This recipe is taking a long time to bake. Normally, my oven is hotter and doesn't take as long. I'm wondering what I did wrong? It has been 45 minutes and it is still liquidy in the middle.

I baked this cake with a couple of alterations. I always substitute butter for equal amount of apple sauce, it turns out great, moist and tasty but no fat calories. I also added salt, I find that without any salt the taste is kind of flat. I also always add flax seed, both raw and ground, for omega-3 and fiber, and some clear dissolvable fiber, it lowers total glycemic index. I covered it with chocolate frosting (also added fiber to it to offset all that sugar). Easy to make and can add nuts for even richer taste.

This is a great and simple recipe for a chocolate cake. I used butter for shortening. However the total result was a bit disappointing: it tasted somewhat bitter and unpleasant. However with ice cream it was OK. Spreading it with frosting made it MUCH better. Since it's the only from-scratch recipe I could find, I've been baking this every week, and today I finally realized what was wrong: one essential ingredient is missing: SALT! Just one teaspoon of salt turns that bitter cake into something totally amazing! It might sound strange, but all good cakes must have sugar and salt (unless you want a healthy tasteless cake). So for those of you who tried it and hated it, or who might've found it slightly unpleasant, or who thought that it kinda tastes wrong for a chocolate cake: give it another try with just a teaspoon of salt - the difference in taste is HUGE. Don't forget the frosting :)

I was looking for an easy recipe for chocolate cake from scratch and boy is this easy, not to mention yummy. Its so easy that I had my kids help. This cake is very moist and not even that sweet, which is good for the kiddos. I used a recipe for chocolate glaze with pecans, it was a good combo. I been getting request for this recipe and more cake. Thank You sooo much.

Can you substitute the water for milk?

Very nice recipe, but was a bit confused about how much a big rounded tbsp was, especially since I wanted to use butter and or/liquid oil. I substituted half whole wheat flour, which made it taste a little strange, but once I had icing on it, you could not tell. Used poor man\'s frosting, if you want to try it with a whipped type vanilla frosting instead of the usual chocolate buttercream.

Amazingly easy, rich and tasty!! I've made other cakes from scratch with ingredients lists a mile long and this was almost as tasty as those. Although the cake lacks "depth" in flavor (no nuances) but if you're looking for simplicity, this is for you.

I read all the great reviews so I decided to use this recipe and I was very disappointed. My fiance and I tried it and we both agreed that it tasted too much like cocoa. I would not use this recipe again.

Brilliant! So easy, so fast, soooo LECKER (tasty)!! You will NOT be disappointed!

I threw this cake together in 5 minutes flat! I used a 13 x 9 pan, and cake needed 45 minutes to bake. I brushed melted respberry jam on cake while it was still hot, will frost w /cream cheese icing when its cool and sprinkle coconut on top too. Its for my daughters birthday, I know she's gonna love it! Thanks for this fab easy recipe!

It is in the oven right now and i am wondering, vanilla or chocolate icing???

When I read this recipe I could all ready taste the cake!

Was doing some spring cleaning and found i had 4 big bags of flour in the house and i don't bake from scratch or cook with flour, but feel guilty throwing perfectly good things out. So i found this easy recipe. It's baking now. I happend to have all the raw ingredients in the house except for "shortening". What is shortening, is it the white lard looking from from Crisco? I used 2 tablespoons of Margarine instead. Is that the same as shortening or can be substituted? i guess i'll find out when it's done in the oven.

Hi Betty,

You can use butter, margarine, Crisco, etc. as the shortening in this recipe.

Hope this helps!

-- CM

Divorced and this is literally the first thing I ever baked. Gonna make a cake for daughters bday. My practice run came out great! I can't wait to bake more! Thanks for sharing this great recipe.

This was easy and wonderful! Will make again and often. Everyone loved it. Who needs cake mixes? In answer to the question about rounded tablespoons, yes. Use rounded tablespoons or your measurements will be off for this cake. Or use 4 level tablespoons shortening instead of 2 rounded tablespoons if you want.