This Magic Chocolate Cake Is a Good Excuse to Celebrate Anything

published Aug 11, 2020

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chocolate cake — Credit: The Cookie Rookie

There’s nothing more celebratory than cake. Pie is nice, cookies will do in a pinch, but there’s a reason that cake is the traditional dessert that we use to celebrate the big moments in life, like weddings, retirements, and birthdays. The combination of perfectly tender cake with sweet icing or buttercream just can’t be beat.

I don’t know about you, but I could use an excuse to celebrate something, anything these days. I got through the week? Let’s throw a party! I did the dishes for what feels like the billionth time this year? What an achievement! I got out of bed before I had to at least once this month? Gold star! These very special occasions require a decadent homemade cake, and I have just the one.

“This chocolate cake is our absolute favorite. It has SO much flavor, it’s so moist and delicious, and perfect for celebrating everyday life,” Becky Hardin of The Cookie Rookie (and also The Kitchn Collective) tells me about her black magic chocolate recipe. I’m already sold!

This recipe is a take on Hershey’s original “black magic” chocolate cake, which gets its name because it’s so wildly easy to make that it feels like cooking magic. This cake is made with buttermilk, which makes it extra moist. The icing is sweet, but not too sweet. And the recipe also uses coffee to draw out the chocolate notes in the cake.