There’s a reason that chocolate cake is the cake: it’s unrivaled in its ability to soothe, celebrate, and summon feelings of nostalgia. Rich without being cloying and homey without veering into dump cake territory, chocolate cake has incredible range. It’s the dessert embodiment of Don Draper’s famed Mad Men quote, “make it simple but significant.” But how do you choose just one recipe for something that needs to be dependable and outrageously delicious every time? I found my own answer by going straight to the authority on American chocolate: Hershey’s. On the back of its box of unsweetened cocoa, there’s a recipe whose name alone is enticing: Perfectly Chocolate Cake. That’s a bold promise, but Hershey’s is nothing if not confident about its legacy. First published on the back of cocoa canisters in the early 1980s as part of a promotional campaign, the recipe has come to be beloved by generations. It’s also a marvel of pantry practicality. It calls for just nine ingredients, and you likely have them all on hand already: sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs, milk, oil, and of course, cocoa powder. Hershey’s familiar dusty brown powder may not look like much, but this is one of those times when, as I discovered, you really can trust the process.
The batter itself is almost unsettlingly thin — a result of the full cup of boiling water stirred in at the end of the mixing process. If you’ve never made the cake before, you’ll second-guess yourself here, wondering if maybe you misread the instructions — you didn’t. That hot water is the key to “blooming” the cocoa, coaxing out the full richness of its flavor and resulting in a glossy, pourable batter. The water also helps to activate the leaveners for a beautiful texture that boasts equal parts weight and spring. Once it’s in the oven, the cake rises into something soft and almost fragile, with a delicate crumb that stays fresh for days.
In truth, this is not the most luxurious chocolate cake I’ve ever made. And it’s not trying to be. There’s no imported chocolate to melt or espresso shot to deepen the flavor. It doesn’t demand cake flour or brown butter or any tedious technique. What it offers instead is reliability. The recipe delivers a tender, supremely moist chocolate cake that you can whip up with minimal planning and maximum payoff — it’s the kind of dessert that makes a Tuesday feel like a holiday.
You can certainly make swaps if you want to get wild. I love to add a bit of my (dry) chai blend to the batter and enjoy a sweet, heady slice of it every day like a snacking cake. Trade the hot water for coffee if you’d like more of a death by chocolate experience. Or dress up the cake with berries, or stack it high into a layer cake. But it’s just as satisfying eaten unadorned, straight from the fridge with a fork and no one around to watch.
I believe the real charm of the Hershey’s recipe is how it nails the feeling of what a chocolate cake should be: easy to make, comforting to eat, and big enough to share. It’s generous and unfussy. Paired with its equally simple counterpart, “Perfectly Chocolate” frosting (a quick mix of butter, cocoa, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla), the whole thing can be done and cooled in about two hours, start to finish. The frosting spreads like a dream and sets to a satiny finish, somewhere between a whipped ganache and an old-school buttercream. It’s forgiving, with no gritty sugar crystals or splitting. You don’t need a stand mixer. You don’t need cake pans. You don’t even need a reason.
In a world overflowing with molten lava centers, flourless riffs, and gold foil flourishes, Hershey’s keeps it old school and extremely satisfying. But is its cake perfectly chocolate? Maybe that depends on what you’re chasing. But if you want a cake that tastes like childhood and transforms a quiet moment into one of bliss, then perfect is the appropriate word.
Cake photograph by Rai Mincey
