minutes or so as the oven temperature will fluctuate, causing uneven baking.
    • What youll need for a black magic cake frosting are the usual ingredients forbuttercream frosting. Mix either cocoa powder, melted chocolate, or chocolate ganache into your frosting for a thick, fluffy and sublime brown buttercream base. Lastly, add black food coloring to achieve that pure black color.

    Ingredients For Black Magic Cake Recipe

    All Purpose Flour:All-purpose flour can be used for a variety of tasks, including baking, cooking, coating meats and vegetables, and thickening sauces and gravies. To manufacture all-purpose flour, a blend of hard wheat and soft wheat is crushed together.

    Unsweetened Cocoa Powder :Unsweetened cocoa powder is a pantry staple for most bakers. When baking, use unsweetened cocoa powder (rather than sweetened cocoa powder, which is often labelled sweet ground chocolate to control the amount of sugar in the final product.

    Vegetable Oil :Vegetable oil remains liquid at room temperature whereas butter hardens, vegetable oil delivers moisture significantly more consistently. Because liquid contributes to the impression of moistness, cakes produced with oil tend to be moister than thosemade with butter.

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    Black Magic Cake Step By Step

    Greasing the pans

    Make a thick paste with softened butter and cocoa. Now, rub this on the insides of your pans, making sure that it s well coated.

    Preheating the oven

    Preheat your oven at 180C for 10 mins.

    Mixing the dry ingredients

    In a bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients except the sugar. Alternatively, you can use a balloon whisk to mix and incorporate all of the stuff together. Once this is done, add the sugar and mix well again. This is our dry mixture. Set this aside while working on the wet mixture.

    Prepping the wet mixture

    To a large bowl, add the coffee powder and the hot water. Whisk well, making sure the coffee does not lump up in the process. When done, let it sit for 5 to 6 mins. We are doing this because adding eggs to very hot water may cook them.

    After 5 to 6 mins, add the vanilla, oil, eggs, soured milk to the bowl. Using a hand-held mixer, whisk this on medium speed for 2 to 3 mins. Alternatively, you can do this using a balloon whisk too. You just have to whisk till the mixture becomes frothy.

    When this is done, add the sugar and mix well once again, using a whisk, making sure that the sugar is evenly distributed with the flour mix. Set aside.

    Combining the wet and dry mixtures

    Now, add the flour-cocoa-sugar mixture slowly to the liquid mixture. Do this in a sprinkling movement rather than dumping all of it in one go.

    Baking Black Magic Cake

    Slicing the cake

    Glazing the Black Magic Cake

    Hersheys Black Magic Cake

    Black Magic Cake
    • Serves: Makes two 9- x 2-inch layers or one 9 x 13 x 2-inch pan or about 24 to 26 cupcakes
    • Baking Temp : 350
    • Views: 11886
    • Comments: 3

    Hershey’s is known for its chocolate products, and they have developed a fabulous recipe for chocolate cake, which I have adapted. It’s quite easy-to-make and is one of my family’s favorites. Make sure you grease and flour the baking pans well or use greased parchment paper in the bottom of the greased pans because thin batters, which this recipe makes, tend to stick more. This recipe can be made into cupcakes, as well. Keep the baking temperature the same the baking time will be about 20 to 25 minutes. I recommend pairing the cake with the White Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Frosting and Filling. We cut this recipe in half on another tutorial to make our Tie Dye High Hat Cupcakes with astonishing results.

    To sour milk: Place 1 tablespoon white vinegar in a measuring cup and add milk to equal 1 cup. Stir and let sit for about 5 minutes until it curdles slightly.

    INGREDIENTS1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa or any NATURAL cocoa powder2 teaspoons baking soda2 large eggs1 cup buttermilk or sour milk*1 cup strong black coffee OR 2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee plus 1 cup boiling water1/2 cup vegetable oil1 teaspoon vanilla extractINSTRUCTIONS

    1. Position the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees F. Place cupcake liners in cupcake pan. Set aside.

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    How To Make Hersheys Black Magic Cake

    This is basically a one-bowl cake its not too different from making a boxed cake. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and eggs right in the mixer bowl, then add eggs, buttermilk or soured milk, brewed coffee, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. After two minutes of mixing, pour the thin batter into the pan of choice. I went with my trusty Bundt cake pan, but you have options to use two pans or one 9×13-inch pan instead. The 50- to 55-minute bake time was spot-on.

    Everything was going swimmingly until it came time to flip the cake out. The directions said to let it cool 10 minutes before turning it out, which honestly made me very nervous. Ive found that flipping Bundt cakes out too early usually results in a stuck cake that falls out in chunks. And guess what? I was right! It was a sad, sad, very un-magical moment when my cooling rack was littered with hunks of steaming chocolate cake .

    How To Frost The Chocolate Cake

    This couldnt be simpler. No fussing with coating the entire sides of the cake and trying to get it perfectly smooth.

    Just spread half the buttercream on top of the first layer and sit the second layer on top. Now spread the remaining buttercream over that.

    The last step is to spread the remaining ganache over the top letting some drip down the sides. I like to use a squeeze bottle to add drips the whole way around the cake first, then pour the rest of the ganache into the middle and spread it out.

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    How To Grease A Bundt Pan

    It is very crucial to grease the bundt pan thoroughly and effectively before we begin baking. Failing to do so will make your cake crumble along the ridges. While regular butter works brilliantly for greasing normal pans, the bundt pan needs to be greased differently.

    Make a paste of cocoa powder and butter. Now, rub this mixture on the insides of your bundt pan. Cover every ridge, flute and corner. And then we ll be ready to bake.

    Can Chocolate Cake Be Frozen

    Black Magic Chocolate Cake

    Absolutely. This chocolate cake freezes well. I find it best to freeze it in pre-cut slices. The best way to freeze this cake and any baked goods is to first cut the cake into slices and place it in the freezer on the cake plate until firm. Now, individually wrap the slices and place them into an airtight container.

    What are you waiting for? If you like a moist chocolate cake, a simple chocolate cake and a chocolate cake thats overflowing with flavour, you will love this. Get baking

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    Why This Is So Good

    • A perfectly moist cake. The cake batter is made with buttermilk and it delivers a spongey, moist bite every time!
    • The BEST icing. This icing isnt sugary sweet, it is delicious all by itself and it will turn any cake into the best cake ever!
    • Easy to make. When it comes to delicious cakes this has to be the easiest, most decadent cake out there, plus the icing is so easy too. Simple ingredients, easy to assemble!

    How To Make The Chocolate Ganache Buttercream

    I fill and top my cake with a Chocolate Ganache Buttercream, followed by a little more ganache. To make this, I use my double chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate ganache buttercream recipe. The only difference is that I reserve some of the ganache to pour over the top of the cake.

    This stuff should be illegal, its so good. An already chocolate buttercream is intensified by adding a dark chocolate ganache. This is rich, indulgent, smooth and creamy and your friends will be begging you for this recipe.

    After making a simple ganache , beat together some butter with a little cocoa and icing sugar until its lightened and whipped up . Now, add the cooled ganache and beat it all together . Youll be rewarded with this glorious fluffy but thick and intensely chocolate flavoured ganache frosting .

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