This Simple Chocolate Cake from a box mix is the secret to the most moist chocolate cake at home! Made with simple ingredients like, sour cream, extra eggs and instant pudding it absolutely will become the best chocolate cake from a box you’ve ever had… possibly the best cake you’ve ever had!

Learn how to doctor up a chocolate cake mix by reading further! I’ll show you all of the tips and step-by-step photos to teach you how to bake this doctored chocolate cake mix recipe!

Easy Chocolate Box Cake Recipe

This easy chocolate cake is made for anyone from a beginning baker up to an absolute expert! Which is why it has become so popular on Pinterest and Instagram, just like our Peanut Butter Monster Cookies.

Why We Love This Recipe!

I love that this moist chocolate cake recipe starts off with a Devil Food’s or Fudge cake mix! When life is busy and you want a special dessert but aren’t a cake baker, this recipe is for you! We love that it’s doctored up with some chocolate pudding and sour cream to give it an amazing texture and taste.

Cake mixes already include the flour, some sugar, salt and leavening agents like baking soda and/or baking powder. By using a cake mix for your dry ingredients, just eliminate the steps of measuring out all those ingredients. Total time saver!

Ingredients For a Doctored Cake Mix

For the Cake

• Cake Mix: A 15.25 oz. Duncan Hines devil’s food cake mix seems to work best. You can use any mix you’d like though. The base that provides flour, sugar, cocoa powder, leavening, and stabilizers. It gives structure and the initial chocolate flavor. 
• Jello Instant Chocolate Pudding: Use the 3.4 ounce size. Adds extra cocoa

The Most Perfect Moist Chocolate Cake [+Video]

Homemade Chocolate Cake like this is not easy to find. This is the Most Perfect Moist Chocolate Cake recipe, and that’s coming from an obsessed cake tester!

Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe with Chocolate Frosting

You all know how I work. It’s why we have the best Traeger Ribs, Buttermilk Pancakes and Banana Bread recipes among a gazillion others. I get all sucked into finding the best of the best for a specific recipe and I can’t let it go until I’ve achieved it.

And friends, I’ve discovered which chocolate cake is best. If you’re needing chocolate cake for a birthday or a family celebration, you just step right up.  (Who am I kidding, just make it because you are surviving the crazy these days.)

Everyone I know loves a moist chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, but no one has great luck with a homemade chocolate cake without just using a cake mix. I am crazy giddy to share all of my secrets!

Don’t go crazy, but this is a chocolate cake recipe without butter. That’s for a very specific reason. As much as I thought that butter would be all the difference in flavor, it just wasn’t the truth. The flavor didn’t count enough for how much the cake lacked moisture.

Apparently butter doesn’t make cakes moister, which makes sense. Butter has a high water content that evaporates as steam in the baking process so it can’t keep the moisture like an oil can. If you really want to use butter you can, just use equal amounts or half and half, but all oil did lead to a better chocolate layer cake!

Homemade Chocolate Cake Ingredients

As I already mentioned, the moistness of this homemade chocolate cake is thanks in part to the oil used in the batter. Our other secret? Buttermilk! Yep, this is a buttermilk chocolate cake.

Any time a recipe calls for buttermilk, it makes me think it’s going to be a fancy recipe. But in reality, this chocolate cake from scratch couldn’t be simpler to make.

Here’s what you’ll need to make this moist chocolate cake recipe:

1. All-Purpose Flour: I’ve tested all sorts of flours but had the worst luck in a chocolate cake with cake flour.
2. Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder: Do not use dutch-process cocoa powder, but opt for an unsweetened cocoa powder, which will give a better rise. Try Hershey’s or a similar brand just in the grocery store. Not crazy trip to a gourmet store needed.
3. Espresso Powder: Espresso powder is optional, but listen, as one who does not drink coffee for religious reasons I really do believe this makes a difference in the chocolate flavor.
4. Baking Soda & Baking Powder: Yes, use both!!! I’ve tried many baking powd

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

I’m going to say it…the “M” word…this chocolate mayonnaise cake is moist, decadent, and so delicious! And it is topped with the most creamy chocolate cream cheese frosting! You’re going to fall in love with it!

What was the “M” word? Mayo or moist? Hahaha…originally I was thinking “moist” because it’s so taboo, but then I realized that some of you might have thought I meant “mayonnaise”. Mayonnaise in a cake? Heck yes!

Ok so this is typical me, but I heard about mayo cake as a kid and swore it off. First of all, I grew up on Miracle Whip. Say whatever you want, it happened. And I loved it on a grilled cheese Anyway!!!

As an adult everyone was swearing by it and I’ll be honest, mom’s chocolate zucchini cake is more moist and delicious (thank you zucchini!) in my humble opinion, but I have worked out the kinks and practiced and perfected and finally humbly bow to the Southerners that swore I just HAD TO TRY IT. It is moist and delicious and you were all right!

Ingredients for Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Something so delicious shouldn’t be so easy! The list of ingredients is brief and just the basics. You might just have everything already in the pantry and fridge. Cha-ching!