Italian Chocolate Cake (Torta Al Cioccolato)
Updated May 09, 2025, Published Oct 27, 2021
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This soft Italian chocolate cake recipe is not too sweet and decadent, with a deep chocolate flavor. The best part? It is an easy one-bowl recipe, win-win! Enjoy it for breakfast, snack, or add whipped cream and berries and serve it for dessert.
Why This Recipe Stands Out
” This cake is so light, not too sweet, absolute heaven! I love every recipe that I make from this website so much, you can tell how much time and passion went into every single recipe. I was going to share this cake with others but ended up eating it just with my little family lol it was too good!”
– TESSA
You will also love these chocolate recipes olive oil chocolate cake, flourless chocolate cake, and chocolate lava cake!
Simple Ingredients for Chocolate Cake
- Cacao Powder – Deep, rich chocolate flavor that gives the cake its intense taste and classic Italian flair.
- Flour – Provides structure and lightness to balance the richness.
- Eggs – Help bind the ingredients and create a tender, moist crumb.
- Sugar – Just the right amount of sweetness to highlight the chocolate.
- Butter – Adds richness and a soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Yogurt – Keeps the cake extra moist and gives it a slight tang for balance.
- Bittersweet or Unsweetened Chocolate – Melted into the batter for bold, real chocolate depth.
- Baking Powder – Helps the cake rise gently and evenly. (not pictured above but very important).
- Salt – Enhances all the other flavors, especially the chocolate.
- Powdered Sugar (for dusting) – A light, elegant finish—just enough sweetness on top.
Variations and Substitutions
- No yogurt? Use sour cream or whole milk ricotta. You’ll love my chocolate chip ricotta cake.
- Gluten-free? Substitute with a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend.
- More chocolatey? Add chocolate chips or a drizzle of ganache on top.
- Less sweet? Use dark chocolate and reduce sugar slightly.
- No cacao powder? Unsweetened cocoa powder works too.
Try my orange olive oil cake or one-bowl olive oil cake.
How To Make Italian Chocolate Cake
Steps #1-#4: From the left corner to the bottom right, beat the eggs and sugar until creamy with an electric mixer. Add the melted butter (you can also use unsalted butter) and yogurt. Mix until smooth with a fork or wooden spoon. Add the melted and slightly cooled chocolate.
Steps #5-#8: From the left corner to the bottom right, mix the chocolate with the other wet ingredients. Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and cacao powder) and mix to incorporate until smooth. Place the chocolate mixture in the prepared round baking pan and bake!
Set aside to cool before serving. With a few simple steps and only one bowl, you are on your way to enjoy the most delicious Italian flourless chocolate torte cake!
My Pro Tip
Recipe Tips
- Use high-quality chocolate – It’s the star of the recipe! Choose bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate with deep flavor.
- Don’t overmix – Gently fold the ingredients to keep the cake tender and avoid a dense texture.
- Room temperature ingredients – This helps everything blend smoothly for a consistent batter.
- Check doneness with a toothpick – It should come out with moist crumbs, not wet batter.
- Let it cool before dusting – Powdered sugar will melt if the cake is too warm—wait for a picture-perfect finish.
FAQ’s
Yogurt adds moisture and fat in a cake batter, making the cake moist. A cake baked with yogurt is never dry. It’s always so soft, moist and absolutely delicious.
Another, aspect to adding yogurt in cakes is the acidity of the yogurt works with the baking powder to leaven the cake and make it extra tall and fluffy. You won’t taste the yogurt at all in the cake! It simple serves as a secret weapon to add moistness and help your cake rise!
Fat dairy products are often filled with “junk” to stabilize the texture. As long as the brand of non fat yogurt doesn’t have any fillers it will work fine. One brand I recommend is Chobani non fat yogurt as an alternative.
Absolutely! You will use the same amount of oil as the melted butter. The cake will have a different flavor, and be a little lighter in the crumb. Try olive oil for a deep and rich flavor! If you prefer to keep it neutral use a non flavor oil such as, avocado oil.
I’ve had quite a few readers ask about using gluten-free flour in this Lemon Yogurt Loaf Recipe. I’ve only made the recipe as written, but readers have reported success using either Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour or Cup4Cup gluten-free flour.
I can’t say for sure if using a gluten-free flour will work, but this is what readers have recommended!
Serve with this Chocolate pastry cream for an extra burst of chocolate! Timeless and sensational, this chocolate torte cake is simple to make and easy to love. You will run to make this one-bowl soft Italian chocolate cake whenever you get a chocolate craving!
More Italian Cake Recipes
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Italian Chocolate Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, 240 g
- 3 teaspoons baking powder, 14 g
- 3 tablespoons cacao or unsweetened cocoa powder, 21 g
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar, 200 g
- 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt , 245 g, or Greek yogurt
- ½ cup butter, 113 g, melted and cooled
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Confectioner sugar for dusting
- ½ cup bittersweet baking chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips, melted until smooth and cooled slightly
Instructions
- Line a 9.5 inch round baking pan with parchment paper, or spray with cooking spray. Preheat oven at 350 degrees F
- In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, whip the sugar and eggs until you obtain a creamy and fluffy texture. About 5-8 minutes.
- Stir in the yogurt, butter, melted chocolate and vanilla extract. Use a fork or spatula to combine until smooth (not the electric mixer)
- Sift in the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients: flour, cacao or cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir gently until well combined.
- Place the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If the cake starts to brown too much on top tent with the top with foil during the last 10 minutes of cooking.
- Cool and dust cake with confectioner sugar. If desired, serve with freshly whipped cream. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This cake is so light, not too sweet, absolute heaven! I love every recipe that I make from this website so much, you can tell how much time and passion went into every single recipe. I was going to share this cake with others but ended up eating it just with my little family lol it was too good!
So happy you love it! It is easy and delicious.
We love all three of your torte, but this one probably takes the cake, so to speak! Italians are the best at sweet but not too sweet! ๐
I am happy you loved it! It’s great for chocolate lovers!