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Stovetop Chocolate Cake
Steaming produces a light, moist chocolate cake, and is a great way to avoid having to fire up the oven. To elevate the cake above the water that steams the batter, we fashion a ring from an 18-inch length of foil. Brown sugar and espresso powder gave the cake complexity while sour cream added richness and a welcome tang. We like serving this cake dusted with powdered sugar or topped with whipped cream. If your Dutch oven has a self-basting lid—that is, if there are bumps or spikes on the underside—lay a sheet of foil across the top of the pot before putting the lid in place to prevent water from dripping onto the surface of the batter.
8
Servings
Tip
Don’t open the Dutch oven too often while steaming, but do ensure that the water is at a very gentle simmer. You should see steam emerging from the pot. If the heat is too high, the water will boil away before the cake is cooked.
35 minutes
10 minutes active
Ingredients
-
130
grams (1 cup) all-purpose flour
-
29
grams (⅓ cup) cocoa powder
Directions
-
01Cut an 18-inch length of foil and gently scrunch together to form a snake about 1 inch thick. Shape into a circle and set on the bottom of a large Dutch oven. Add enough water to reach three-quarters up the coil. Mist the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray, line the bottom with a round of kitchen parchment, then coat the parchment. Place the prepared pan in the pot on top of the foil coil.
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March 25, 2023
Moist, good flavor
Not overly sweet, espresso powder is a great idea for flavor without sweetness. Many different paths you could go with this if you choose.
February 5, 2023
Quick chocolate fix
This is so quick and a very satisfying chocolate flavor. I even managed to split in half and frost with swiss meringue. Excellent!
September 11, 2022
Favorite Chocolate Cake!
I love this cake! It is so easy to make (foolproof), mostly pantry ingredients except for the sour cream. I use a very high quality cocoa powder, Valrhona cocoa, and the taste is wonderful - not too sweet, more airy than dense, more subtle than fudgy. Sprinkled with confectioners sugar, I have served it plain and with whipped cream and also with frozen vanilla ice cream and vanilla ice cream melted into a sauce.
April 15, 2023
Really good, but maybe needs more salt?
Based on other comments regarding a lack of chocolate flavor, I decided to use the good stuff--Droste. The chocolate flavor was fine. So my first suggestion would be to use Dutched cocoa for a more pronounced chocolate flavor. But I also agreed with a few reviewers who thought it was bland. It's not really sweet, which I actually love about it. Too much sugar hides other flavors. I think that 1/4 tsp of salt might not be enough. Next time I will increase it to 1/2 tsp. So that's my 2nd suggestion for those trying this recipe--more salt. It's too great a concept to give up. Summer is coming, and I want cake that doesn't require the oven!
March 6, 2023
Great texture, but lacking chocolate flavor
I found this recipe to have not enough chocolate flavor.
This is a great question. Would you post it in our Q&A Forum for Milk Street Insiders and Digital subscribers? Insider members usually receive responses from a Milk Street Experts within 2 business days and I'm sure others would love to hear the answer to this one.
Best,
The Milk Street Team
Question: do I need to lengthen my cooking time if I live at 5,000 feet elevation, where water books at about 204°F? How long should I steam it for?
I made this yesterday for my son's birthday. It came out so moist and it is a very good cake. The only thing I had to do differently is cook it for an additional 5 minutes. I will keep the recipe and make it again. Next time I am going to use my steam rack that comes with a slow cooker instead of the foil ring (nothing wrong with a foil ring but I already have a perfect steam rack). Thank you for the great recipe.
Hi Hwei Ping -
It's possible that it was overbaked although the fact that it is steamed, which traps in moisture, helps prevent that to some extent. Sometimes if the cake has too much flour added it can bake up crumbly. With baking I always recommend weighing ingredients rather than using volume measurements for the most reliable results.
Best,
The Milk Street Team
I was able to elevate the cake using a steamer basket instead of the aluminum foil ring. It elevated the cake higher allowing me to add more water and eliminated the risk of the pot boiling dry. I can't believe how quick and easy this was to make. It was a great Valentine's day treat for the entire family.
Would it be a mistake to substitute plain, whole yogurt for the sour cream?
Thank you,
Ken B.
Hi Ken -
It should work OK. Just keep in mind that yogurt has less fat than sour cream so the cake may not be quite as tender. The best 1:1 substitution would be plain, whole milk Greek yogurt.
Best,
The Milk Street Team
I made this cake Sunday. My husband loves chocolate so I wanted to try it for him! When he found out what I was doing he didn't know what to think but once I turned the stove off and let the cake start cooling he couldn't wait, prompting me to get it out of the pot and remove it from the pan ( I used my springform). It came out beautifully! He sprinkled the powdered sugar and cocoa mix on top of the cake and then we cut into it! He came to me last night and said that is the best chocolate cake he has ever had and that I was going to have to keep making it! Thank you Milk Street!
I too would love an instant pot version of this! Regardless the cake was delicious - but I didn't cook it long enough - the center was more like pudding. Next time I will let it go a little longer, but the instant pot seems like a good solution for flawless results. Only problem is my 9 inch pan will not fit in my 8qt instant pot. My soufflé dish does though - which begs another question:)
I made this cake yesterday after seeing an older episode of the TV show with this featured. My cake took nearly double the cooking time (45-50 minutes) before the toothpick came out clean. I kept adding 5 minutes after seeing some other comments, but didn't expect it to take as long as it did. End result came out tasting great - just can't figure out why the time difference. I used a 9-inch non-stick cake pan, in an All-Clad stainless steel dutch oven. Any ideas? really just for future reference.
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Spatula skills? None.