Finding the Best Chocolate Cake Recipe (Part 1)

[chefpeon]

All righty......here it is......my version of Ling's (Epicurious/Nightscotsmans) Double chocolate layer cake. I cut a little square from the 2 10 inch rounds I baked off to show the crumb and color.

I like it pretty well....it's a keeper for sure. I'll be able to more accurately judge it when I split and fill and ice it up, and I will know how it tastes as a completed cake.

Of course, since I can't help myself, I had to throw in my own tweaks, because I just can't leave well enough alone.

Here's what I did:

1/2 cup (4 oz=1 stick) melted butter

1.5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1.5 ounces 70% Scharffenberger semi sweet, chopped

1 1/2 cups cocoa powder (I think it was Hershey's-not sure since it was in a nondescript container)

1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee with one Tbsp Madaglia D'oro espresso powder mixed in

Pour the hot coffee with the Madaglia D'oro over the chocolate and cocoa powder....whisk in melted butter.....whisk til smooth.

3 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups cake flour (I used cake instead of AP)

2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 tsp salt

Sift/mix these together in a bowl.

1 1/2 cups well shaken buttermilk

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola-it's all I had)

Combine these.

4 large eggs.

Break eggs into mixer bowl......beat til light and somewhat thickened on med-hi speed, about 3 minutes.

Add the oil/buttermilk/vanilla mixture slowly while beating at low speed.

Add the chocolate/coffee/butter mixture.

Add the flour/sugar mixture.

Mix til combined.

Bake at 300 til done. It only took a half hour for mine to bake. The original instructions say 1 hour to an hour and 10 minutes.......so watch your cakes carefully......I really think an hour

is quite a lot of time....don't know where that came from!

I really like my chocolate cake to be super chocolatey and not so sweet, which is why I used half semi-sweet and half unsweetened chocolate, instead of all semi-sweet.

I added the Madaglia D'oro to give a little more "oomph" to the coffee and hopefully bring out more chocolate flavor.

I followed Neil's tweak with the butter and extra vanilla. Also mixed the cocoa into the chocolate and coffee per his suggestion.

I used cake flour, because I always use cake flour for cakes.

My rating:

I like it better than the Woolley cake for sure. The crumb is fairly wide open, but the cake is nice and crumbly-ish due to the cake flour. Moist enough. Definitely chocolatey, and not too sweet.

I rate this cake an 8 on a scale of 1-10. I consider my husband's ex-wife's cake to be a 10.

This cake isn't quite as good as hers........&*^%!!!!!

Someday, maybe she'll share the recipe with me. Maybe at Xmas......I'll keep her wine glass

filled and perhaps manipulate it out of her!!!!

[Wendy DeBord]

Welcome to the eGullet Society For Arts & Letters s_atan! No need to be scared........... I hope you'll find the time to participate more.

[CanadianBakin']

My rating:

I like it better than the Woolley cake for sure. The crumb is fairly wide open, but the cake is nice and crumbly-ish due to the cake flour. Moist enough. Definitely chocolatey, and not too sweet.

I rate this cake an 8 on a scale of 1-10. I consider my husband's ex-wife's cake to be a 10.

This cake isn't quite as good as hers........&*^%!!!!!

Someday, maybe she'll share the recipe with me. Maybe at Xmas......I'll keep her wine glass

filled and perhaps manipulate it out of her!!!!

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I bet you'll find out it's a recipe made with mayo or something.... or a cake mix she's beefed up.

[Ling]

chefpeon and nightscotsman--Thanks so much for posting your tweaks. I'll have to try the new version, and I'm sure it's better than the Epicurious recipe b/c everything makes sense on why you switched out/added the ingredients you did.

[Dailey]

i use to used parchment paper for all my cakes but i really hated spending the extra money, i'm a terrible cheapskate! at any rate, i never have a problem with sticking when i used shortening and flour, just with this cake.

anne, thank you for posting the recipe for the baker's grease, i mixed some up last night and will be using it from now on. also, i'm really glad you posted the picture of your cake, it looks just like the one i made. i do have a question, though for you or anyone else who is very knowledge about cake. i've been baking for years but i am not a "professional". at any rate, does the size of the holes in a cake mean anything as far as whether a cake is "good" or not? does that makes sense? i don't know why but i was always under the assumption that the tighter the crumb, the better the cake. don't know where i got that from, maybe i read it somewhere long ago, can anyone clarify?

that is so funny, anne, about your husbands ex-wife's cake! its really that good, huh? canadianbakin is probably right, i have a recipe for a doctored chocolate cake that everyone thinks is the best! when they ask for the recipe, i tell them its a old-family recipe and i can't share it, (only because i'm too embarrased to admit i used a cake mix)!

[freddurf]

Dailey, I just bought these reuseable bakeliners made by Chef's Planet. I guess they are similar to the Silpats, but are thinner and come in 8 inch and 9 inch round sizes. I've used them a few times and they seem to work great. No spray or grease needed.

[Dailey]

freddurf,

i love my silpats! that's a really neat idea using them for cake, makes perfect sense! thanks for posting!

[freddurf]

freddurf,

  i love my silpats!  that's a really neat idea using them for cake, makes perfect sense!  thanks for posting!

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here's a link. I didn't buy from here, but thought you might want to see them.

http://www.chefsplanet.com/bakeliner2.shtml

[bluechefk]

thank you SO much for the silpat link - i now know what i'm getting at least 1/2 a dozen of my friends for christmas!

[momlovestocook]

It was my birthday today and I wanted a chocolate cake. I baked both the scott wooley cake and the epicurious cake and froze them(have made both before. I figured the best way to decide on which one I preferred was to try both at the same time. I put the wooley cake on the bottom, filled with cookies and cream filling and the epicurious double layer cake on top. All covered in Herme's caramel ganache. I took the cake to my family thanksgiving supper tonight and asked what everyone thought. Everyone liked the epicurious recipe more than the wooley(although they all said both were good). Here's a picture of a slice.

Sandra

[Wendy DeBord]

It's really helpful to see both cakes so close together, to compare. I think I need to try that E. recipe.

Can someone adapt it and post it in this thread, please? Or maybe someone already did........I'll have to back track.

[Steven Blaski]

Chefpeon & Nightscotsman's tweak of adding a stick of butter to the fats already present in the original recipe -- oil and buttermilk -- made me wonder: couldn't the recipe be simplified by substituting an equivalent amount of sour cream for the buttermilk and nixing the butter? I mean, basically, buttermilk + butter = sour cream. I think you'd wind up with about the same fat ratio, plus it would be simpler -- not to mention the fact that most people tend to have sour cream on hand more commonly than buttermilk.

[nightscotsman]

Chefpeon & Nightscotsman's tweak of adding a stick of butter to the fats already present in the original recipe -- oil and buttermilk -- made me wonder: couldn't the recipe be simplified by substituting an equivalent amount of sour cream for the buttermilk and nixing the butter? I mean, basically, buttermilk + butter = sour cream. I think you'd wind up with about the same fat ratio, plus it would be simpler -- not to mention the fact that most people tend to have sour cream on hand more commonly than buttermilk.

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I actually reduced the oil to compensate for adding the butter and maintain about the same fat content. Sour cream has less water than an equivelant volume of buttermilk, so that would have to taken into consideration, as well as possibly reducing the amount of fat elsewhere in the recipe.

I gave my modfied recipe to one of my coworkers who teaches a pastry class at a local community college. She had her students make the recipe and reported that everyone loved the cake. She also said there was quite a bit of difference in the texture of the baked cake when a student whipped the eggs to a good foam before adding the dry ingredients. When the eggs weren't whipped the mix had to be whisked longer and more vigorously after adding the dry ingredients to remove the lumps - this tended to make the cake heavier with a denser crumb. Both versions were good, just different.

[Steven Blaski]

Chefpeon & Nightscotsman's tweak of adding a stick of butter to the fats already present in the original recipe -- oil and buttermilk -- made me wonder: couldn't the recipe be simplified by substituting an equivalent amount of sour cream for the buttermilk and nixing the butter? I mean, basically, buttermilk + butter = sour cream. I think you'd wind up with about the same fat ratio, plus it would be simpler -- not to mention the fact that most people tend to have sour cream on hand more commonly than buttermilk.

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I actually reduced the oil to compensate for adding the butter and maintain about the same fat content. Sour cream has less water than an equivelant volume of buttermilk, so that would have to taken into consideration, as well as possibly reducing the amount of fat elsewhere in the recipe.

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I was taking into consideration your lowering the oil to 1/2 c. in my suggestion. From my research all the various substitution charts say that 1 c. sour cream = 1 cup buttermilk + 3 oz. butter (the water isn't a factor). So it would appear that as I suggested, substituting <1.5 cups of sour cream> for <1.5 cups of buttermilk + 4 oz. butter> should give about the same results. I guess I'll give it a try.

[Steven Blaski]

I gave my modfied recipe to one of my coworkers who teaches a pastry class at a local community college. She had her students make the recipe and reported that everyone loved the cake. She also said there was quite a bit of difference in the texture of the baked cake when a student whipped the eggs to a good foam before adding the dry ingredients. When the eggs weren't whipped the mix had to be whisked longer and more vigorously after adding the dry ingredients to remove the lumps - this tended to make the cake heavier with a denser crumb. Both versions were good, just different.

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I just came across another interesting cake-mixing method variable. Pam Anderson (of CI fame) on her all-purpose chocolate cake in her book CookSmart (she also uses sour cream, btw):

"When I stirred the melted butter into the cocoa-water mixture, then beat the wet into the dry ingredients, the cake was coarsely textured and slightly tough. But when I beat the melted butter into the flour mixture first, before adding the cocoa-water mixture, the difference was dramatic. The cake's texture was perfect ... By coating the flour mixture with butterfat, I had prevented gluten development."

This might prevent the heavier, denser crumb problem some of those students encountered.

[skyflyer3]

That caramel ganache looks amazing! Can you post the recipe?

[JamericanDiva]

freddurf,

  i love my silpats!   that's a really neat idea using them for cake, makes perfect sense!  thanks for posting!

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here's a link. I didn't buy from here, but thought you might want to see them.

http://www.chefsplanet.com/bakeliner2.shtml

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Question... did you find that because the liners were darker, they caused your cake to bake or brown faster? I know when you bake in dark pans you usually have to turn down the oven temp. Was this necessary with these liners or were you able to follow recipe temp. as written?

[freddurf]

Question... did you find that because the liners were darker, they caused your cake to bake or brown faster? I know when you bake in dark pans you usually have to turn down the oven temp. Was this necessary with these liners or were you able to follow recipe temp. as written?

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I've only used these a handful of times but each time I followed the recipe temp. as written. I didn't notice any difference. I should note that I am just a home baker, so a professional may pick up on any subtle changes that I did not.

[Ling]

Since there's been some talk about cocoa powders in this thread, has anyone had any experience with Dean and Deluca's "Bensdorp" cocoa (from Holland)? It's kind of pricey up here in Vancouver at $35 a can, but I'll get it if it's good.

Also, what do you all think about the Dagoba cocoa? (I like their 74% cocoa with chili and cocoa nibs, but I guess their chocolate is not indicative of their cocoa quality.)

[Patrick S]

Since there's been some talk about cocoa powders in this thread, has anyone had any experience with Dean and Deluca's "Bensdorp" cocoa (from Holland)? It's kind of pricey up here in Vancouver at $35 a can . . .

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Very pricey! Amazon sells 1lb bags of Bensdorp cocoa for $6.50.

[laniloa]

I made the Epicurious recipe last night as cupcakes. They are fabulous -- moist, slightly delicate crumb, and a rich chocolate flavor. I used half coffee, half water because I hate coffee and didn't trust that their wouldn't be a hint of coffee peeking through. There wasn't. Next time I'll probably go all coffee.

[Ling]

I think that's a good idea. The coffee just deepens the flavour of the chocolate.

PatrickS: I'm glad I didn't pick up that can of cocoa. 1 lb for $6.50 sure sounds better than $35 for a smallish tin can. I've since gotten a sample of the Bensdorp from someone in Vancouver, so I'll test it out soon.

[designerobsessed]

I made the Epicurious recipe last night as cupcakes.  They are fabulous -- moist,  slightly delicate crumb, and a rich chocolate flavor.  I used half coffee, half water because I hate coffee and didn't trust that their wouldn't be a hint of coffee peeking through.  There wasn't.  Next time I'll probably go all coffee.

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Can I ask at what temp. you baked these at? I made this cake last nite & it didn't rise as high as I think it should have. The recipe says 300 which I thought was very odd for a cake so I'm thinking maybe that's why. It was very good-moist & extremely chocolatey but very dense. I did use all the coffee it called for.

[laniloa]

Can I ask at what temp. you baked these at?  I made this cake last nite & it didn't rise as high as I think it should have.  The recipe says 300 which I thought was very odd for a cake so I'm thinking maybe that's why.  It was very good-moist & extremely chocolatey but very dense.  I did use all the coffee it called for.

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I followed the recipe which I also thought was odd but figured others on this board with far more experience then me had good results so I'd give it a shot.

[designerobsessed]

Can I ask at what temp. you baked these at?  I made this cake last nite & it didn't rise as high as I think it should have.  The recipe says 300 which I thought was very odd for a cake so I'm thinking maybe that's why.  It was very good-moist & extremely chocolatey but very dense.  I did use all the coffee it called for.

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I followed the recipe which I also thought was odd but figured others on this board with far more experience then me had good results so I'd give it a shot.

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Did your's come out "heavy"?