This fudgy mocha cake is possibly the best mocha cake I’ve made – it’s moist, fudgy, and so easy to make! It’s been my go-to chocolate cake / mocha cake recipe for years (like 5+ years).

This fudgy mocha cake uses pantry staples like ap flour, coconut sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and oil to make a cake that feels anything but standard. The crumb of this cake is super moist and soft, and tastes even better the next day.

Plus, (like the majority of my dessert recipes) this cake is refined sugar-free and dairy-free. Although you can easily swap in cane sugar or dairy ingredients.

Ingredients + Notes

Mocha Cake Ingredients

  • All-purpose flour: Bob’s Red Mill is my go-to for AP flour. King Arthur is also another great option.
  • Coconut sugar or cane sugar
  • Cocoa powder: Unlike regular cocoa, dutch process cocoa is alkalized to give it a smooth, less acidic flavor, and a deeper, richer, chocolate color.
  • Large eggs
  • Milk or non-dairy milk: Used my house blend milk to keep this cake dairy-free.
  • Avocado oil
  • Freshly brewed coffee: 
  • Espresso powder:
  • Ground vanilla or vanilla paste: For deep vanilla flavor, you NEED ground vanilla or vanilla paste. Both ground vanilla and vanilla paste work equally well – it’s just a matter of preference. I love the ground vanilla from Beyond Good, and Rodelle makes an amazing vanilla paste.
  • Baking powder and baking soda
  • Diamond Crystal kosher salt

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Buttercream Ingredients

I’ve left two versions of this buttercream in the recipe card below – one version is a classic cream cheese buttercream and is sweetened with powdered sugar, the other version is refined sugar-free and uses honey as a sweetener. Both taste super similar, just make the one you prefer.

  • Salted butter or vegan salted butter: Most recipes always specify unsalted butter; however, I love baking with salted butter because salt equals more flavor.
  • Cream cheese or vegan cream cheese: For all my dairy-free gals, Kite Hill plain cream cheese is my go-to.
  • Powdered sugar or honey: Depending on whether you want to make this refined sugar-free or not, I’ve left two cream cheese frosting recipes below. Both taste equally great, just a matter of preference.
  • Vanilla paste or ground vanilla

My Strategy For This Cake

This vanilla bean cake is super easy to whip up – however I typically bake this over two days. Leaving an outline of what I do!

  • Day one: Bake off the cake – the crumb of this cake continues to develop as it cools overnight – it gets even more moist and fudgy the following day, which is why I like to bake the cake a day ahead. Store the cake on the plate you’ll be serving the cake, wrapped in plastic wrap, in the fridge.
  • Day two: The following morning, take the butter and cream cheese out of the fridge for the frosting. Depending on how cool your house is, you may need to let the butter soften overnight. Your butter should be soft, but not greasy looking, otherwise your frosting will look split/curdled. About 1 to 1 1/2 hours before you want to serve the cake, make the frosting, frost and assemble the cake, and chill the cake until you’re ready to serve. I like to give myself time to make the frosting (chill the frosting if necessary if it’s loose). 

Cake Pan & Serving Suggestions

Depending on how many folks you’re serving, you can either follow the recipe as stated or you can double the recipe to serve more. 

  • To serve 4-5 people, use an 8” cake pan: This cake pan from USA Pans is my go-to. Light aluminized steel is the best material for baking with – it conducts heat so well. Really dark metal pans tend to create really dark edges, and glass is a hard no in my books (it doesn’t conduct heat well).
  • To serve 10 people, double the recipe and use a 9”x9” square cake pan: This is the square cake pan from USA Pans that I swear by – the sides are perfectly straight so you get super clean edges.

Want to Make this Without Caffeine? 

Simply omit the espresso powder and swap the hot coffee for hot water instead. Obviously without the coffee and espresso powder, this cake will no longer be a mocha cake. But what it will be is a moist,  fudgy chocolate cake that tastes equally good! 

And that’s all for this mocha cake – it’s a super straightforward recipe! Don’t forget to leave a starred rating and review, love hearing from you!

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Fudgy Mocha Cake

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 4 reviews
  • Author: Yasmeen Ali
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 8” cake – serves 4-5 people 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: American
Print Recipe

Description

This fudgy mocha cake with cream cheese frosting is possibly the best mocha cake I’ve made – it’s moist, fudgy, and so easy to make!

Ingredients

Scale

Mocha Cake

  • 110g all-purpose flour
  • 200g cane sugar or coconut sugar
  • 30g cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp espresso powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 132g milk or non-dairy milk (I used my house blend milk)
  • 50g avocado oil
  • 1 large egg (~50g)
  • 1/2 tsp ground vanilla or vanilla paste
  • 115g freshly brewed coffee (or double shot espresso w/ hot water)

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Buttercream  (w/ honey)

  • 4 oz or 115g salted butter or vegan butter, softened
  • 8 oz or 227g cream cheese or vegan cream cheese
  • 68g (3 tbsp) honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste or ground vanilla

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Buttercream (w/ powdered sugar)

  • 4 oz or 115g salted butter or vegan salted butter, softened 
  • 8 oz or 227g cream cheese or vegan cream cheese
  • 125g (1 cup) sifted powdered sugar
  • 3–4 tbsp heavy cream or non-dairy milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste or ground vanilla

Instructions

Mocha Cake

  1. Prep. Preheat the oven to 350°F, grease an 8” cake pan with butter or avocado oil, and line with a parchment paper round.
  2. Sift the flour mixture. Add the flour and sugar to a medium bowl, and sift in the cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder, and kosher salt. Whisk together to combine and set aside. 
  3. Whisk together the liquid ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, avocado oil, eggs, and vanilla. 
  4. Brew your coffee or pull an espresso shot. If you have a drip coffee machine, use that to brew the hot coffee. Alternatively, you can pull an espresso shot (I pulled a double shot which was around 50g) and mix the shot with enough hot water to reach 115g total. 
  5. Whisk the batter together. Alternate whisking in the flour mixture and coffee/espresso into the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the flour. Whisk well until there aren’t any flour steaks and the batter is fully combined – it’ll look runny, this is totally normal!
  6. Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few moist crumbs. Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then turn it out onto the plate you’re going to serve the cake on – make sure to wrap the cake in plastic wrap – and chill in the fridge overnight. NOTE: I basically stand next to the oven for the last 5 minutes of the bake time because cakes tend to bake so fast in the last few minutes. And no one likes an overbaked cake. If your oven runs hot, start checking the cake around the 30 minute mark.

Cream Cheese Frosting

  1. Remove the cake from the fridge to let it come to room temp while you make the frosting.
  2. To the bowl of a stand mixer, add the cream cheese and butter. Using the paddle attachment, whip together until fully incorporated, about 4-5 minutes. This incorporates air into the butter and cream cheese, essentially creating a whipped butter-cream cheese.
  3. Add in the honey (or powdered sugar and cream), and vanilla bean. Whisk together until light and fluffy – about 3-4 minutes. Taste and adjust sweetener if needed. In total, you’ll whip the buttercream for about 8-10 minutes to create a fluffy, aerated buttercream! NOTE: If your frosting is loose, let it firm up in the fridge for 20-30 minutes before frosting the cake.

Assemble 

  1. Plop the frosting in the center of the cake, and using an offset spatula, smooth the frosting out so it’s in an even layer. Then, leaving about a 1” border, smooth the center so it’s completely flat. Dust cocoa powder over the smooth center of the cake. 
  2. Serve immediately or chill the cake in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

Did you make this recipe?

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