Chocolate Dump-It Cake Recipe (2024)

Instead of using flour to dust the cake pan, dust with unsweetened cocoa powder. Just adds a bit more chocolate!

A trick I learned from a French pâtissier: When called to butter and flour a cake pan, replace flour with sugar. It makes for a sweet and slightly crisp outside and helps the cake rise (more to "grab" on to). Never failed me yet.

Substitute the cup of milk with a half cup of coffee mixed with a half cup of milk.

I've made this cake for years -- I love the texture and tangy frosting. I always feel confused, however, by the tube pan. So drippy! Use a bundt or regular cake pan.

Saw this recipe and just had to make it! Based on many reviews I decided on 5 oz choc, buttermilk in lieu of milk/vinegar, 1 C. coffee in lieu of water, dust greased bundt pan w/cocoa powder, cool 20-25 min and it released beautifully, used a chocolate ganache based on very mixed reviews of frosting recipe. My ganache is bomb: 5 oz. MILK chocolate chips, 1 1/2 tsp. veg oil, 1/2 C. heavy cream...melt choc chips and oil, remove from heat and whisk in heavy cream until smooth. AH-MAZING CAKE!

For history buffs: Sour cream chocolate frosting was originally published in 1952, in Helen Evans Brown's "West Coast Cookbook." Her friend, James Beard, included it in his James Beard Cookbook. It has been re-published by many sources varying proportions of chocolate to sour cream. Brown's recipe, uses only 1/2 cup of sour cream adding: "This consistency will allow fancy swirls that will stay for this icing neither runs nor hardens…." adding - when slightly cooled a pastry tube may be used.

I made this in a 13x9 pan, used half the icing. Everyone loved it. It really is best if you make it a day ahead of serving, the flavors have time to blend and mellow. Love the simplicity of the icing.

For those unaccustomed to tube pans and probably younger than 50 or so: the tube pan Hesser uses is not the big angel food pan where the tube part comes out. This would be a 9 or 10 inch one piece tube pan which may be unavailable now. That's why it requires careful prep. There's no forgiveness here if you forget an inside edge or corner. Do line the bottom with waxed paper. It was my mother's "go to"cake pan for everything in the 40's and 50's.

The directions call for a cup of water to be mixed in with the butter and sugar but there is no water listed in the ingredient list. Just wanted to make sure that was correct??

A stick of butter is 4 oz or 113 grams.
Four oz chocolate is the same.
1 cup of sugar is ca 200 g
1 cup flour 130 g (a bit less if sifted)
1 cup milk, water, etc is 236 ml
1 teaspoon is 5 ml
2 teaspoons are a desset spoon), 10 ml
1 tablespoon is 15 ml
To measure chocolate chips, you'd treat them as a liquid, therefore 1-1/2 cups would be ca 354 ml.
Our measurements are often much less precise than metric measures would be. Good luck!

The accompanying photo does NOT show a tube cake as called for in the recipe - it's always odd when the picture doesn't match.

I didn't have the right kind of pan, so I cooked it in two regular cake pans, and it turned out beautifully - so don't worry if you don't have a bunt pan or tube pan. It did stick a little on the bottom when I turned out the pans, so be sure to really grease and flour them (I used Pam). I cooked them for about 20 minutes at 375; and they could have gone a couple minutes longer I think to help with the sticking.

A tip I learned from Cooks Illustrated... when butter/flouring a pan for chocolate cakes, use melted butter and unsweetened cocoa mixed together and brushed into the pan. With this method, you don't get the white flour baked in to the surface of your cake. Works particularly well for bundt cakes.

I made exactly as per the recipe and it turned out great! My guests loved it !

If I make this the day ahead, it needs to be refrigerated. Correct?

This is the most delicious cake I’ve ever made. Everyone at supper club had a second slice and I have bookmarked this to impress guests time and time again.I did follow a few of the upgrades recommended in the notes:buttermilk in place of milk ciderHigh end chocolate for the batter and frosting (dark chocolate melts for a more bitter offset) Sugar instead of flour for the pan and my cake slid right OUT.

I made this because of the reviews. The frosting seemed unusual, but I decided to trust the process. I feel like I’m the only one who didn’t like it. The frosting was too sour for my taste. I happened to have ganache in the fridge, so I melted it down and incorporated it into the frosting, which made it more palatable to me.

I don't have a ton of baking experience, so I appreciate how easy and forgiving this recipe is. I experimented by using coconut milk instead of regular milk and thought the end result was delicious. Also ended up using a combination of sour cream and greek yogurt for the icing since I didn't have quite enough sour cream on hand. Might just make a standard butter cream chocolate icing next time as the slightly sour vibe of the icing wasn't everyone's fave.

As someone who is terrible at baking, this was a great recipe! Pretty straightforward and fairly forgiving. I just have a springform cake tin, but given how moist the cake was and the recipe calling for a tube pan, I thought it'd be raw in the center, so I placed a little oven-safe ramekin filled with beans for weight in the middle before pouring the batter, and it worked perfectly. Once it cooled completely I was able to cut it into 2 layers which worked well with the rich icing.

Literally so delicious and so easy. Took some to work and there was nothing left by the end of the day.

Instead of water in the beginning I used leftover coffee from my French press. This recipe is flexible if you like salty sweet umami flavors. Subbed some of the milk/liquid with a bit of soy sauce for umami.

There is a cup of water listed in the directions but not in the ingredient list. What is correct? Is there a cup of water in the batter or not?

I made it for my partner's birthday and he said it's the best cake he's ever had. (1) Upped the unsweetened chocolate to 4.5 ounces (I tried 5 ounces as recommended in a comment for a trial cake, it was a bit too intense for my liking). Used Guittard chocolate.(2) Used Guittard chocolate chips.(3) Icing was amazing as is, I wouldn't change it.(4) Dusted the cake pan with Scharffen Berger unsweetened chocolate powder.(5) Definitely make it the day ahead of serving.

I'll use Valrona, or Ghirardelli chocolate chips, thank you. No corrupt chips in this house!!

Cake is great. As written, the frosting is not good. Most sour cream chocolate frosting recipes have much less sour cream to chocolate.

I found that the cake was moist and had a nice crumb. The cake itself was a bit light on chocolate flavor for my taste. The rich chocolate frosting helped. I followed the measurements and used a Bundt pan. The cook time was right on point!

This totally stuck to the pan, despite VERY liberal buttering. It busted to pieces and wasted ingredients. The chocolate alone was quite expensive. Tasted the busted product and it's just an average chocolate cake. Stick to something that will come out of the pan!

Made this cake for a Super Bowl party & it was a hit. Thank you to all the commenters as I used the coffee & the buttermilk suggestions & the cake was delicious and moist. Not too sweet either which allowed the chocolate ganache to shine. Served with a dollop of fresh whipped cream and it was a success!