Chocolate Loaf Cake
Updated Jan 11, 2026
Chocolate loaf cake made with cocoa powder, Greek yogurt, and milk, then finished with a simple chocolate glaze. Baked in a loaf pan.
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My Chocolate Loaf Cake is So Good!
I love cake, but I don’t often want to make a layer cake. These take so much time! Loaf cakes are more my speed, and this Chocolate Loaf Cake is ridiculously easy and good! It’s rich and moist, but still light (there’s actually no oil in the cake). It’s also topped with a quick, 3-ingredient chocolate glaze!
Instead of melted chocolate, I use cocoa powder to give this loaf cake its deep, chocolate flavor. I also call for instant espresso and brewed coffee in place of water, which doesn’t make the cake taste like coffee, but instead bumps up the flavor of the chocolate! While I could absolutely eat a slice as-is, topping the chocolate loaf cake with a quick chocolate glaze just makes my heart happy.
Chocolate Loaf Cake Ingredients
For The Cake
- Dry Ingredients: For this chocolate loaf cake, you’ll need all-purpose flour (feel free to sub in 1:1 gluten-free flour), granulated sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder: For a less bitter cocoa powder, look for Dutch-processed cocoa.
- Instant espresso: I love how espresso intensifies the chocolate in this cake, but you can use regular powdered instant coffee, too.
- Wet Ingredients: This batter calls for vanilla extract, milk (I prefer whole, but any type of milk will do), eggs (use room-temperature, if you can) and plain full-fat Greek yogurt (also, room temp),. You can also sub in sour cream, if you like!
- Hot water or coffee: You’ll need either hot water or coffee to help the cocoa powder ‘bloom,’ bringing out all the chocolate flavor!
For The Glaze
- Powdered sugar: Don’t sub in a different type of sugar, here. The texture of powdered sugar is important!
- Milk: I usually go for whole milk but any milk will do (even non-dairy alternatives).
- Cocoa Powder: Use the same cocoa powder you’ve added to the batter!
How to Make Chocolate Loaf Cake
Make the Glaze
Chocolate Loaf Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso optional
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- ½ cup Greek yogurt at room temperature
- ½ cup milk at room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ cup hot water or coffee
For Chocolate Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the length of a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang on each side to use as a sling to remove the cake once baked.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a separate medium bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, milk, and vanilla until smooth.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and whisk until just combined and no flour streaks remain.
- Slowly pour in the hot water, stirring consistently, to loosen the batter.
- Transfer the cake batter to your prepared loaf pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow the loaf to rest in the pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Chocolate Glaze
- While the cake is cooling, whisk together the chocolate glaze ingredients until smooth. Then drizzle on top of the chocolate loaf cake for serving.
Notes
- My Top Tip: Cool your cake completely before glazing. If you don’t, the glaze will melt right off!
- Storage: Your cake will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days! You can store it whole or slice it and place layers of parchment or wax paper in between the slices so they don’t stick together.
- Freezing: I’d recommend freezing your loaf cake without the glaze! To freeze, wrap the cake in plastic wrap then place it in a zippered freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the fridge before slicing!
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
Recipe Tips
- Line your loaf pan with parchment paper. I like to place parchment paper into a loaf pan so the sides of the paper overhang the pan. This makes it super easy to lift the chocolate loaf cake up and out!
- Don’t over-mix your batter. Over-mixing develops gluten, which can make the cake tough! You want to mix the batter until it’s just combined.
- Let your cake cool in the loaf pan. You need to let it cool in the loaf pan for at least 10 minutes, or it might crumble. It’ll likely be too soft if you try to remove it right after it comes out of the oven.
FAQs
The easiest way is to use a toothpick. Insert the toothpick into the center of the cake. If very few or no crumbs stick to the toothpick, the cake is done!
Comments
Hi Yumma! Love your recipes! I have been trying out all of the “bread” style cakes, my favourite is the date bread. I was wondering, any plans to add metric measures to the recipes? It would really be a help! Keep doing amazing work!
So glad you’ve been loving my quick bread recipes, Julia! I’m so sorry, I haven’t figured out a way to convert measurements into metric on my website yet. There are plenty of online measurement calculators that you might find helpful!
I used less sugar in my cake and used regular full-fat yogurt instead of Greek yogurt, but my cake didn’t rise. What could I have done wrong?
Hmm, I’m not sure yet but I’d love to help troubleshoot! Changing the amount of sugar can affect the recipe, how much did you end up using? As for the yogurt, using regular full-fat yogurt shouldn’t prevent it from rising. Is it possible you overmixed the batter? Overmixing can overdevelop the gluten, which causes more density in the cake.