The Best Easy Chocolate Cake

Name: The Best Easy Chocolate Cake
Yield: Makes one 8-inch-square cake
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups, unbleached all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces/213 grams); 1 cup, sugar (7 ounces/198 grams); 1/2 teaspoon, baking soda; 1/4 teaspoon, table salt; 1/2 cup, Dutch-processed cocoa powder (2 ounces/57 grams); 2 ounces (57 grams), bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine (see note); 1 cup, fresh black coffee, hot; 2/3 cup, mayonnaise; 1 large, egg; 2 teaspoons, vanilla extract; , Confectioners' sugar (for serving; optional)

Desserts or Baked Goods
Chocolate
Cakes

Appears in Cook's Illustrated March/April 2009

This easy wartime cake made with mayonnaise had a lot of good things going for it. Chocolate flavor wasn’t one of them.

SERVES Makes one 8-inch-square cake

TIME 1 hour, plus 1 hour cooling

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