Here is the best French chocolate cake recipe in the world! This is what the renowned pastry chef Pierre Hermé said when he first tasted this chocolate cake recipe created by his good friend and cookbook author Suzy Palatin. This chocolate cake (“gâteau au chocolat” in French) also goes by the name “Suzy’s cake” in a nod to the driving inspiration behind the original recipe. It’s really one of the best French chocolate cake recipes ever! And it’s basically my go-to chocolate cake for any occasion.
This recipe is very easy to do: you don’t need many kitchen tools, it has only five ingredients (chocolate, butter, sugar, flour, and eggs), and it’s very easy to remember. In the end, you should get a dense, fudgy chocolate cake, moist in texture and topped with a thin crispy crust. You can serve it with a simple dusting of powdered sugar or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Tips For Making The Best French Chocolate Cake
- Use high-quality dark chocolate with a cocoa content between 60% and 70%. In France, we use a “chocolat pâtissier” for this kind of recipe.
- In the original recipe, Suzy uses unsalted butter, but if you prefer you can use salted butter as well.
- Also, you can use a mixture of different types of sugar: 1/3 white, 1/3 cassonade, and 1/3 muscovado sugar.
- Make sure you follow the order in which the ingredients are added, otherwise you will not get the same cake.
- This cake is a “mi-cuit”, a fudgy almost lava cake. So the cake is still a bit delicate when removed from the oven. Make sure to let the cake cool down to room temperature before inverting the cake out onto a serving plate.
- Note that the proportions work for a 24/25 cm cake pan. Prefer a silicone pan in order to facilitate the removal of the cake after baking.
Suzy Palatin’s French Chocolate Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 250 g 70% or 60% cacao dark chocolate
- 250 g butter (salted or unsalted)
- 250 g sugar
- 70 g flour
- 4 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/392°F.
- Break the chocolate into smaller pieces and melt it in a double-boiler (you can use the microwave as well). Add the butter cut into pieces and mix well with a whisk to obtain a smooth texture. Pour the mixture into a bowl.
- Add the sugar and mix well. Add the flour, and mix again vigorously, to avoid lumps. Crack the eggs into another bowl and beat them into an omelet. Add them to the chocolate mixture and mix well. You should have a thick, smooth, satiny batter.
- Pour the batter into a 24/25 cm diameter cake tin (ideally in silicone), buttered and floured beforehand.
- Lower the thermostat to 150°C/302°F. Bake for 30 mins.
- Leave to cool for 10 minutes and unmold. You should obtain a cake with a light crust and a soft, melting and creamy center.
Et voilà! I hope you enjoyed this French chocolate cake recipe. If you make this recipe, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating, letting me know how you liked it. Merci beaucoup and bon appétit!
Can you make this cake ahead of time and if you do, how do you store it and do you reheat it? If it’s best served fresh, can you have all the ingredients mixed but not put it in the oven until you’re ready to bake it? How long should it sit after baking?
Bonjour Karen! The best approach is to bake the cake fresh. Since the center is molten, I’d recommend enjoying it within 2-3 days of baking. Be sure to store it in the fridge to keep it fresh. You can enjoy it cold, at room temperature, or warm—just reheat it a bit before serving if you prefer. It’s delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a berry coulis, or crème anglaise. Bon appétit :)!
This is the best chocolate cake I ever ate. I followed exactly your recipe. And for me the 30 minutes baking time are just perfect. Leaving it with a light crust and a creamy center. I live in Austria. Merci beaucoup! ☺️
Thank you Marina for your kind words! I’m very happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe 🙂 xo
This smells so good- is just past 30minutes and very liquid like in the centre so it’s going against my better judgment to take it out. Another 10 mins and then I will. It’s a birthday 50th for a school crush so…. Guess I’ll have to come back and let you know 😉
I’ve just taken it out of the oven and it looks lovely but I’m definitely nervous. I’m in the US and while I have a scale that can weigh in grams so measurements weren’t a problem, US oven temps go in increments of 5 so I could not use the exact temp the recipe called for. At 30 minutes it was most definitely not done so I baked it longer and I hope the center is not over baked when I cut into it. If you can offer any conversion tips for US bakers, it would be much appreciated.
Oh man, I totally messed up this cake, but it’s still one of the best cakes I’ve ever had (my son and husband were also big fans)! I’m super excited to make it again the right way. In case you’re curious: I halved the recipe and accidentally cooked it at 180 C. Ended up with a very molten cakeBut it was yummy!
Bonjour Erika, thank you very much for your nice feedback! I’m glad to hear that you and your family loved this French chocolate cake recipe! Thank you for having shared your experience 🙂
Thank you so much for the recipe. I made this cake tonight for pudding, what an amazing cake. Absolutely delicious. Same as Liz I did have to cook it for a bit longer (thanks for stating that Liz – I think about 40-45 minutes for me). I will definitely be making it again as it went down really well.
Thank you so very much for your kind feedback, I’m glad to hear that you loved this recipe <3 This cake is supposed to be a “mi-cuit”, a kind of fudgy almost lava cake. That is why it can look not fully baked after 150°C/302°F for 30 mins. Either you can decide to let it bake a little bit longer (as you did) or if you prefer the cake to have a melting center, after 30 mins baking, you can also leave it to cool for 1 to 2 hours in the fridge.
You didn’t state which type of flour is used. Plain or self raising? I’ve guessed at plain but this really needs to be stated.
Also, what is cassonade and muscovado. It would be helpful to detail what this is and what an equivalent might be? I used caster sugar and it mixed up gritty.. but cooked ok. Is this what it is meant to be like?
Lastly, the picture shows the cake baked in paper but your recipe doesn’t state this. Please clarify.
Nice cake.. recipe needs more detail though.
Bonjour Jenny, thank you very much for your feedback! I’m sorry the recipe is missing some information! Yes, the flour used for this recipe is plain (we never really use self-raising flour in France). Cassonade sugar is raw unrefined sugar with rum and vanilla aromas while muscovado sugar is unrefined brown sugar with a strong flavor of molasses. As stated in this recipe, the mix of the 3 sugars is optional, you can use white sugar only if you’re not able to find cassonade and muscovado sugar. The picture is only for illustration purposes, but you can bake the cake on paper if you need to, depending on the type of mold you’re using 🙂
My daughter and I made this the other day – it is, without a doubt, one of the best cakes I’ve ever eaten! It’s so simple, yet so delicious. I did have to let it bake a little longer (I think about 10 extra minutes), but we will definitely make this one again!
Thank you very much Liz for your comment! I’m super happy to hear you enjoyed this French chocolate cake recipe xo
Thanks ….I read the recipe a 100 times to check idbi did something wrong…it’s past the 30 mins now and it’s not set yet.