Updated on June 27th, 2022
Here is the perfect cake for Halloween, black magic cake. This rich and delicious dark chocolate cake is super moist and will keep you coming back for more and more. This cake gets a lot of its flavor from strong brewed coffee, cocoa, and buttermilk. There is a little work needed to make this cake but no more than you would expect from any average layer cake. If you prefer not to make a layer cake you can use a 9×13” baking pan instead of two 9” round baking pans. The batter will be thin but it will bake well. For the frosting, I went with a delicious cream cheese frosting but you could also use chocolate frosting or whatever you like. I also used orange food coloring to kind of give a Halloween feel to the cake but unfortunately, it didn’t quite get the color I was hoping for. If you are looking for a great dessert for Halloween, give this one a try! Enjoy.
Black Magic Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups white sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup strong brewed coffee
- 1 cup buttermilk
- A ½ cup of vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Frosting-2 (8 ounces) packages cream cheese (softened)½ cup butter (softened)
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease two 9” round baking pans (or one 9×13” baking pan.
- In a large bowl combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Into the well add eggs, coffee, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed or until well combined.
- Pour batter into baking pans (if using two 9” round baking pans evenly divide the batter between the two).
- Place into the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes remove from the baking pans and finish cooling on a wire rack.
- While the cake is cooling, to make the cream cheese frosting- In a medium bowl cream the cream cheese and butter until creamy.
- Mix in vanilla extract and then beat in the confectioner’s sugar, a little at a time until you have reached your desired spreading consistency.
- Fill and frost the cake with the cream cheese frosting.
This looks absolutely magnificent! Thank you for posting this awesome recipe. It’s given me something to daydream about!
Yes I would agree that this cake looks magical!!
Cream cheese frosting is always my go-to, I find that the slight tartness is ideal to offset any richness, especially in a chocolate cake. For Halloween, I might go a little crazy and make the frosting orange. Oh the possibilities…
This sounds absolutely gorgeous!
Would love to make this!
I LOVE this cake! I’ve tried all the chocolate cakes from all the popular chef’s, but I keep coming back to this one from the Hershey collection. It is so moist and so tender, it just melts in your mouth. It’s got a deep chocolate flavor too. It’s also great with caramel frosting on it.
I’m typically a salty, spicy, savory foods guy, and not someone who is terribly interested in sweets. That being said, this cake looks and sounds absolutely wonderful! I just may have to make it for my darling wife who, by the way, loves those sweets!
Bobby, sorry about getting your gender wrong. I tried to figure out from the site if you were a guy or girl. Now I know and I fixed my post. Thanks
Laura – no problem, I should have put up a picture or something 🙂
I would love to try this recipe! Is there a substitute for coffee, I dislike the flavor.
Emilee- In my opinion you can not even really taste the coffee, it blends in very well with the other flavors. This cake does not have a strong coffee flavor at all.
or, if you are worried about it give this recipe a try – blogchef.net/chocolate-cake-recipe/
You can even frost that cake with the frosting from this recipe.
Hey Bobby, my girlfriend and I made this cake this weekend. I used 100% Columbian coffee in this recipe. We really loved the flavor, it was moist and delicious. Thanks Bobby!
Kent – fantastic, I am glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I was just thinking that we needed a good chocolate cake in our house. We always love the combo of chocolate and coffee. Thanks for posting the recipe!!
I’m so making this for Halloween! And did you use a liquid or gel food dye for the frosting? Cause I find that the powdered coloring is more consistent and works well. You should try it!
Catie – I used the liquid, and thanks for the recommendation! I hope you enjoy the recipe.
Can’t wait to try this. The hershey one was really great. This one must be even better. Thanks for the recipes.
You were right the coffee flavor is not even noticeable. Thanks for another great recipe!
Just wanted to let you know I made this last night. OMG. Soo good. Thanks for the recipe
i was wondering if you can make cupcakes with this recipe (maybe without the coffee) is gonna be my 3rd daughter bday so i thought of making cupcakes instead of a cake, i have done a lot of your recipes, always delicious..
thank you..
Karol – The cofee doesn’t have a strong flavor at all if thats what your worried about. You cant even really taste it, and yes, you can make cupckes with this recipe! Enjoy!
waw, the cake name “black magic” is very interesting
I was wondering if I could use this recipe for a stacked cake?? (3 or 4 tiered cake)
Helga- Yes, of course. With this recipe I made a double layer cake, so for a 4 layer cake you will want to double it.
I was desperate. My family loves chocolate cake but mine never turn out moist enough and this recipe saved my life. Thanks a mil!
hey bobby,
my husband loves coffee and chocolate so I was thinking about making this for his graduation cake. How long would you bake this if using a 13x9x2 pan
Megan- Should be about the same baking time listed in this recipe. This is one of my favorite cakes ever!
Hi Bobby, I’m really excited to try out your recipe but i wanted to know if it’s okay to use coffee liqueur in it and if so, will I have to substitute any thing for it?
Niki – Sorry, I do not know if coffee liqueur would work in this recipe because I have never tried it. If you want to give it a try, please let everyone know the results. Thanks.