Sorry, I just have to vent. Tried making Toba Garretts Chocolate Fudge Cake last night and after removing it from the pan, I can already tell that it is going to crack to pieces and be destined for cake balls. I have made the Hersheys Chocolate cake recipe before and I think it came out OK. Will try that tonight before I decide to revert back to my doctored Duncan Hines. I really want to make scratch cakes, but it is always hit or miss.

I've been using this recipe. It's really good.

http://www.food.com/recipe/moist-deluxe-dark-chocolate-cake-mix-copycat-duncan-hines-129855

Know your just venting but if you're interested, I've used this recipe many times and have had good results

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sandys-chocolate-cake/Detail.aspx

good luck!

I make Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake and use sour cream instead of the milk, same amount - 1 cup. This keeps it from sinking. I also adjusted the amounts of baking powder and baking soda down, as Susan (SCP) suggested. 1 teaspoon of each (although I go even less with the baking soda as I'm at a higher elevation).

Try these alterations and I think you'll be pleased with how the Hershey's cake bakes up. It even will do nicely as cupcakes with these changes.

And, if you want to make it a Chocoalte Rush Cake, add 1 tsp espresso powder to your 1 cup boiling water (or use your favorite coffee).

I feel your pain - scratch baking is not easy and unfortunately people try the same horrible recipes. The Hershey's is one of them.

There is a huge learning curve when jumping from box mixes to scratch - it's not a matter of throwing everything into a bowl and getting a perfect cake. There are principals and fundamentals that you just need to know in order to make a recipe as intended. But I promise, once you get it, you can make just about any cake.

I wrote a blog post over a year ago that gets hundreds of hits a day - I break down a white cake recipe and explain what the ingredients do and how you need to use them. Although it's not a chocolate cake, the principals behind the ingredients is the same for any cake.

http://fromscratchsf.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/white-cake-part-3-with-recipe/

Good luck!

Try Beatty's Chocolate Cake! I love it! It doesn't sink, can hold up to fodant and it so moist and delish!!

http://www.barefootcontessa.com/recipes.aspx?RecipeID=125&S=0

Hershey's is not a horrible recipe. It is very delicious and when you add coffee and a tiny pinch of cinnamon it takes it over the top. It is very weather sensitive. And it can be sticky. But it is also very dense and has a wonderful flavor. Bake on a clear low humid day if possible.

When I say "horrible" I mean very unreliable, especially if you don't know how to tweak recipes or are new at scratch baking. It's far from foolproof and thousands of people post how they have problems with it (on this very site). That's all I meant.

http://annies-eats.com/2012/05/11/chocolate-peanut-butter-layer-cake/

This is my favorite chocolate cake recipe...it's very moist with a yummy chocolate flavor and best of all it bakes up completely flat so no need for leveling lol...I used it for my pink princess dress cake and it held up perfectly!

THIS is an out of this world chocolate cake... lots of dishes, lots of work... soooo worth it!

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/05/old-fashioned-chocolate-layer-cake/

Just to add another in the mx, here's my favorite chocolate cake recipe. It's AMAZING (& really tastes like chocolate, not cocoa powder). Remember to use the best quality chocolate you can.

Double Chocolate Layer Cake by Epicurious
http://m.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Double-Chocolate-Layer-Cake-101275

you guys have me scared. i was going to make the Hershey's chocolate cake this week (Thursday) during a very bad heat wave. (High Humidity). PLUS, I have never made ot before.

Anyone have any tips/tricks or should i try another recipe?

^ I've personally never had problems with the Hershey's cake, but I do prefer other recipes because of taste and texture.

My personal favorite right now is RLB's Chocolate Layer Cake. I actually ran out of cake flour and had to sub AP (by weight, not volume) and I actually liked the texture better! Just a bit more fudgy!

little struedel- Which of her books is taht in? I have The Cake bible at home.

It's in Heavenly Cakes, but it might also be in the Cake Bible too. I'll take a look when I get home!

Thanks!

Erin

Mbranko, it looks like it is only in HC, although the all-American Chocolate buttercake recipe looks really similar except it doesn't have 2TBSP of oil added with the chocolate and butter.

FromScratchSF, I love your recipe for white cake. Can it be doubled? And thank you for all the explications for the ingredients. I started out scratch baking years and years ago, but never knew the science behind it.

Thank you with this recipe. I now feel confident to offer scratch cakes. By the way the first time I made it I did a coconut cake it was out of this world!

I'm going to throw another recipe into the mix. Planet Cake's Chocolate Mud Cake is AWESOME!

I came across this cake recipe when I was searching for a S'Mores cake recipe and I have this saved as my default scratch chocolate cake recipe. I'm new to scratch baking and have not run into an issue with how it turns out.

http://www.heatherchristo.com/cooks/2011/03/01/smores-cake/

Dark Chocolate Cake
2 cups boiling water
1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup soft unsalted butter
2-1/4 cup white sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbs vanilla
2-3/4 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Put the coco powder in a small bowl, and pour the boiling water on top of it.
Whisk the water and coco together until smooth, and then set aside until cooled.
In a mixing bowl or standing mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
Add the vanilla and the eggs one at a time until they completely combined.
Sift all of the dry ingredients together.
Gently add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and half of the chocolate. Mix to combine.
Repeat with the remaining ingredients and mix into a smooth batter.
Divide the batter evenly between the three pans. Two of them, gently spread over the graham crust.
Bake the cake layers about 25 minutes, but keep a close eye on them because every cake is different.
Let the cake layers cool.
*** Note. I cooked the two graham-chocolate layers with an even cake layers strip around them so that they would

turn out more flat. The third cake layer I left alone because I wanted it to puff up and be domed for the top of the cake

I too have just now made this same Toba cake.  I should have trusted all the reviews that stated it fell apart.  It completely fell apart. 

And I also didn't think it tasted all that great.  Not chocolate-y enough.
 

AI've made the Hershey's chocolate cake once and liked it a lot. My MIL also uses it, she recommended it to me actually. I'm using it this weekend for cupcakes. But I will try some of these other recipes over time.

The one time I made the Hershey's Cake was a disaster, but it made delicious cake balls. 

I am still looking for a chocolate cake recipe I love, I make David Lebovitz's Devils Food Cake but it doesn't stay fresh very long and sometimes I want something sweeter. 

My favorite recipe and very consistant, hard to mess up