Finding the Best Chocolate Cake Recipe (Part 1)

[Tepee]

OK, Patrick, you're killing me with your photos!!! I want a piece right NOW!

[Patrick S]

Lovely photos, I've been wondering what kind of camera you use?

←

I use a 5mp Gateway DC-M50, though I'm considering breaking the bank to buy a fancy schmancy Canon SLR camera.

It does look extremely moist. Was it very chocolate-y?

←

Yes, its plenty chocolately. But there is still 'something' missing, and I'm not sure what it is.

Ditto on Ghardelli- decent chocolate for the price, terrible cocoa. I usually just have Hershey's on hand, though I know there's better stuff out there.

←

Hershey's is great for the money. I like it better than Scharffen Berger. Hersheys dutched is pretty good too.

[Patrick S]

Just to update, I want to point out that the last cake tastes significantly better the next day. So I'll give it 4 out of 5 rather than 3 out of 5.

Right now I have Mrs. D's ''She Ain't Heavy'' Chocolate Cake in the oven. Its a fairly typical chocolate cake recipe, though a little on the sweet side (1.75C of sugar to 2C cake flour). Typical except for containing 12ozs of butter.

[nightscotsman]

I made a 1/2 batch of the cake following the recipe in the first post, with the following changes. First, I used sour cream rather than buttermilk. Second, I used 2 eggs rather than 1.5. Third, I baked at 325F rather than 300. The toothpick was very wet at 25, and completely clean at 30, when I took it out. For the cocoa, I used half Droste and half Valrhona (because I only had a little Droste left and wanted to use it up so I could make shelf space).  I baked it in a 9" springform. Instead of coffee, I used a little espresso powder in the boiling water.

Of course I wasn't going to let this thing sit overnight before I tasted it, so I let it cool for maybe 2 hours.

Overall, I like it fairly well. Its certainly a hell of a lot better than the last time I made this cake with the Ghirardhelli cocoa. I guess I'd give it 3 out of 5. Good moisture. Very soft. Could be maybe a little bit sweeter.  Didn't rise very much.

←

I think what might be missing from what you're looking for in the cake flavor has to do with one of your changes. Sour cream has substantially more fat and is less sour than buttermilk, and though it will add a richer taste to a recipe, it also tends to mute the chocolate flavor. I recommend re-trying it with the buttermilk to see the difference.

[oli]

This is slightly off topic, just a little. How does this cake started by Wendy, compare to Pierre Herme's cocoa cake? I've been following this thread for a while now and have remarked to myself how much this conversation is very much like one that went on a another forum, about 4 years ago. It had been tested by many and by one, I believe is a chemist. A good quote by one: "The SueB cake has 2 things going for it. It's easy and it tastes wonderful. Which is exactly what it was created for.

Hey guys, there's no such thing as THE perfect chocolate cake, so if our goal is to try to agree on one we're doomed to fail. There are many terrific cakes in the world, and I say the more, the better! (Duncan Hines excepted....":-)

This SueB cake is also named Texas Sheet Cake.

[Patrick S]

This is slightly off topic, just a little.  How does this cake started by Wendy, compare to Pierre Herme's cocoa cake?  I've been following this thread for a while now and have remarked to myself how much this conversation is very much like one that went on a another forum, about 4 years ago.  It had been tested by many and by one, I believe is a chemist. A good quote by one: "The SueB cake has 2 things going for it. It's easy and it tastes wonderful. Which is exactly what it was created for.

Hey guys, there's no such thing as THE perfect chocolate cake, so if our goal is to try to agree on one we're doomed to fail. There are many terrific cakes in the world, and I say the more, the better! (Duncan Hines excepted....":-)

This SueB cake is also named Texas Sheet Cake.

←

The Herme cocoa cake is pretty good, depending on the cocoa you use. But I don't think I'd personally put it in the running for best chocolate cake. But it is good, and the Fauborg Pave which uses the cocoa cake is probably my favorite chocolate cake. Ive never tried that with another cake though.

[Patrick S]

The Mrs. D's ''She Ain't Heavy'' Chocolate Cake, from Celebrate With Chocolate definitely has a lot going for it. The taste is as perfect as I could hope for. The high butter content (12ozs) plus Valrhona cocoa gives a sweet, creamy, chocolate taste with no hint of bitterness. Personally I would rank this one higher than the Wooley cake, with the caveat that when I made the Wooley cake, I used a nasty cocoa.

[chefpeon]

Ok.....my final report.

I split, filled, iced, and poured ganache over my baked Woolley/Robertson cake. Easy to work with (cold, of course)......it didn't fall apart on me.....it's all good.

I really like this cake....but......compared to my "tried and true", it's much richer and a little

more dense. Good in some applications.......not so in others. This recipe will take a spot in

my "little black box", and I'll be using it when I want a rich chocolate cake.

This was a fun experiment!

[prasantrin]

The Mrs. D's ''She Ain't Heavy'' Chocolate Cake, from Celebrate With Chocolate definitely has a lot going for it.

Is it just me or does that link not work? With the power of google, I found another copy of the recipe and it looks great. I'm going to try it out for a surprise party--maybe not the best place for a new recipe, but it'll be fun nonetheless!

[Patrick S]

The Mrs. D's ''She Ain't Heavy'' Chocolate Cake, from Celebrate With Chocolate definitely has a lot going for it.

Is it just me or does that link not work? With the power of google, I found another copy of the recipe and it looks great. I'm going to try it out for a surprise party--maybe not the best place for a new recipe, but it'll be fun nonetheless!

←

Oops. Thanks for supplying a working link.

[CanadianBakin']

Patrick - Did you use her icing recipe?

I really appreciate all the time you take to test, review and post all the recipes you do. It saves those of us with less time from trying out poor recipes. I realize not all of us have the same taste but it gives us a great place to start if nothing else.

[Patrick S]

Patrick - Did you use her icing recipe?

I really appreciate all the time you take to test, review and post all the recipes you do. It saves those of us with less time from trying out poor recipes. I realize not all of us have the same taste but it gives us a great place to start if nothing else.

←

You're certainly welcome, CB. I enjoy doing it.

No, I didn't make the icing, but from the recipe, I bet it's delicious.

[JSkilling]

I made the SCW cake today and I'm totally sold on it! 5 stars. It had everything I want in a chocolate cake - good crumb, great cocoa taste, moist. And this was right after it was baked.

I also made his vanilla cake today and am just as sold on that recipe and its versatility. I'm going to make my way through his other recipes as well and see how they turn out....

[DiH]

In my opinion this is the be all/end all Dark Chocolate Cake.

Quite a large recipe... yields 10 C. batter.

Note: the recipe doesn't list any eggs... I add 4.

Di

[R Washburn]

I was going to make the "She ain't Heavy Cake" but i wanted to use Valrhona Cocoa, whereas the recipe appears to require untreated Cocoa. Rather than substitute baking powder for the baking soda I used Rose Berenbaum's recipe from the "Cake Bible" and frosted it with Pierre Herme's caramel chocolate ganache from the "Pave Fauborg" recipe in "Chocolate Desserts"

I liked the cake alot, although it could be a little moister. Would increasing the butter from 1c. take care of this? I appreciated Rose B.'s comments about mixing the Cocoa with boiling water to bring out the flavor and not using milk or baking soda in the recipe to avoid bitterness and the soda aftertaste.

[Patrick S]

I was going to make the "She ain't Heavy Cake" but i wanted to use Valrhona Cocoa, whereas the recipe appears to require untreated Cocoa.

←

The recipe calls for unsweetened cocoa, not untreated cocoa. I used Valrhona and the cake tasted wonderful.

[R Washburn]

I was going to make the "She ain't Heavy Cake" but i wanted to use Valrhona Cocoa, whereas the recipe appears to require untreated Cocoa.

←

The recipe calls for unsweetened cocoa, not untreated cocoa. I used Valrhona and the cake tasted wonderful.

←

i meant non-alkali treated cocoa. I am pretty sure that Valrhona is treated with alkali. As i understand it baking soda is used in recipes with natural cocoa to neutralize the acidity and provide leavening.

I will try the "She ain't heavy" cake with some natural cocoa.

[Patrick S]

Yes, I know what you meant, R. Washburn. What I'm telling you is that there is no reason at all that you can't use any unsweetened cocoa in that recipe, either dutched like Valrhona or Droste, or 'natural' like Hershey's of Scharffen Berger. All of these are unsweetened cocoas, and thus perfectly compatible with the recipe. The recipe does not in any sense "require untreated cocoa," either for taste or leavening.

EDITED THE NEXT DAY: I hope I'm not coming across as grumpy. All I'm trying to say is that I've made the recipe with treated cocoa, and there was no problem at all. If you have a natural cocoa that you like, by all means use it. But there's no reason you cant use your Valrhona.

Edited March 7, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[helenjp]

I'm curious...I made mkfradin's Million Dollar Chocolate Cake as part of an experiment to find a good but budget-friendly oil/cocoa-based chocolate cake. The flavor was good, but the cake (baked as a sheet) didn't dome markedly, although it did crack a little as it cooled. The finished cake was fudgier in texture than I expected. Japanese cake flour normally has a much lower protein/gluten content than US flour, and I used a type of flour which I know to be particularly weak, so I think that was mainly responsible for the lack of rise/spring (and I maybe underbaked it by 5 minutes or so).

So now I'm wondering just how moist those of you who baked the MDCC found it? Before I start changing type or amount of flour or cocoa, I'm curious to know what the baseline was!

In comparison with standard neighborhood cookbook recipes, the MDC cake has a higher proportion of cocoa to flour, and also less flour/cocoa in proportion to the liquids, so it should be a moist cake anyway...the question is, how moist should the cake be when correctly made?

To sum up, very roughly speaking the MDCC translates (by volume) to 0.75 part flour/ 0.25 part cocoa: 1 part sugar: 1 part liquid: 0.5 part oil: 0.5 part egg.

A bog-standard oil/cocoa cake for comparison has 0.8 part flour/ 0.2 part cocoa: 0.75 part sugar: 0.6 part liquid: 0.3 part oil: plus an optional 0:3 part egg

[R Washburn]

I hope I'm not coming across as grumpy. All I'm trying to say is that I've made the recipe with treated cocoa, and there was no problem at all. If you have a natural cocoa that you like, by all means use it. But there's no reason you cant use your Valrhona.

Not at all Patrick, I am just not sure it wouldn't make more sense omit the baking soda and increase the amount of baking powder if I am going to use Valrhona cocoa. It could be that your cake, although tasty, is quite different from what the author intended.

I shall have to try the recipe with Scharfenberger vs. Valrhona cocoa and see what happens.

[Patrick S]

I hope I'm not coming across as grumpy. All I'm trying to say is that I've made the recipe with treated cocoa, and there was no problem at all. If you have a natural cocoa that you like, by all means use it. But there's no reason you cant use your Valrhona.

Not at all Patrick, I am just not sure it wouldn't make more sense omit the baking soda and increase the amount of baking powder if I am going to use Valrhona cocoa. It could be that your cake, although tasty, is quite different from what the author intended.

←

Well, if the author intended for the recipe to be made with non-alkalized cocoa powder, I'm at a loss to explain why he didn't bother to specify this in his recipe. And though I can't say what Desaulnier intended the cake to be (beyond what the recipe says, that is), I can say that in addition to tasting great with alkalized cocoa, it also looks exactly like the picture in the book. Personally I always use dutched cocoa unless the recipes says otherwise, because I think it tastes much better.

[Sarah Phillips]

The chocolate cake thread is the one that caught my eye and I just had to sign-up for egullet.org to participate! It's been fascinating reading everyone's input.

I've been developing chocolate cake and other chocolate baking recipes for years, and find them to be the toughest challenge. I've found that it's hard to find a good chocolate cake recipe that's both chocolatey, moist, flavorful and that has good color! ....And, one that doesn't crack horribly, caused from overbaking, (they're the toughest cakes to tell when done), an imbalance of ingredients, etc.....

......I prefer chocolate cake recipes that use both melted chocolate and cocoa powder to have the best outcome! I like to use that combination in my recipes.....I have found that chemical leaveners, baking powder and baking soda, can be used with alkalized and nonalkalized cocoa powder, to control color and texture, as well as rise....

Patrick,

I agree with you about the fact that ingredient types should be specified in a recipe. But, they're not....and, it's common.

Developing chocolate cakes and chocolate baking recipes are really a fascinating (and VERY complex) topic that isn't so straight-forward.....One can develop a recipe, but has it been tested so it will bake the same way when a consumer changes the cocoa powder? or chocolate? It would be impossible to do....

If a specific ingredient is needed, then I believe the author should be informative (I'm trying to get better at it myself when I write recipes!) --- because there are hundreds of nuances that occur when using different types of cocoa powder and chocolate, for example......That's ONE of the reasons why I believe that so many chocolate baking recipes fail -- not enough details.... Just my two cents.....

Edited March 7, 2005 by Sarah Phillips (log)

[mkfradin]

Japanese cake flour normally has a much lower protein/gluten content than US flour, and I used a type of flour which I know to be particularly weak, so I think that was mainly responsible for the lack of rise/spring (and I maybe underbaked it by 5 minutes or so).

I never use cake flour for this cake. The recipe calls for all purpose flour, and I use bleached in all my baking, so I'm guessing the protein content is much higher than what you are using. This is not a cake with a fine crumb at all. It's heavy, almost a little chewy, and is perceived as very moist.

I've been playing with this cake quite a bit, and something that makes more of a difference than I thought initially is the beating time. The more you beat the batter, the finer the texture becomes, up to a point. Also, as you're beating the cake, start with half of the liquid ingredients, beat till smooth, then add the remaining liquid gradually, and the batter will be lump-free.

While this is not my favorite chocolate cake, it is by far the best seller at my store; people just go crazy for it.

Marjorie

[helenjp]

Thank you for your help! We don't have all-purpose flour in New Zealand, and in Japan and NZ, people tend to keep low-ratio flour as their workhorse flour. I forgot (again ) about US flour. I'll try it again with ordinary Japanese bread flour, which is still far from being a very high-ratio flour.

"Heavy, almost a little chewy" - but still more like a cake than a brownie?? I appreciate your detailed comments, because I knew that not only the flour, but the drier cake styles I grew up with in NZ (we don't have US style brownies) were influencing my perception of the cake.

I hear you about this not being your favorite cake, but I'm curious to see what types of cake the oil/cocoa base can produce - my sister asked for the best way to make a budget chocolate cake in the Netherlands, where butter can be perversely very expensive. On the other hand, she can buy good cocoa.

I also plan to make a more cakey version, maybe with less oil and some yogurt (not a big cost factor for a home baker with home-made yogurt available) for comparison.

[helenjp]

I just want to say THANK YOU Patrick S for so often including close ups of cake texture in your posts. I find it very helpful to have a reference point.