Chocolate Cake with chocolate frosting is my ultimate guilty pleasure. But you shouldn’t feel too guilty because this 6-inch mini chocolate cake is just the perfect size to satisfy your sweet tooth without being overly indulgent.
I’m currently in the cake season of my baking life. There was a time when I was all about shortbread cookies, and of course cupcakes. That’s not to say I’m no longer into those things, I’m just slightly more obsessed with this Mini Chocolate Cake right now, and rightfully so!
This cute little 6-inch chocolate cake recipe yields exceptionally moist crumbs. Obviously, the chocolate frosting helps make it doubly extra chocolaty. You won’t be able to stop at one bite, that I promise!
How to make Mini Chocolate Cake from scratch
The easy chocolate cake batter
Making the chocolate cake batter is as simple as 1 – 2 – 3 – 4. The batter is baked in two 6” cake pans, and assembled into a small two-layer cake.
- Add all the liquid ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat to combine.
- Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the liquid mixture.
- Mix until a smooth batter forms.
- Divide batter into two 6” cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean with just a few crumbs attached.
Don’t remove the cake right away while it is still hot. Allow the cake to cool in the pan until you can easily handle the pans. Then flip the pan over to remove the cake.
How to make chocolate cake moist?
Using oil can enhance the moistness of your cake. This chocolate cake is made with both butter and oil for both the amazing buttery taste from the butter and moist crumbs from the oil.
What type of cocoa powder to use for the best chocolate cake?
I’ve made this cake with natural cocoa powder, dutch-processed, and a mixture of both. They all worked and were all tasty. Personally I prefer dutch-processed cocoa powder, because it tends to give a deeper chocolate flavor, but use whatever you have in your pantry.
The chocolate frosting
This cake is covered in a creamy silky Swiss Meringue Chocolate Buttercream. Swiss buttercream is a little more involved since it requires you to make a meringue base for the frosting. But I assure you it is not difficult.
This frosting can be made with raw egg whites or pasteurized liquid egg whites. I’ve made it with both and both worked fine even though there is a warning on the liquid egg white carton that it may not work for meringue.
Recently I’ve also been trying out the double boiler method, heating the egg whites and sugar mixture over a steaming pot of water until it reaches around 160°F. This is to ensure the egg whites reach a safe temperature. I actually prefer this method even though it takes an extra step because the buttercream comes together much faster once you add the butter.
If you don’t want to deal with eggs, and the double boiler, you could make an American Style Chocolate Buttercream Frosting instead. If you’re worried about the buttercream being too sweet, don’t worry, my American buttercream is made to be exponentially less sweet than the typical frosting.
Baker’s tips
How to divide cake batter evenly
Use a kitchen scale to divide the cake batter if you want to be exact. This has an added benefit to help the cakes bake evenly. This mini chocolate cake recipe will give you approximately 390 grams of batter for each 6” cake pan.
How to make sure your cake doesn’t stick to the pan
There are two things I always do to ensure an easy and clean release of the baked cakes. I prefer using melted butter and a pastry brush for greasing over a spray.
- Grease the cake pan whether or not it is non-stick.
- Then, line the bottom of the pan with a piece of round parchment paper and also grease the parchment paper.
How to cut parchment paper to fit your cake pan
You can buy pre-cut round parchment paper. But cutting the parchment paper to fit your cake pans is super easy and will save you a lot of cash.
Just place a cake pan on top of a piece of parchment paper and trace it with a pen, then cut along the tracing to get a round piece of parchment paper that will fit inside your cake pan.
Storing chocolate cake
After adding frosting to the cake, you should refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes before cutting to allow the frosting to set.
Leftover cake should be refrigerated. If you’ve cut out a few wedges, be sure to cover any exposed cake with plastic wrap to avoid drying out. If you only have a few slices left, store them in an airtight container.
Need more mini cakes? Try these!
Hungry for more?
Mini Chocolate Cake
Equipment
- 6" Cake Pans
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, 130 g
- ½ cup cocoa powder, dutch-processed or natural, 46 g
- 1 cup granulated sugar, 195 g
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup buttermilk, 235 g
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted, 2 oz, 57 g
- ⅓ cup oil, vegetable or canola, 67 g
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Melted butter for cake pan
Frosting
- 3 oz egg white, white only from about 3 large eggs, 85 g
- 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, 104 g
- 1/2 teaspoon vinegar, or lemon juice
- 8 oz unsalted butter, 226 g, room temperature, cubed
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 oz dark chocolate, 85 g
- 1 tablespoon dutch-processed cocoa powder
Instructions
Make the cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Brush melted butter on two 6” round cake pans. Line the bottom of the cake pan with a piece of round parchment paper and brush the parchment paper with butter as well. Set aside.
- Add buttermilk, oil, melted butter, egg, and vanilla extract to a large bowl. Beat with a whisk until combined.
- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder into a medium mixing bowl. Add sugar and salt to the flour mixture, and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture, and whisk until a smooth batter forms.
- Divide batter evenly among the two prepared cake pans and bake for 30 – 32 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean with just a few crumbs attached. Use a kitchen scale to divide the cake batter if you want to be precise, approximately 390 g of batter per pan. This will also help the cake bake evenly.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for 10 – 15 minutes. When you can touch the cake pans, use a butter knife to loosen the sides, flip the pan over to remove the cake from the pan. Peel off the parchment paper, and allow the cakes to cool completely on a wire rack before adding frosting.
Prepare the frosting
- Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water just until most is melted. Continue to stir as you take it off the heat until all the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.
- Add egg white and sugar to another heat proof bowl and set it over the pot of simmering water, stirring constantly until all the sugar dissolves, the egg white is frothy and the mixture reaches around 160°F. This will take around 7 – 10 minutes.
- Transfer the warm egg mixture to a stand mixer bowl and beat with the balloon whisk attachment on medium low speed until stiff peak forms, stream in the vinegar or lemon juice while beating.
- Once the meringue peak is stiff, shiny and smooth, start adding the room temperature cubed butter while stirring, one cube at a time and allow it to incorporate into the meringue.
- After all the butter is added, stream in the vanilla extract, increase the mixer to high speed and beat until the buttercream comes together and smooth. This will not take very long, only a few minutes.
- Stop the mixer and add the completely cooled melted chocolate and cocoa powder, stir to incorporate, and then beat on high speed until the buttercream is fluffy.
Assemble and frost
- When the cakes are completely cool, place 1 layer on a cake stand or plate. Put a few pieces of parchment paper underneath the cake to cover the cake stand or plate. This is to keep the frosting from smearing everywhere.
- Add about ½ cup of frosting on top of the first layer and even it out with an offset spatula. Add the second layer of cake on top.
- Frost the side and top with the rest of the frosting or just enough to your liking. If there is any leftover frosting, add piping decoration, or simply add sprinkles. Carefully pull out the pieces of parchment paper underneath the cake.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve.
Notes
- This recipe will serve 6 generous portions and can easily serve 8.
- Both dutch-processed cocoa powder and natural cocoa powder, or a combination both will work for this recipe.
- Any flavorless oil like vegetable oil or canola oil will work.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Hi I tried your recipe and the sponge came out really nice! So moist and soft! Also I’ve read some comments regarding 6inch deep pan, I made my cake in a 6×4 cake pan, however as I was pouring the batter in I found that I was over filling it (I have had a bad experience from before) so I kept a little aside, after baking I realised I could’ve used the whole batter so next time will sure to use whole batter! I baked for 1hr 5mins at 350. Hope this helps.
Great to know Aki! Thanks for leaving a review and letting us know about your modifications.
Great recipe! We followed the recipe exactly with the exception of one substitute (milk with 1 tbsp of vinegar for buttermilk, where we let the milk and vinegar sit for a few minutes before mixing into the wet ingredients).
This will be a go-to recipe for our family! Thank you 🙂
Thank you Elsa! Happy to hear you enjoyed this cake 🙂
HI there
I only have 7 inch cake pans, if I did this just as is, would the layers be too thin? or would it make much of a difference?
You can use 7″ pan, the layers will be thinner and make bake faster but it should be fine.
Hi Trang!
Can the recipe be baked in one 7inch pan? I plan to bake two of the 7inch but will bake it twice separately
Can it be frosted with ganache and covered with fondant?
Thanks in advance
Yes, you can bake in 7″ pan, just watch for the bake time cuz the thinner layer will bake faster. You can pretty much use any frosting you want, with ganache, make sure it is firm enough to be used as a frosting. I’m sure there should be no problem with using fondant, but I do not have a lot of experience with using fondant so I can’t give a whole lot of input here.
Thanks for the prompt response!
Will give it a try❤️
You’re so welcome!
Hi Dear,
Can I halve the amount to make one cake? I mean one 6 inch pan
Thanks 🙏🏻
Hi Behnaz, you’ll need to cut all the ingredients in half. The egg would be the trickiest one, I would just beat the egg and divide in half. The easiest way to half the recipe is to weight all the major ingredients that might not be straight foward to divide.
Hi Trang! Just wondering if it would be possible to make this cake in 1 deep 6 inch pan, and would I have to adjust timings, I am having serious equipment issues cake pan wise!
Thanks
Yes, you would definitely need to adjust timing, longer bake time for sure, I don’t have an idea how much longer but I would go 40-50 mins and just check as you go to make sure you don’t over bake. I’m also afraid that the cake might turn out a bit dry due to having to bake much longer to cook the thicker layer, so it is crucial to pull it out just when the center is about done. Let me know how it turn out.
I made this cake with gluten free flour and it turned out delicious! Only took about 15 minutes to put together plus the baking time. Forgot to grease my pan, but the cake came out solid yet moist which made flipping the cake out extremely easy. Will definitely be using this recipe in the future.
Would it be possible to make this in four inch cake pans? How full do you fill the 6 inch pans (so I know how high to fill the smaller pans). Thanks!
Hi Vi, I don’t remember how high I fill the pan, but half full to 2/3 full is a safe bet.
Very moist cake and super easy to make.
Omg this cake was perfect… I made it with your peanut butter frosting which was amazing and turned it into a pinata cake for my nephews 4th bday. Definitely saving this recipe!! Thank you: )
Thank you Mel! Pinata cake is so fun!! Hope you nephew had an awesome birthday 🙂
Hi!
How much does the frosting yeild in cups?
Thanks!
About 2 cups.
I GOT ABOUT AS BIG AS A THE TABLE
Perfect chocolate cake! Thanks for making it easy to do and so delicious!
Perfect chocolate. I only made one layer but this cake came out super moist. Store bought cakes are usually dry so I lean towards cupcakes more but this recipe was absolutely delicious. Loved it when I was pregnant and have made it since having and baby and it’s been a hit with all ages.
Thank you so much! Congrats on the baby too! Hope all is well with the whole family 🙂
Hi Trang!
Can you tell me if the dark chocolate is sweetened or unsweetened for the frosting. Making it today!
Yes it is sweetened, the one I linked to in the recipe ingredients is 63% cocoa.