Recipe test: Hershey’s chocolate cake is easy to make and delicious

I was on a video chat with friends the first time I made this chocolate cake recipe. During the chat one friend was showing off a bevy of chocolate chip cookies and brownies ready for his snacking pleasure. That’s all it took to set off my sweet tooth craving, so I began mixing up what I thought was a batch of brownies as I conversed with my friends.

I didn’t realize it was a cake recipe until I began pouring the batter into a 9×9 baking dish I use for brownies. With a quarter of the batter filling the pan more than half way, I realized my mistake. I squinted at the recipe title typed in a font size normally reserved for side effect warnings on medicine packaging.

Out came the bundt pan and I poured batter from the baking dish and mixing bowl, added 15 minutes baking time and turned out a chocolate cake the surpassed expectations.

But did it rise to “Perfectly Chocolate?” We’ll find out by giving it the RecipeFact TruthSayer treatment.

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into pans.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely before frosting.

TASTING NOTES: Loads of chocolate flavor. An airy, moist, soft texture transforms into dense rich chocolate — like a candy bar melting in your mouth.

EQUIPMENT: Mixing bowl, 2 measuring spoons, 3 measuring cups, whisk, beaters, spatula and two cake pans.

PRACTICALITY RATING: 5. Box cake mixes require eggs, oil and water additions similar to this recipe. The only additional effort to make this recipe instead of a box mix is measuring dry ingredients instead opening a plastic bag of prepared dry ingredients. It’s maybe an extra two minutes — three if you’re super disorganized — of work. Keep in mind I was able to make this recipe while on a video chat with friends.

COST: $4-$5 without frosting. Figure about $2.25 for the dry ingredients if you want to compare costs to a box mix.

HACKS/INSIGHTS: Props to the Hershey’s recipe team for providing specific details like an approximate time for beating, description of the batter as thin and cooling time in pans.

When I made this cake in the bundt pan, I coated the pan with a nonstick spray. It turned out without much sticking. I sprayed the round pans but when I turned out these cakes, bits stuck to the pan. Next time, I would grease and flour the round pans or maybe use parchment paper on the bottom.

Start heating water to boiling — a tea kettle works best — before starting to mix dry ingredients.

Hershey’s includes a frosting recipe that is fairly simple, but nobody’s going to judge you if you want to pop open a can of ready-to-go frosting.

If you want an easy from-scratch cake recipe, this is it. I have several cake recipes I make that require more time, which I enjoy, but this is a recipe suitable for bakers of any skill level.