This is a fluffy and moist chocolate cake recipe. All you need is basic ingredients for a plain cake and 200g(7 oz) of milk chocolate. It’s my go to chocolate cake that I have made many times. I always make a cake with a 15cm(6-inch) pan, but if your pan is larger, simply double the ingredients to make this cake.

The chocolate sponge is made of foamed eggs and cocoa powder. After baking, it is sliced into three pieces and filled with syrup and chocolate cream, so it is super moist and melt-in-your-mouth texture. What I especially like about this cake is the chocolate cream. It’s made by melting milk chocolate into heavy cream so it’s very smooth and delicious.
If you don’t have time to do the whole process in one day, you can make the sponge cake the day before and assemble it the next day.

Ingredients

These ingredients are for a 15cm(6-inch) diameter cake pan.

For sponge

2 egg
80g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
50g (6 tbsp) cake flour
1 tbsp whole milk
15g (1 tbsp) butter
13g (1 1/3 tbsp) cocoa powder

For syrup

1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp lukewarm water
1/2 tsp rum (optional)

For chocolate cream

200ml (4/5 cup) heavy cream
200g (7 oz) milk chocolate

How to make fluffy and moist chocolate cake

Preheat the oven to 170°C(338°F) and line a 15cm(6-inch) pan with parchment paper.

Beat eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer. When it becomes foamy add sugar and beat until firm peaks. It won’t be as stiff as when you only beat the egg whites, but if you lift the beaters from the batter, the tip of the peak curls slightly and the batter with the beaters fell very slowly into ribbons and some remain with the beaters. It’s important to take your time to make thick foam. If it doesn’t foam well, warm the bottom of the bowl while beating over hot water bath.

Then sift flour into the foamed egg and gently blend with a rubber spatula as if lifting from the bottom. Set aside.

Place milk and butter in a medium bowl and warm up over the stove or in a microwave until butter melted. Then sift cocoa powder into the mixture and whisk until well blended.

Add 2 spoons of formed egg into the chocolate mixture bowl and whisk to blend. Then put all the chocolate mixture into the remaining foamed egg bowl and gently incorporate with a rubber spatula: repeating scoop the batter from the bottom and drop.

Pour the batter into a pan and tap the cake pan to remove large air bubbles. Then bake for 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If you double the ingredients, it will take longer.

Once the cake is baked, drop the cake with a pan 20 cm from the top to prevent shrinkage. Then place the cake on a wire rack and cover it with a tightly wrung wet cloth while cooling. Remove parchment paper when it’s completely cooled. If you assemble it the next day, wrap it and store it in the refrigerator.

Assemble

Place heavy cream in a large bowl and warm over hot water bath. Turn off the heat just before bubbles appear, and then add milk chocolate. Stir to melt the chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted, allow it to cool. Meanwhile, mix the syrup ingredients: sugar, lukewarm water, and rum(optional). Also, slice the cake into three pieces.

Once the chocolate cream is cooled, beat with an electric whisk until soft peaks. (The picture is before beating.)

Place a first piece of cake and put syrup on the surface, then top with chocolate cream. Repeat the process for two more slices as piling up.

Finally, put the remaining chocolate cream all over the cake. It tastes best when chilled in the refrigerator before eating.

Topping ideas

fruits such as strawberries and raspberries
shaved dark/white chocolate
piping whipped cream
store-bought macaroon around the cake

Enjoy!