Ruth Reichl’s Giant Chocolate Cake Recipe (2024)

Definitely look at Ruth Reichl's recipe on her webpage: http://ruthreichl.com/?s=chocolate+cake Much clearer directions -- e.g. a stand mixer is preferred but not required; beat ("mix" being a trifle imprecise) the butter and cream cheese in step 5, etc. Cake was easy to make and looks delicious!

American cakes usually use too much sugar. A good rule of thumb is to use, by volume, one part sugar to two parts flour (include the cocoa as part of the flour). This recipe calls for 4 1/8 cups flour plus cocoa. I would use 1 cup white sugar and one cup brown sugar. This sugar reduction also adjusts the recipe to high altitude baking. I learned this practice from Rose Levy Berenbaum's The Cake Bible.

If you cut the recipe in half it should work with TWO 9" round pans. Baking time should fall within the (wide) range stated in the recipe.
If all you have are 8" pans, it may work but I'd use 3 1/2"-->4"parchment strips to line the sides of the pans or use 15% less than all the batter. Otherwise you may need to clean your oven.

I have made my partner a chocolate cake for his last 8 birthdays without fail...and this recipe was by far the easiest and tastiest I've made to date. Easier than Martha and Ina's with less steps and ingredients. Didn't want a sheet cake look, so I cut each cake in half and stacked all four together and put it on a tall cake plate. Raspberry jam in between layers was great too.

I halved both the cake and the frosting (because I wasn't feeding an army) and I didn't have nearly enough frosting. I ended up frosting between the layers and on top of the cake, which looked nice but didn't have the frosting/cake ratio I like. I will definitely be making this again, but I'll make a full recipe of frosting to a half recipe of cake.

Prepare frosting 1.5-times the quantities, using entire 12 oz. tub of Philadelphia whipped cream cheese—much simpler!; use most of the two 4oz boxes of unsweetened chocolate (Baker’s); and adjust other ingredients for increase. Freeze extra if you don’t use it all. Makes 3 9-inch layers; using them all in one cake is dramatic and monumental! (I used organic Turbinado sugar, and all-purpose flour.) Check individual layers for doneness starting at 25 minutes. Leftovers freeze beautifully.

Hidden in the instructions for what to do with the cocoa you will find the 1 1/2 cups of boiling water, not listed in the ingredients. This part is important! Whisking the cocoa in hot water is essential.

This was the hit of my Downton Abbey party this weekend.It is very important to have the amount of batter in the layers equal. Weighing them works best. If they are uneven take the smaller one out early. Put the larger one on the bottom when you assemble. I had to beat in 3 cups of powdered sugar with a little milk to get the mix sweet enough and have enough to frost the whole cake.To make your own whipped cream cheese, use regular and beat a few tablespoons of milk into it until fluffy

It looks nothing like a pepperidge farm cake. It's completely normal for people who bake a lot, and especially for food professionals, to have a supply of cardboard bases for cakes. It's a big rectangular cake, exactly as it says in the recipe and description. Why does that make it look like a pepperidge fair cake? What a strange thing to say.

This is a scrumptious chocolate cake, very moist and chocolatey.
I added 1/4 teaspoon instant coffee to the cocoa to deepen the flavor -- any more and you would taste the coffee, which I didn't want.
I also used 1/2 of the entire recipe, which fit perfectly into two 9 inch pans!
As was noted in other comments, the icing recipe is a bit skimpy. It iced my two 9 inch layers completely with none leftover.
This recipe is definitely a keeper!

I cut this recipe in half and made a lovely 8" tall birthday cake. Finally, a frosting that stands up without eventually collapsing. I refrigerated it for 12 hours before serving too!

I baked in Santa Fe NM for 10 years and followed high altitude baking recommendations in Joy of Cooking (pg. 648, 1964 edition).
How I would adjust this recipe:
Increase milk by one tablespoon.
Decrease white sugar and brown sugar each by 1/4 cup.
Reduce baking soda by 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon.
Keep eggs refrigerated until almost ready to use.
Increase the oven temp. by 25 degrees F.
Cakes at high altitude have a tendency to stick; butter and flour (use cocoa in this case) parchment paper well.

5 stars for the cake portion as I didn't use the frosting recipe. I've found my forever chocolate cake, and it feels good. Perfect texture and flavour. I love that it's made with butter, because I can't abide the taste of oil in baked goods, and it's not the slightest bit dry, which can sometimes be an issue with butter based cake. I reduced the sugars to 250g each, because of personal preference, but other than that made no changes. I've never loved chocolate cake before, but I loved this.

35-45 mins for 2 6" filled with 550 g. each

Double icing

one of the best chocolate cakes i've ever had. i've baked this twice. excellent both times. light, not too sweet, perfect. one full recipe filled two 6" rounds and one 16x9 sheet cake. very happy with the frosting, too -- fluffy and not overly sweet and cream cheese flavor is subtle.

This icing is incredible! It comes together very nicely in the kitchen aid. I hate icing because it never seems to come together - this was perfect. I used regular cream cheese, not whipped!

Delicious and easy! I halved the cake recipe and baked it in two 9in round cake pans. I made the whole frosting recipe and had about 1 cup left over. For the frosting, I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet instead of the unsweetened chocolate, and halved the amount of powdered sugar. The frosting wasn't overly sweet and had a nice tang. I didn't have whipped cream cheese so I used regular cream cheese and whipped it in my stand mixer w/ a tablespoon of milk.

Best. Chocolate. Cake. Ever. Worth the effort and extensive ingredients (do NOT skimp on anything) The crumb of this cake bakes up velvety soft and melts in your mouth. Will be my go-to chocolate cake recipe forever!

I recommend adding take-home containers to the list of ingredients. I brought this to a pot luck with nine friends. Everyone loved the cake and they were more than happy to take some home in the containers I had brought for that purpose.

Made this for my son’s first birthday party. Everyone raved about it and said how delicious it was!

Made half of the cake recipe in two round forms but all of the frosting. Filled the middle of the cake with frosting and defrosted raspberries. It was appreciated!

I made half the recipe. I baked it in a 13x9 pan, and cut that in half. I did make the full about of frosting. I could have added more between the lays as I had some left over. It was delicious!

Delicious - cake crumb was dense but not heavyAccidental chocolate nibs in the frosting (chocolate hardened while whipping frosting)Cut recipe in half and use 8 inch cake pansFrosting richer more chocolate

Halved the recipe - double and triple checked my calculations. Used cake flour, as recipe does not specify, but did add a tablepoon per cup to be on safe side. Still, batter was thin- didn't need to "smooth layers in pans" as it just poured smooth. Baked in two 9 inch rounds. The layers did not rise and dome as other cakes - made full frosting recipe - still tasted a bit sour but nice and fluffy. I was disappointed in the mess - but my friends ate it and asked for some to take home -

This is fine, did not blow me away at all. I regret not making my go to chocolate cake recipe (smitten kitchen ding dong cake) instead which is much more moist and flavorful. I would not describe this cake as light either - so I don’t see the appeal. If you don’t like cream cheese frosting definitely sub out with something else.

Actually I swear by Maida Heatter's Cowtown Chocolate cake, but this was excellent. Slightly less work and a bigger yield, and nice moist chocolatey cake. Next time I'll add a bit of powdered espresso like Maida does to deepen the taste. You need to keep whipping the frosting for at least 5 mins or so - it expands. Very good frosting but I'll add the powdered espresso next time and make a bit more.