Triple Chocolate Loaf Cake

This chocolate loaf cake from Ina Garten tastes as rich and chocolaty as a brownie.

An everyday chocolate loaf cake seems easy enough to bake but, in cooking, the simplest things are often the hardest to get right. The challenge is that most chocolate cakes get their chocolate flavor solely from cocoa powder. This works well in a layer cake when you have a thick chocolate buttercream to add richness and flavor, but in a naked loaf cake, cocoa powder alone leaves you wanting. This chocolate snack cake from Ina Garten’s latest cookbook, Cook Like a Pro: Recipes & Tips for Home Cooks (Clarkson Potter, 2018), calls not just for cocoa powder, but also bittersweet chocolate and chocolate chips. The result is a luscious snack cake that tastes as rich and chocolaty as a brownie and needs absolutely no frosting. I don’t normally post Ina Garten’s recipes on my blog because I figure everyone already has them, but this one is just too good not to share. It’s perfect for Valentine’s Day or any day — and the recipe happily makes two cakes, so one for your family and one to give away (or stash in the freezer for your next chocolate fix!).

What you’ll need To Make Ina Garten’s Triple Chocolate Loaf Cake

How to make triple chocolate loaf cake

To begin, pour the boiling water into a 2-cup glass measuring cup and add the bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder, and coffee granules. Stir until the chocolate melts, then set aside to cool for at least 15 minutes. In a medium bowl, combine 2 cups of the flour, the baking powder, and salt.

Whisk well and set aside.

In another bowl, toss the chocolate chips with the remaining 2 tablespoons flour and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together.

Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time.

Add the vanilla; the mixture may look at little curdled at this point; that’s okay.

Alternately in thirds, add the flour mixture and the chocolate mixture.

You want to begin and end with the flour. (Don’t worry if there are a few bits of unmelted chocolate in the chocolate mixture.)

Add the chocolate chips to the batter.

Fold with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated.

Divide the batter equally between the prepared pans and smooth the tops.

Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. (Test in a few places because you might hit a warm chocolate chip.)

Cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn out on a cooling rack, rounded side up, and allow to cool to room temperature.