This Hershey Bar Cake is a chocolate lover’s dream come true! With with real candy bars baked into the batter, it’s the richest, most decadent chocolate cake you’ll ever taste!
Hershey Candy Bar Cake
Today, we’re combining one of the most iconic chocolate bars of the day with another iconic dessert, Bundt Cake. I knew it was going to be a winner when I found the recipe in an old church cookbook!
With real candy bars baked right into the cake batter, this Hershey Bar Cake is the richest, most chocolate-y cake you’ll ever taste!
Speaking of church or women’s group cookbooks, I offer a huge thanks. These humble cookbooks have preserved so much of our collective cooking and baking history.
The only problem with them is the recipes are very abbreviated for modern people who weren’t raised with the common terms used in recipes.
That’s why we created Granny’s in the Kitchen. At first it was to preserve our own family recipe history. Later on, we expanded to share and most importantly explain step-by-step how to make everything.
While I’m not a test kitchen, I make every recipe at least once and up to three times to try and get it right because as I said, most of these recipes leave out some information that could be important.
This Hershey Bar Cake turned out great the first time. I used regular Hershey Bars and that gave the cake a different kind of taste than using say, cocoa powder.
Next time I make it, I want to try it with dark Hershey Bars. But our testing group of three generations all thought it tasted great as it was. Hershey Bar Cake is great on its own, with coffee, with milk, with whipped cream, or with ice-cream. It keeps well so you can enjoy it for days!
When I was growing up in a small town in the sixties and seventies, there were little shops located in many of the neighborhoods. And many of these shops had candy counters.
For example, near my grade school and junior high, we had Valley Bell. It served ice-cream but it also offered a big selection of candy. Back then, we were allowed to walk to the Valley Bell during lunch and it was always a treat to get some candy. If we didn’t go at lunch, we’d stop by after school.
As a kid, my budget limited me to inexpensive fruit-flavored hard candy. Chocolate bars were a treat reserved for Halloween. To this day, I still think of chocolate as a treat, and this is one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve ever tasted!
If you love chocolate cake too, skip the box cake mix and whip up this Hershey candy bar cake. You won’t be able to go back to regular chocolate cake again!
–Sara
Related: For another old-fashioned chocolate cake recipe, try our Chocolate Depression Cake!
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Ingredients
- 1/2 pound butter (two sticks, room temperature)
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 8 Hershey’s milk chocolate bars
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ cups sifted cake flour
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup chopped nuts (optional)
Helpful Kitchen Tools
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Microwave Safe Bowl
- Stand Mixer or Electric Mixer
- Bundt Cake Pan
Instructions
To Prep: Preheat oven to 325°F and grease a Bundt pan.
- Unwrap the Hershey chocolate bars, break them into smaller pieces, and place them in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Continue heating in 20 second intervals, stirring between, until melted and smooth.
- In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed. Add eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla, water, salt, and melted chocolate and mix.
- In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda and buttermilk. Alternate adding the buttermilk mixture and the sifted flour to your cake batter. At this point the batter will be thick and fluffy and light brown.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 325°F for 1 HOUR and 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cake cool in pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto your serving platter. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the top of the cake.
Prep Tips
- Chocolate – When we made this recipe we used the original Hershey’s chocolate bars and the cake turns out a light brown color. You could also use dark chocolate bars for a deeper flavor and cake color.
- Nuts – This is a great recipe to add nuts if you like them! Chopped pecans or walnuts would be perfect, perhaps about 1/2 cup to 1 cup, depending on your preference. If adding nuts, fold them into the batter just before you scoop into your bundt pan to bake.
- Variations – The original recipe calls for a sprinkle of powdered sugar for garnish. However, chocolate frosting or cream cheese frosting would be a fabulous addition!
- Storage – This cake keeps well in an airtight container or cake container, at room temperature. You can also freeze the cake for 2-3 months, in a freezer bag.
More Bundt Cake Recipes to Try:
Hershey Bar Cake Recipe (Printable Recipe Card)
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Hershey Bar Cake
Equipment
- large mixing bowl
- Stand or hand mixer A stand mixer worked great for this!
- bundt pan
- Microwave safe bowl
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound butter room temperature, 2 sticks
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 TB water
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 Hershey bars
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour sifted
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts Optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F and grease a bundt pan.
- Unwrap the Hershey bars, break into smaller pieces, and place in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Continue heating in 20-second intervals, stirring between, until melted and smooth.
- In a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.
- Add eggs one at a time. To avoid eggshells in your batter, break them into a small bowl first.
- Mix in the vanilla extract, salt, water, and melted chocolate.
- In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda and buttermilk.
- Alternate adding the flour and buttermilk mixture to the cake batter. At this point the batter will be thick and fluffy and light brown.
- Fold in nuts if using. (Optional)
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake at 325°F for 1 hour and 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto your serving platter.
- Sprinkle powdered sugar over the top.
Notes
Nutrition
Pin our Hershey Chocolate Bar Cake on Pinterest:
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I used to make this cake back in the early 70s. My recipe calls for one 5 cent Hershey bar. Now you’re recipe calls for eight Hershey bar but neither one of them say how many ounces how many ounces is in this cake?
We used the standard Hershey chocolate bar that you’d find in the supermarket checkout – I believe they are each 1.55oz
Would this recipe work in smaller individual cake pans say for a bake sale or farmers market? Like the little rectangular shaped ones that everyone is so crazy about? This recipe looks amazing and I can’t wait to try it! I’m a home baker and aspiring entrepreneur!
I think it could work in smaller pans, but since I haven’t personally tried it, I don’t have specific baking times to recommend. If you do try, let me know how it goes!
Where is the water added? I’ve checked the recipe multiple times and can’t find directions for that one ingredient. The batter is underway so I’ll play it by ear this time but if you have any hints . . .
Even the original didn’t say where to add it (which is why I missed it here)–so add it along with the Hershey’s chocolate, vanilla, and salt. Thanks for letting us know! Sara
So, we are looking at about 12.5 oz of chocolate? (8-1.55oz bars …. My family purchased me a 3 pound bar of chocolate for Christmas and I’m trying to figure out what to do with it!!)
That should work! As far as I can tell from looking online, the ingredients are the same. Sara