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Watch This No-Measure Chocolate Cake Come to Life

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January 12, 2018
2 Comments

Grant Melton is no stranger to our site, and for good reason. His recipes run the gamut from cheese balls to rosé chicken. But of all his contributions, one remains eternally popular: his No-Measure Chocolate Cake. The recipe was posted towards the end of 2017, and in its short time on the site, has accrued multitudes of fans. The secret to its success: Melton’s cake recipe eschews traditional forms of measurement, opting instead for a 7 oz. Greek yogurt container as the only tool. Don’t believe me? Watch the recipe video below to see for yourself.

I talked to Melton about his winning recipe and how he first developed the idea. Here's what he had to say:

I came up with the No-Measure Cake idea when I purchased an individual serving size container of yogurt to make a cake and thought it would be fun to to create a recipe that used the whole container, instead of just a small amount. I noticed the small container was about the same size as a 1 cup measurement and wondered if maybe I could use the empty yogurt cup to measure all of the ingredients. I did a little research and found Nigella's Yogurt-Pot Cake, inspired by Italian yogurt pot cakes. Finding Nigella's recipe was a giant confidence boost to create my own! My version uses self-rising flour so that you don't have to use any baking powder or soda (or dirty any teaspoons!). And I used some cocoa powder to take the cake in a chocolaty direction. I love that recipe because it's the definition of foolproof. It can turn even the most challenged cooks into a star baker. It really is baking at it's laziest and result couldn't be more delicious.

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However you got us here, Grant, we're definitely thankful. Check out the recipe for his winner of a cake:

No-Measure Chocolate Cake (Make Cake without Weighing Scales)

No-Measure Chocolate Cake (Make Cake without Weighing Scales)

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Ingredients

Have you tried Grant's cake? If so, tell us how it went in the comments below.

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Valerio Farris

Written by: Valerio Farris

Valerio is a freelance food writer, editor, researcher and cook. He grew up in his parent's Italian restaurants covered in pizza flour and drinking a Shirley Temple a day. Since, he's worked as a cheesemonger in New York City and a paella instructor in Barcelona. He now lives in Berlin, Germany where he's most likely to be found eating shawarma.

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2 Comments

Bec L.
Bec L. February 1, 2019
Lovely, but not especially original? This is a common recipe for French children learning baking, noted in the hugely popular French Children Don’t Throw Food book, and found in many other places. It’s also similar to the weighed-egg method of the quatre-quarts cake (perverted into measured pound cakes elsewhere). Good rediscovery for Grant - recipes that don’t need measurements are always winners at my place.
 
Ursula -.
Ursula -. January 13, 2018
When growing up, there was a recipe handed around (in the late 90ies) called 'sour cream container cake' aka 'becherkuchen' in German. It used the same method and it was absolutely delicious. Thanks for the reminder. I have to look for that slip of paper where a friend wrote down the recipe for me ;-)