There’s a moment, if you ask anyone who cooks, when it all begins. In most cases, it starts at home. Sometimes because, after decades of watching Mom or Dad in the kitchen, we connect to their love of food. And for others, it’s the opposite — the quiet absence of the aromas of a homemade meal makes them crave the ability to create that on their own.
Either way, family has a way of shaping how we cook, even when we don’t quite notice it.
I’m telling you this because this cake started in someone else’s kitchen, not mine.
A few weeks ago, chef Omer Miller shared a photo of a chocolate cake. One that’s soft and familiar, the kind that carries memories. A cake you slice with an ordinary kitchen knife, without worrying if the edges are straight or the glaze is perfectly smooth. In other words, exactly the kind of cake I love.
And just to make things harder for me, he added that it’s the best chocolate cake in the world.
I won’t go into how much I insisted on getting the recipe — but I will say that eventually, it made its way to me (have I mentioned how stubborn I can be when I want something?).
This is, at its heart, the simplest kind of cake — mix and bake — made by Omer’s mother (thank you, Edna!), and a recipe that’s been circulating for years. After baking it, I found myself deep in comment threads about where it first came from (many point to Karin Goren). So I can’t say who invented it — only that thanks to Edna, I made it three times this week.
Why three? Because the original recipe uses a full cup of sugar and a full cup of oil, which felt like a lot for a cake this size. The first time, I followed it exactly. The second time, I reduced both to 3/4 cup. The third time, I tried 1/2 cup.
The conclusion? It technically works with 1/2 cup sugar — but it’s much less delicious. (And 1/2 cup oil doesn’t work at all.) On the other hand, a full cup feels like too much, especially with the ganache on top. So I’m sharing the slightly reduced version here — the one that, to me, comes out just right.
One more small change: I swapped the dark chocolate in the glaze for milk chocolate. Since the sugar in the cake is reduced, the additional sweetness of milk chocolate really complements it.
And one last thing — it’s wonderful warm. 10–20 seconds and serve it with vanilla ice cream.
