So a friend of mine shared this on Facebook: the Kitchn (specifically @JesseSzewczyk) tested out four famous cake recipes and compared them. I saw that one was Hershey's and initially figured that one would be Black Magic Cake. https://www.thekitchn.com/chocolate-cake-recipe-reviews-22994257

I do not know the exact history of the Black Magic Cake recipe, but it appeared in the Hershey's Cocoa Cookbook that was published in 1979. My family had a copy and Black Magic Cake has been our go-to chocolate cake recipe since the early 1980s. It's very easy and very good.

Here's the recipe for Black Magic Cake: https://www.hersheys.com/kitchens/en_us/recipes/black-magic-cake.html

The Hershey's recipe that got tested was a different chocolate cake recipe (apparently it's the one on the back of the box. Fair enough.)

The winning recipe was "Beatty's Chocolate Cake," courtesy of Ina Garten. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beattys-chocolate-cake-recipe-1947521

The differences between Beatty's Chocolate Cake and Black Magic Cake, so far as I can see:

"good cocoa" vs. "Hershey's cocoa"
"kosher salt" vs. "salt"
"buttermilk" vs "buttermilk or sour milk"
"2 extra-large eggs at room temperature" vs. "2 eggs"

Beatty's will also make you think you need a stand mixer whereas Hershey's is clear that a hand mixer is fine, and Beatty's includes a specific frosting while Hershey's leaves this up to you.

I honestly have never understood how recipe copyrights work but I am rolling my eyes really hard over the fact that Ina Garten's apparently incredibly famous most-searched chocolate cake is a Hershey's recipe from the 1970s.

It just reminds me of the article I saw a year or two back about how all these people have closely-guarded FAMILY RECIPES that are, like, the Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe or the potato salad recipe that's on the back of the mayo jar.

There also seems to be a thing that makes people feel better about making a Food Network Ina Garten recipe than a recipe from the cocoa company? And the fact that it's a somewhat fussier, less-flexible recipe.

(Like, extra-large eggs are going to be a special purchase for a lot of people. Most of us use the regular large eggs as our standby.)

Anyway. I recommend the Hershey's version of the Ina Garten version because it's not going to make you think you need a STAND MIXER to make a cake and offers various substitutions for things you might not have handy.

I'll also note that over the years I've made it with soured soy milk instead of regular (works fine!), I've made it with egg replacer (works fine!), I've forgotten the eggs entirely (not recommended, but we still had an edible cake.)

Probably the funniest still-edible screwup, we forgot either the baking soda or the baking powder or both and got brownies, basically. This is a genuinely forgiving recipe.

You can also just bake it in a 9x13 pan, leave it in the sheet pan, and frost the top, which is how my family usually makes it because it's SO EASY that way.

In my opinion, it is at its absolute best with mocha buttercream and topped with coffee ice cream.

The Kitchn buries their comments but @jakenelsonmn points out that a number of people called them out for this immediately.

Oh, another variant a friend tried: they substituted OJ for the coffee (!) because they were making it for someone who couldn't have coffee. They were very happy with the results.