Mexican Chocolate Cake is the recipe that Teresa makes every Cinco de Mayo when she wants something on the celebration table that is simultaneously as deeply and richly chocolate as any chocolate cake she has ever made and as completely and unmistakably Mexican in its warm cinnamon and gentle cayenne spicing as any dessert she has ever presented at a fiesta.
The recipe is based on the old Depression-era concept of a wacky cake that requires no eggs and no butter and no milk and yet produces the most completely extraordinary and deeply moist chocolate cake imaginable through the chemical magic of vinegar reacting with baking soda. She whisks all the dry ingredients together in a single bowl, adds all the wet ingredients at once, beats until smooth, and pours into two six-inch pans for the most dramatically small and elegantly proportioned chocolate cinnamon cake.
Mexican Chocolate Cake is the most easy and completely festive Cinco de Mayo celebration cake made in a single bowl without eggs or butter using Dutch process cocoa flour sugar cinnamon and cayenne with water oil vinegar and vanilla baked in six-inch pans and frosted with an extraordinary espresso buttercream and chocolate ganache drip for the most deeply spiced and completely magnificent Cinco de Mayo chocolate cake. Come follow us on Pinterest where we share beautiful Cinco de Mayo cake recipes and easy Mexican celebration baking favorites from our kitchen every single week.
Table of Contents
Why You Will Love This Mexican Chocolate Cake Recipe
This Mexican Chocolate Cake recipe is the Cinco de Mayo celebration bake that makes every person at the fiesta genuinely and completely surprised by the most sophisticated and deeply complex combination of chocolate, cinnamon, cayenne, and espresso in a single cake that is simultaneously the most beautifully decorated and the most completely easy to prepare because the one-bowl no-eggs-no-butter preparation requires zero special ingredients or special equipment beyond a whisk and a bowl.
The cinnamon and cayenne are the ingredients that transform this from a conventional chocolate cake into something genuinely and authentically Mexican in character. Ground cinnamon brings the warm and fragrant sweetness that is most characteristic of Mexican hot chocolate and Mexican chocolate desserts. The cayenne provides the most gentle and completely pleasant warming heat that builds gradually at the back of the throat in exactly the way that makes traditional Mexican hot chocolate so completely distinctive and so deeply memorable at every Cinco de Mayo gathering. Our Mexican Hot Chocolate Poke Cake makes a beautifully equally spiced and equally Cinco de Mayo-festive companion for a complete and vibrant Mexican celebration dessert table.
Ingredients Needed for This Mexican Chocolate Cake Recipe
For the One-Bowl Cake Layers:
- 1½ cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- ½ cup Unsweetened Dutch Process Cocoa Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Ground Cinnamon
- ¼ tsp Cayenne Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1 cup Water (or black coffee for deeper flavor)
- ¼ cup Canola Oil
- 1 tbsp White Vinegar
- 1 tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract
For the Espresso Buttercream Frosting:
- 1½ cups Unsalted Butter
- 2 cups Confectioners Sugar
- 4 tsp Espresso Powder dissolved in 1 to 2 tbsp water
- 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
- ⅓ cup Heavy Cream
For the Chocolate Ganache Drip:
- ½ cup Chocolate Chips
- ⅓ cup Heavy Cream
How to Make This Mexican Chocolate Cake Recipe
Grease two 6-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, sift or whisk together the all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, Dutch process cocoa powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, cayenne, and salt. Ensure there are no clumps of cocoa powder remaining as clumps produce uneven flavor and texture in the finished cake.
Add the water or black coffee, canola oil, white vinegar, and vanilla extract directly to the dry ingredient bowl. Using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the batter until all ingredients are completely incorporated and the batter is smooth. The vinegar reacting with the baking soda is what gives this eggless and butterless Cinco de Mayo cake its most beautiful rise, cara mia.
Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared 6-inch cake pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out completely clean. Cool the cakes in the pans for 5 minutes then release onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
For the espresso buttercream, cream the butter until light and fluffy using a paddle attachment. Add a pinch of salt and gradually add the confectioners sugar while mixing. Dissolve the espresso powder in one to two tablespoons of water and add to the mixture along with the vanilla extract. Mix until combined. Adjust consistency with more sugar or a splash of cream as needed.
For the chocolate ganache drip, heat the heavy cream just to boiling. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips in a small bowl and stir gently until completely smooth. Allow to cool slightly before using.
Frost the completely cooled cake layers with the espresso buttercream. Pour the slightly cooled ganache over the top of the frosted cake and allow it to drip naturally down the sides for the most dramatic and beautiful Cinco de Mayo cake presentation.
How to Serve This Mexican Chocolate Cake Recipe
Present this beautifully decorated six-inch Mexican chocolate cake on a marble or wooden cake stand for the most dramatic and completely festive Cinco de Mayo dessert table centerpiece. The dark ganache drip against the pale espresso buttercream with the small intimate six-inch format is genuinely one of the most striking and completely professional-looking Cinco de Mayo cake presentations imaginable.
Slice into 10 generous portions. Each slice reveals the most beautifully even and darkly chocolate cake crumb, which is genuinely extraordinary for a cake made without eggs or butter. Our Churro Cupcakes make a beautifully equally festive and equally Cinco de Mayo-appropriate companion for a complete and vibrant Mexican fiesta dessert table.
How to Store This Mexican Chocolate Cake Recipe
Store unfrosted cake layers sealed in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days or freeze for up to 1 month. Frosted cake stores in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days or frozen for up to 2 weeks. Remove from the refrigerator 20 to 30 minutes before serving for the most pleasant frosting texture.
Tips to Make This Mexican Chocolate Cake Recipe
Sift the cocoa powder with the dry ingredients very carefully to eliminate every lump. Cocoa powder is the most prone to lumping of all dry baking ingredients and any remaining lumps in the batter will create pockets of uneven flavor and color in the finished cake crumb.
Use black coffee in place of the water for the most deeply enhanced and concentrated chocolate flavor. Coffee amplifies cocoa flavor dramatically without adding any perceptible coffee taste to the finished cake. For Cinco de Mayo, this substitution produces the most dramatically rich and sophisticated Mexican chocolate cake imaginable.
Helpful Notes for This Mexican Chocolate Cake Recipe
Adjust the cayenne quantity freely to suit the heat preference of your Cinco de Mayo guests. A quarter teaspoon produces a very mild warmth that most people do not identify consciously as spice. Half a teaspoon produces a more noticeable warming effect. More produces a genuinely spicy cake. Always start with less and adjust upward in subsequent batches.
If six-inch cake pans are not available, the full recipe batter fits into a single 8-inch round pan. For two 8-inch layers double the recipe entirely.
Variation of This Mexican Chocolate Cake Recipe
Maria made a version replacing half of the Dutch process cocoa powder with black cocoa powder for the most dramatically dark and deeply complex chocolate flavor and the most striking and beautiful deep black color in the finished cake crumb that was completely extraordinary at her Cinco de Mayo celebration. Teresa tried adding three teaspoons of ground cinnamon to a simple vanilla buttercream rather than using the espresso frosting for a Mexican chocolate cinnamon-frosted version that was deeply festive and beautifully warm-scented.
For a Mexican chocolate cream cheese version perfect for Cinco de Mayo, replace the espresso buttercream with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting made by beating cream cheese and butter with powdered sugar and two teaspoons of cinnamon for the most completely festive and deeply churro-adjacent Mexican chocolate cake experience. Our Mexican Churro Cake makes a beautifully cinnamon-forward and equally Cinco de Mayo-festive companion for a complete and wonderful Mexican celebration dessert table.
FAQs About This Mexican Chocolate Cake Recipe
What makes this a Mexican chocolate cake versus a regular chocolate cake?
The addition of ground cinnamon and cayenne pepper to the cocoa-based batter gives this cake the most characteristic spiced and warming flavor profile of traditional Mexican chocolate, which is defined by its combination of chocolate, cinnamon, and gentle heat. These two spices together produce a flavor that is unmistakably and authentically Mexican and completely different from a plain chocolate cake.
Why does this cake have no eggs or butter?
This recipe is based on the Depression-era wacky or crazy cake technique that uses the chemical reaction between white vinegar and baking soda as its leavening mechanism rather than eggs and butter. The vinegar reacts with the alkaline baking soda to produce carbon dioxide bubbles that make the cake rise beautifully. The oil provides the moisture that butter would typically contribute.
Can I make this Mexican chocolate cake as cupcakes for Cinco de Mayo?
Yes. The batter can be divided into a lined cupcake tin and baked at 350°F for approximately 18 to 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Top with the espresso buttercream and a drizzle of ganache for the most individually gorgeous and completely festive Cinco de Mayo Mexican chocolate cupcakes.
Conclusion
This Mexican Chocolate Cake is the most completely extraordinary and deeply spiced Cinco de Mayo celebration cake that makes every fiesta feel genuinely and completely special through the most authentic Mexican chocolate cinnamon and cayenne flavor combination in the most beautiful ganache-draped and espresso-frosted individually scaled six-inch cake imaginable. We hope it brings the same deeply festive Cinco de Mayo warmth and the same completely delighted gathering to your kitchen that it has always brought to ours. Make it, share it, and come back to tell us all about it. With all our love, Maria, Lucia, and Teresa.
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Mexican Chocolate Cake The Most Easy Cinco de Mayo Spiced One Bowl Chocolate Cake You Will Bake
- Total Time: 50 minutes plus cooling
- Yield: 10 servings 1x
Description
The most easy and festive Mexican Chocolate Cake perfect for Cinco de Mayo made in a single bowl without eggs or butter by whisking Dutch process cocoa flour sugar cinnamon cayenne baking soda and salt then adding water oil vinegar and vanilla beaten smooth and baked in two 6-inch pans at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes frosted with a silky espresso buttercream and finished with a chocolate ganache drip. A completely extraordinary Cinco de Mayo spiced chocolate cake recipe.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup Unsweetened Dutch Process Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Cayenne Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cup Water or black coffee
1/4 cup Canola Oil
1 tbsp White Vinegar
1 tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 cups Unsalted Butter for frosting
2 cups Confectioners Sugar
4 tsp Espresso Powder dissolved in 1 to 2 tbsp water
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract for frosting
1/3 cup Heavy Cream for frosting
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips for ganache
1/3 cup Heavy Cream for ganache
Instructions
1. Grease two 6-inch round pans. Line bottoms with parchment. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Sift or whisk flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, cayenne, and salt in large bowl. No cocoa lumps.
3. Add water or coffee, oil, vinegar, and vanilla directly to dry ingredients.
4. Mix with paddle attachment until smooth.
5. Divide evenly between two prepared pans.
6. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until toothpick clean.
7. Cool in pans 5 minutes. Release onto rack. Cool completely.
8. For frosting: cream butter until fluffy. Add pinch salt. Gradually add sugar while mixing.
9. Dissolve espresso powder in 1 to 2 tbsp water. Add to butter with vanilla. Mix until combined.
10. For ganache: heat cream to just boiling. Pour over chocolate chips. Stir until smooth. Cool slightly.
11. Frost cooled cake layers with espresso buttercream.
12. Pour slightly cooled ganache over top and allow to drip down sides.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dessert, Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Mexican American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 631
- Sugar: 47g
- Sodium: 62mg
- Fat: 40g
- Saturated Fat: 21g
- Unsaturated Fat: 16g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 67g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 4g
- Cholesterol: 82mg
Keywords: Mexican chocolate cake, Cinco de Mayo Mexican chocolate cake recipe, easy one bowl Mexican chocolate cake cinnamon cayenne, spiced chocolate cake Cinco de Mayo
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