4 Ingredient Chocolate Cake (No Eggs, Butter or Oil)
This chocolate cake comes out moist and fluffy and is easy to make. The batter can be easily mixed in one bowl with a whisk, no mixer is needed. This cake is just four ingredients and doesn’t require eggs, butter or oil.
This is such an easy cake to whip up when you’re in need of a cake made from scratch but you are short on time or ingredients. It takes about five minutes to make the batter and thirty minutes to bake.
Ingredients
- Self-Rising Flour
- Cocoa Powder
- Sugar
- Milk
Self-Rising Flour: This cake uses self-rising flour which already has baking powder and salt added to the flour. If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can easily make your own by mixing baking powder and salt with all purpose flour. The exact amounts are listed in the notes of the recipe card at the end of this post.
Milk: This cake uses whole milk. I don’t recommend using low fat because the cake does rely on the fat from the milk. To make it dairy-free, you can substitute with full fat almond milk or oat milk.
Cake Texture
This cake comes out moist and fluffy and tastes very much like a traditional sheet cake. Because there is no oil or butter, the crumb is a little firmer, something you will often find with cakes made without butter or oil. If you want a more tender cake and don’t mind using oil, you can replace 1/3 cup of the milk with vegetable or canola oil.
How to Make 4 Ingredient Chocolate Cake
This is a very easy cake to make. The flour and cocoa powder are added and whisked together. Then the sugar and milk are mixed in. It takes less than five minutes to mix all the ingredients together. Then the batter is ready to go in the oven.
More Easy Cake Recipes
4 Ingredient Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (187 g) self-rising flour
- 1/2 cup (52 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup (195 g) granulated white sugar
- 1 1/3 cups (10.6 oz) whole milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8 x 8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, add flour and cocoa powder. Whisk until evenly combined. Add in sugar and whisk until combined. Pour in milk and whisk until batter is smooth.
- Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Bake for about 30 minutes or until cake is done and toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Notes
- Whole milk can be substituted with full fat almond milk, soy milk or oat milk.
- The cake has a fluffy and moist texture but it does have a tighter crumb than your typical cake because it doesn't have butter or oil. If you want a richer cake with a more tender crumb, you can replace 1/3 cup of the milk with oil.
- To make your own self-rising flour, whisk together 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour + 2 1/4 tsp baking powder + 3/8 tsp salt.
- The cake is sweet but not super sweet. If you want a sweeter cake, I recommend adding frosting to the top.
- I topped this cake with chocolate ganache. To make ganache, heat 1/2 cup of milk on the stove until it is just about to simmer. Pour over 1 cup of chocolate chips. Whisk until chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Pour ganache over cake and then place cake into fridge until ganache is set.
- Nutrition estimate is for the cake only and does not include the frosting.
The cake itself is good! It is pretty soft and my family liked it. It had a slight bitter taste however and i’m not sure what from but other than that it’s good.
I also don’t recommend the ganache, it is wayyyy too sweet and chocolatey, I wish I used frosting instead. But yea the cake itself was good
You don’t have to add the frosting if you don’t like your desserts very sweet! We’re glad you enjoyed the cake.
I loved it! I really enjoyed making and eating this cake recipe, and I will save it for future use. Thanks!
We’re so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
I’ve been looking for a chocolate bread with raisins in it and an Italian cheesecake made with ricotta cheese can you help thank you
We have several recipes for chocolate bread but none with raisins. You could try adding raisins into one of the recipes but we are unsure how it would turn out! You can find those recipes here: https://kirbiecravings.com/?s=chocolate+bread
You can also find our cheesecake recipes here: https://kirbiecravings.com/?s=cheesecake
Hi, I’ve made this recipe for chocolate cake 3 times, it comes out pretty good for as fast as it is to make it.
This time I changed 2 things, first I submitted 1/2 cup of the milk for 1/2 cup of oil, second, I mixed this by hand with a Fork until the bigger lumps were gone. No over mixing. These 2 changes made a world of difference !
This time it wasn’t just good. It was Very good and almost as good as a Recipe with 12 ingredients and 20 minutes to make, then bake. I will stick to this from now on. A Great Fast Chocolate cake!
We’re glad you enjoyed it!
It was so good and I loved it
We’re glad to hear that!
I love the white cake recipe and the chocolate recipe I found on line.
I rate these two recipes a 10/10.
I sure will be make more from your website
We’re so glad you’re enjoying the recipes!
Overall nice cake though it’s quite dense and definitely a lot closer to a brownie then a cake.
Hm, it should definitely be fluffier like a cake and not dense like a brownie. Did you use self-rising flour?
Was wondering if you could use heavy whipping cream?
We haven’t tried with heavy cream. It may make the cake dense
I have used free from flour and semi skimmed milk. It it worked and cake came out lovely. My son can’t eat wheat or eggs, however this is the best cake we were able make for him.
The whole family loved it & it’s a was very simple whicker recipe.
Thank you so much
We’re so glad your family loved it!
I made this. It’s okay. Good enough for only four ingredients. Weird texture the day after baking.
I followed the recipe, did 1/3 c oil and 1c whole milk. It was still powdery. I added a couple more splashes of whole milk. I hope I didn’t mess it up.
Love your revipes am going to try somethint today.Am diabetic can you do recipes fir us please. Also for us with kidney disease. Thanks
Since we are not nutritionists, we don’t label our recipes for specific health concerns – we recommend working with your healthcare provider to determine what recipes are best for your needs.
can I use oat milk as a sub for whole milk?
Oat milk should work!
finally someone that knows what they are talking about, searched the internet for a decent chocolate pudding recipe, too may eggs too much butter, horrible taste. too eggy or too buttery this is perfect thankyou.
We’re so glad you loved it!
Okay I have a question in or a few questions I should say on your white cake. I now have a question that will go for all of your cakes. How can I make these diabetic friendly? My son is a type 1 diabetic and takes insulin several times a day and sugar is a big No-No in his diet. Can I substitute a sweetener in place or what should I do as a substitute for the sugar? And like I stated in my comment for the white cake I will be making a sort of whipped cream frosting because my son does not like traditional frosting. Would it be okay to add a little of the cocoa powder to the whipped frosting to make it chocolate and also should I add a little of whatever sugar substitute you are going to tell me to that frosting as well to make it a little bit sweet? I love things on the pretty sweet side but I am trying to be very mindful of my son’s diabetes and make things that he can also have without having to ask me how much sugar is in something. I want him to be able to come over and say hey Mom can I have a piece of that cake and know that it will be okay for him to eat. I want to thank you in advance for making this happen for him. Traditional sugar-free desserts are a lot more expensive then buying regular sweetened desserts and your recipes have ingredients that I usually have on hand anyway and can make it for a big fraction of the cost of store bought sugar free desserts.
We don’t have good advice for you regarding diabetic-friendly substitutions for our recipes – we recommend that you consult with a nutritionist or health care provider so you get the best information that works for your needs.
I wonder if you will be testing this using an instapot?
We’ll keep that in mind for future recipes!
Still very awesome tip, I have only one question what about the amazing chocolate or vanilla icing to go on top I don’t see anything mentioning on how to make it. So if there are possibly any tips and recipes on record for those it would be absolutely perfect, because to me and my family we definitely enjoy having the icing on cake or it isn’t quite really cake more just a sort of sweet bread! Thank you!
We explain how to make the chocolate frosting in the recipe card at the end of the post – please see the notes section. Hope that helps!
I’ve just tried this recipe and it turned out awesome…thank you!
So glad you loved it!
I am so happy that you have these.
I have made several of your cakes and they keep getting better with each one is what my family says!! This is so easy and has such a great texture and taste. I love the ease of your cakes and your easy to follow instructions. As always looking forward to what is next. Thanks!!
Aw, this makes our day! We’re so glad you’re enjoying the recipes 🙂
Your recipes are great! This particular one is a hit in my home. Simple cakes, less ingredients but exotic feel and taste. Thanks for always sharing
We’re so glad you’re enjoying the recipes!
Can you substitute sugar?
Sorry, but we’ve only tested it with granulated sugar.
I am so happy that I found this.niw I can enjoy how to make cake for my son.
We hope he loves it!
I LOVE COOKING!
This is one of the easiest Confections I’ve ever made, and it tastes wonderful! Thanks allot! I’m adding this Lovely cake to My recipe index… Blessings
We’re so glad it’s a new favorite for you!
Thank you for this 4 ingredient recipe my son is allergic to eggs now he can enjoy a slice of cake. Would love to see more eggless and peanut free recipes
We’re so glad your son loved it!
Thank you very much for the perfect instructions and recepe. Go’s Vless you always!!!
You’re welcome! We’re so happy you love the recipe.
Hi love the recipe I’m just making this cake now and am wanting to do the ganache the one question I have is do I let cake cool before putting ganache over and putting in fridge? Thankyou!! They are looking really good so far!?
Yes I would wait for the cake to cool before adding the ganache
An easy recipe. Love your recipes.Please share some easy frosting recipes.
Love ur recipe, simple and affordable
Thanks
I’m glad you like the recipe!
Great recipes can’t wait to try them out.
We hope you enjoy them!
My cake didn’t rise properly so was very disappointing! It looks nothing like your photo. I had new baking powder and checked that my gluten-free all purpose ready made flour was well within the useable range. The oven was preheated to 350 degrees. I did take your suggestion and substituted oil for 1/3 cup of the whole milk. This was a total waste of time and money for me! What possibly could have gone wrong!?!?
You used gluten free flour which I am guessing is the problem. I have not tested this recipe with gluten free flour. It’s not always a substitute for all purpose flour.
Can’t wait to try this
We hope you like it!
A little dry. But simple to mix and quick to make. Top with 10x sugar, or pb choc icing. Or crm cheese icing. Or half a can of strawberry pie filling.
Luv it
Simple and cost less
We’re glad you enjoyed it!
Great , easy recipe.
So glad you like it!
Awesome ??
I’m glad you like it!
FYI…
This cake is called a Depression Cake.
It originated during the great depression due to supply shortages. I’ve made it a lot. My family love it.
Hi, I have made depression cake as well. It’s a similar concept but it’s not the same. Depression cake is usually made with baking soda, vinegar and oil.
Will try it
Let us know what you think!
Hi, love food healthy eating, I’m loving what I’m seeing and will love to join your blog
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This recipe seems to be easy!
I’m going to make it.(:
We hope you love it!
Think I could add chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate candy bars to this? It sounds absolutely delicious!
It could work! Let us know what you try.
Going to make this cake .Thank you for a new way to make cake
You’re welcome! We hope you love it.
Can this be made with gluten free flour? If so, what kind of flour to use?
Thank you.
We haven’t tested the recipe with gluten-free flour. Other readers have tried it with mixed results – if you do try it, be sure to use a cup4cup GF flour but we can’t say for sure if even that will work.
What is the recipe for the frosting, please?
The frosting recipe is in the recipe notes
It’s… ok, but like they mention, no oil or butter, it’s a little dryer. But ganache on top, oh, yummy!
I’m glad it worked out for you. You can add the oil if you find it a little dry.
Top notch
I’m glad you liked it!
Greetings
I’m very impressed with the simplicity of your recipes. So good1
Thank you
G
We’re happy you’re enjoying them!
I’d like recipe for your best chocolate cake and don’t care if it has many ingredients. I had one that used cocoa in the cake and frosting. It gave 3 different amounts of cocoa for the frosting depending on how dark/rich you wanted frosting. I lost recipe years ago but I think it came out of name brand cookbook. Ex. Uses Hershey’s cocoa. I would love recipe if you have it or just a damn good chocolate cake with frosting. Thanks!
You might like our Best Chocolate Cake recipe.