[Finding the Best Chocolate Cake Recipe (Part 2)]

The following pretty much constitutes a brain dump, so please forgive the length of this post. I took a lot of notes while baking, finishing and tasting these cakes and just wanted to make sure I didn’t leave too much out. And if anyone makes me taste another bite of chocolate cake in the next three days, I think I shall have them beheaded.

Some of you might find it interesting to look at the following chart I prepared the other morning to compare the two recipes. If anyone wants to check my figures, please feel free to do so…I wasn’t fully caffeinated at the time I put it together. This is based upon the reduced baking soda version I made for the Double Chocolate cake. As you can see, there are some really interesting differences between these two cakes.

As well, I thought it would be helpful for you to see a picture of the two cakes side-by-side. That’s the CI cake on the right, and the Double Chocolate cake on the left. No artistic photography here like Patrick’s…did these flat on purpose so you could properly see the differences. (Sorry for the quality of the photo…I have a very old, very crappy digital camera.) Also, I tried to do a very light layer of ganache so the cakes flavors were not masked. (Just try asking my husband to eat a cake without a bite of frosting…)

Let me start by giving just a little bit of background about the baking of these two cakes. As noted in my earlier post, with the CI cake I baked an 8” round and a 4” round. The batter depth of the 8” round was 1” and 1.5” in the 4” round. The 8” round rose almost all the way up the 3” pan and the 4” round rose the full height of the 3” pan. There was absolutely no doming on either cake. All in all, the CI cakes rose beautifully. With the Double Chocolate (which I made first) I made 8”, 4” and 3” rounds. The batter depth was 1” in the 8” round and 1.5” in the 3” and 4” rounds. The cake rose to the full height in the 3” and 4” rounds, but I had significant doming in the 8” round and some doming in the other two. (I forgot my Magic Strips on the 8”, and then decided for comparison sake not to use them on the CI cake), It’s difficult to say exactly how high the 8” cake rose because of the doming. If it hadn’t domed, I would venture to say it probably would have been 2/3 up the pan.

Last night as I was finishing the cakes, the first thing I immediately noticed was the CI cake had a reddish cast from the natural cocoa powder the Double Chocolate cake did not. It kind of surprised me given how much more chocolate to cocoa powder there is in the CI cake relative to the Double Chocolate cake. Yes, there is more cocoa powder in the CI cake on a percentage basis, but not on a baker’s percentage basis. If anything, I would have expected exactly the opposite. If anyone has a theory, I’d be interested to hear it.

With regard to taste, having made both batters the same day I did come into this cake tasting with something of a preconceived idea of which cake I thought would have more chocolate flavor. The Double Chocolate batter was definitely much more intense and chocolately satisfying straight out of the bowl than the CI batter. (It was also darker…not a valid measure I know, but visual queues are always something we tend to notice anyway.) And, to some extent my expectations did match my taste experience, but not quite in the way I thought they would. The Double Chocolate cake comes on strong from the moment you bite into it. And it stays strong with a long finish. The CI cake is much more subtle. It starts a little softer then builds in flavor and then finishes more softly. And I think it’s mostly the coffee in the Double Chocolate cake recipe that is giving that flavor, for if you look at the chart, you’ll see that the amount of chocolate (in combo with cocoa powder) in the Double Chocolate cake is actually a lot less than in the CI cake. And, next to each other, the Double Chocolate cake definitely has an acidic finish. Not one you’d necessarily notice without having something next to it to compare it to, but it’s definitely there, and that has to be the coffee.

As for the crumb, as I noted in my prior post the Double Chocolate cake definitely benefited from the reduction in baking soda. The crumb of this cake was much less crumbly than the first time I made it, and the rise was much better. But the cake the texture of the cake bordered on rubbery and I know I didn’t over-mix it. My husband said it’s almost too moist, and I would tend to agree. There was also unevenness to the crumb that in combination with the (what I would characterize as almost excessive) doming suggests to me there may still be leavening issues with this cake. As well, I’m thinking there might be too much flour. (I got one heck of a crack on the top of my 8” cake and that can be a sign of too much flour. Of course it could also just be because of its doming.) I really do like the flavor of this cake and I think the texture can be improved. I’m thinking of playing with the following: eliminating the baking powder and slightly increasing the baking soda to compensate, increasing the number of eggs and slightly reducing the coffee, eliminating the oil and increasing the butter, reducing the flour and changing to AP or a combo or AP and cake and, changing the mixing method. I wish I worked for a test kitchen and could play with all these variables all day, but alas, I do not and cannot afford that kind of luxury on my own. I’ll probably do a few of these on one or two cakes.

The crumb of the CI cake was great, as everyone else that has made it has already noted. I know CI says not to change pan sizes with this cake, but they were really referring to trying to make this a sheet cake. It works beautifully in rounds. If you want to make this in two 9” rounds, my rough calculations suggest you’ll need to scale up the recipe by about 25-30%. If you want a more assertive chocolate flavor, you might try substituting coffee for the water the next time you make it to see how you like that.

Taking into account taste, texture and crumb, if I were to compare these two cakes against each other to wine, I’d say the Double Chocolate Cake is a Cabernet Sauvignon and the CI cake is a Pinot Noir. Both are good, it’s really just a matter of what you’re in the mood for. I personally believe there are still some problems with the overall balance of the Double Chocolate cake recipe as far as texture and crumb, and for me, the overall experience is suboptimal because of it. I really want to try and fix that, because I love the flavor of this cake.

Thank you for this comparison. I love the CI sour cream bundt cake -- but I'm trying to work it for a layer cake. When you made it as a layer cake, did you notice any sinking of the cake? I made it today and I had a severe depression in the centre (probably 1/2"). I'd like to keep the height, if possible. The only modifications I made were using Dutch Processed Cocoa and baking in a 9" round x 2" high pan. I often bake from RLB and know that too much leavening can cause structural issues with larger cakes (which makes total sense since it was developed as a bundt cake) -- has anyone made with a reduction in baking soda? Also, it has a very high ratio of sugar to flour and that too can make the cake more tender. I'd love to hear if someone has made this as a 10" round cake or 9" round and how it worked. I absolutely love almost everything about the cake -- I just wish it would bake nicely as a 10" or 9" round cake. It could be slightly more chocolaty, but the texture, overall flavour, and moistness, and slicing qualities make it a 9.5 in my books.

FYI, I'm using Dutched Cocoa because I don't have much natural cocoa available.

Edited to add: I don't think I underbaked...I pulled cake at about 192F which is consistent with most other chocolate cakes I make...otherwise they end up dry/overdone.