There are a few good things in life that make people genuinely happy. A slice of a moist, oozing with flavors and fresh out of the oven chocolate cake always tops this list.
Everyone loves a hot and fresh chocolate cake with some vanilla ice cream, which is one reason this delicious dessert is unarguably the pinnacle of all existing desserts.
The best part about a chocolate cake is that there is no thinking about when do you eat the cake. You can have this goodness anytime, anywhere, by buying it from the store or baking it yourself.
Also Read: Egg Salads: Recipe and Practical Tips
What Chocolate Cake is better – Store-Bought or Homemade?
While store-bought cakes are just as good, nothing beats the ones you bake at home. If you are someone who has been trying to bake a delicious chocolate cake for a long time but needs help to perfect the recipe. We got you.
The article below will help you learn some fantastic tips and tricks to the best chocolate cake recipe for beginners and some simple tips to achieve a juicy chocolate cake. So, put on that apron, and let’s get onto it.
Simple Juicy Chocolate Cake: The Basic Recipe
One of the major concerns for people who just started baking is how to bake delicious chocolate cakes. A basic chocolate cake might look easy to pull off; however, it is slightly more challenging than many of us would like to believe.
However, worry not because we’ve got you covered. Below are some fantastic essential recipes for various delicious chocolate cakes that will make you the star of home-baked goods.
Moist Chocolate Cake
The moist chocolate cake is one of the top favorites among all the existing chocolate cake flavors—the creamy texture and the smooth chocolate elevate you on cloud nine. Only a few things can compare to this heaven on earth.
While adults love a good moist cake, the best part is that this is the top choice when choosing a chocolate cake for children.
So, with both parties equally interested in this chocolate cake, we are sure you’d want to bake this cake at your next birthday party or any occasion. Here is how to bake the perfect moist chocolate cake.
Ingredients:
– Hot water – ½cup (120ml)
– All Purpose Flour – 130 grams
– Sugar – 300 Grams
– Cocoa Powder – 50 grams
– Dark Chocolate – 200g
– Baking Powder – 1 tsp.
– Vanilla essence – 1tsp
– Baking Soda – ½ tsp.
– Egg -1
– Salt – ½ tsp.
– Oil – ¼cup (60ml)
– Milk – ½cup (120ml)
– Heavy cream – 150ml
Recipe:
- Grease a pan with oil and place parchment paper inside.
- Add all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and mix it all in a separate bowl.
- Add one egg, 1/4th cup of oil, ½ cup milk, and vanilla essence to the dry mixture. Whisk the mixture until thickened. Once a dark chocolate color appears, and the mixture is whisked well, add ½ cup of hot water.
- The mixture will now become a smooth chocolate mixture. Pour this picture into the pain you greased earlier.
- Bake in a preheated oven at about 170 C for 35-40 minutes.
- Once baked, remove the parchment paper from under the cake.
- Now, take your dark chocolate in a bowl and add hot, heavy cream to it. Place it aside for 3 minutes or until the dark chocolate softens. Mix the heavy cream and chocolate and prepare a thick chocolaty mixture.
- Once thoroughly mixed, set it aside for 30 minutes. Cover the top of the cake with this moist chocolate, and let your cake cool.
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German Fudge Cake
Another juicy chocolate cake on the list and a variant of chocolate cake many love is the German fudge cake. While we can’t say whether or not the Germans introduced this cake, what we know is the perfect recipe for it. Here is how you can make a delicious German Fudge Cake:
Ingredients
– German Sweet Chocolate (chopped) – 3 ½ ounces
– All-Purpose Flour – 2 ½ cups
– Salt – ¼ tsp.
– Baking Soda – 1 ½ teaspoon
– Eggs – 4 separated
– Unsalted Butter (soft) – 2 sticks
– Sugar – 2 cups
– Vanilla Essence – 1 teaspoon
– Buttermilk – 1 cup
– Hot Water – ¼ cup
Recipe:
- Start by heating the oven at 350 C. Grease two round cake pans and line a parchment paper on each.
- Microwave the chopped chocolate and melt it until smooth. Keep it aside.
- Mix the cake flour, salt and baking soda, in a separate bowl. Keep it aside.
- Take a whipping machine and whip the egg whites thoroughly. Transfer the egg whites from the whipping bowl to a new bowl and move aside.
- Make a thick creamy texture by mixing the butter, vanilla extract and butter in the same whipping bowl until it becomes fluffy. Add one egg yolk at a time, and blend in the melted chocolate simultaneously.
- Ensure that you scrape the bowl while mixing all the ingredients.
- Now add the liquid alternative with the dry ingredients. Start by adding the buttermilk and then add it with the flour.
- Now using a spatula, fold in the mixture using hot water and beat egg whites.
- Divide this batter into the two pre-greased cake pans and bake for 30-40 minutes. Let it rest and cool for 15 minutes, then move on to top the frosting.
Coconut-Pecan Frosting – German Fudge
– Chopped Pecans – 2 Cups
– Evaporated Milk – 12 ounces
– Sugar – 2 cups
– Egg Yolks – 6 Large
– Unsalted Butter – 2 sticks
– Shredded Sweetened Coconut – 4 cups
– Vanilla Extract – 2 teaspoons
How to Make the Frosting?
- Combine the milk, egg yolks, sugar, butter sticks, and vanilla extract in a medium pot. Stir the mixture on medium heat until it appears thick and bubbly.
- Make sure to always boil the frosting for at least two minutes. This will give the frosting a caramelized effect and deepen the flavor.
- Remove the pot from heat and add in the coconut and pecans.
- Place it in a container and refrigerate until cool. You can now top your German fudge cake with this frosting on top.
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Vegan Chocolate Cake
While vegans have chosen to adapt to a particular eating habit, who said they cannot enjoy all the delicacies of life too? All it takes is a little innovation and their eating habits in mind to create the perfect vegan chocolate cake. Here is the recipe for one:
Ingredients
– Unsweetened Almond Milk – 1 Cup
– Apple Cider Vinegar – 1 Tablespoon
– Baking Powder – 2 teaspoon
– All Purpose Flour – 2 Cups
– Baking Soda 1 ½ teaspoon
– Canola/Melted Coconut Oil – ½ cup
– Unsweetened Apple Sauce – 2/3 cup
– Salt – 1 Teaspoon
– Granulated Sugar – 1 ¾ cups
– Hot Water – 1 Cup
– Vanilla Extract – 1 tablespoon
Recipe:
- Start by heating the oven to 350 F, prepare the baking dishes with parchment paper and sprinkle some flour on the sides. This will help in the easy removal of the cake.
- In the Unsweetened almond milk, add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Stir and set aside for it to curd.
- Add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl. Whisk all these dry ingredients to combine them.
- Now on medium speed, mix the oil, apple sauce, vanilla, and almond milk/vinegar mixture using a hand beater.
- Gradually lower the speed, and add in hot water slowly. Keep beating the mixture until combined well. The mixture will look very runny at this point; however, you must trust the process.
- Divide the batter into two pans and bake it for 30-35 minutes. When done, allow it to rest for 15 minutes.
Butter Cream Frosting – Vegan Chocolate Cake
– Cocoa Powder – 1 Cup
– Vegan Butter Sticks – 2
– Powdered Sugar – 4 to 5 Cups
– Unsweetened Almond Milk – ¼ – ½ cup
– Vanilla Extract – 2 teaspoons
How to Make the Butter Cream Frosting?
- Add cocoa powder and softened vegan butter to a large bowl. Combine the two until a creamed texture is achieved and the ingredients are well combined.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and half of the almond milk and mix well until combined.
- Now add the remaining powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Start mixing on low speed and gradually increase it. Beat until the mixture is fluffy and combined.
- If, at this point, your frosting is looking a bit dry for your liking, add in milk (a tablespoon or two at a time) until desired texture is achieved.
- If the mixture looks runny, adding powdered sugar will thicken it up.
- The frosting is now ready to go on the cake.
Baking a Chocolate Cake – All Tips and Tricks that You Need to Know
With some great ingredients, essential recipes, and some tasty frosting out of the way, we are sure that you’d now consider yourself a proper chocolate cake baker.
However, hold your horses. While you might have accomplished the recipe, baking is a little more challenging than that.
In many instances, you can encounter a variety of scenarios where your cake mixture can become runny, or there might be one ingredient you need help pinpointing but know will elevate the taste of your cake.
We have your back for all such queries and some fantastic tips to help you bake a perfect chocolate cake.
Which Cake is Pan best for Baking?
Many beginners need to learn that a cake pan plays a significant role in your baking journey. Hence, knowing which cake pan is best for this is essential. Used as a staple in many restaurants and by professional bakers, a carbon steel pan is one of the best materials to use when baking a cake.
Carbon steel is more durable and a stronger option than aluminum and many other materials. This cake pan can also be used to bake casseroles, bread, pies, and a variety of different desserts, and hence something you should invest in.
What Makes Chocolate Cake Juicy?
Another area for clarification that many beginners in cake baking have is how does the cake stay juicy?
In the initial days, for many people, the cake can turn dry when baked. The best ways to ensure that your cake stays juicy are:
– Avoid over-mixing
– Avoid over-baking the cake
– Add moisture like milk or frosting before setting up the layers on top of each other.
– Frost the cake right away – the longer you leave it unfrosted, chances are, the more it will dry up.
Can I Bake the Cake Without Sugar or With Less Sugar?
Sugar is one of the significant ingredients when baking a cake. It gives the dessert its flavor and taste, and any cake without sugar or less sugar would taste bland, and the cake will turn out rubbery and dry.
However, if you avoid sugar and do not want to incorporate it in your baking, using some alternatives would do the job perfectly well. Some alternatives to sugar for baking a cake are:
– Maple Syrup or Crystals
– Coconut Sugar
– Monk fruit Extract
– Artificial Sweetener
– Brown Sugar
What to Decorate the Chocolate Cake With?
Over the years, cake art has flourished and elevated from regular frostings and cake icing. If you just started baking, stick to the regular frostings to decorate your chocolate cake.
However, in case you are feeling courageous and want to try new things, here is what to decorate the chocolate cake with:
– Buttercream and frosting
– Cake Lace
– Edible flowers
– Edible Pearls
– Colorings
How to Store Chocolate Cake Overnight?
One of the major concerns for people is how to store chocolate cake overnight. This is because a huge cake can only be finished in a single day if you have enough people in the house to eat it. So, what is the perfect way to store your cake overnight without drying up and becoming stale?
Many prefer storing their chocolate cake overnight in a refrigerator; it isn’t always necessary. Chocolate cakes, if stored and covered correctly in an airtight container, will stay perfectly well outside overnight too.
Why Aluminum Foil on Cake?
If you are new to baking, you might have seen a lot of videos or recipes where you are required to cover your cake mixture with aluminum foil. Why does this happen? Let us inform you about this.
Covering your chocolate cake mix with aluminum foil will help prevent the cake from getting brown too quickly from the top. This eventually will help your cake to bake evenly from all sides and appear in a great texture and look.
So, the next time you feel your cake is browning too quickly, cover the top with aluminum foil.
What is Better, Parchment Paper or Aluminum Foil?
Whether one should use a foil or parchment sheet while baking has always been debated; hence, many people need clarification about which of the two they should choose. Luck for you; we got this covered too.
You know how they say, “sweet treats need parchment sheets.” This clearly can decipher that the parchment lining on the tray before you pour in your mixture is what should be used for your usual at-home baking.
However, as mentioned above, aluminum plays a pretty significant role too. If you feel like your cake mixture is browning too quickly, covering the top with aluminum foil will help the cake to bake more evenly and not burn from the top.
Which Side of the Aluminum Foil is Toxic?
When covering your baking trays with aluminum foil in the initial days of baking, many need clarification about what side of the aluminum foil to keep on top. This is because one side of the foil is dull, and the other is shiny.
Moreover, if you encountered some creative minds that had let you know one of the sides is toxic, and hence you should always be careful about placing the foil the right way, you are bound to panic.
To make it easier, let us clear this for you before you go into another panic mode during your initial phases of baking. No side for aluminum foil is the right side of the toxic side.
Both sides of the aluminum foil will work the same purposes for you, and you can place it anywhere you want without worrying about anything.
How Long Does Chocolate Cake Keep Fresh?
Once you have baked a chocolate cake, the next step is to understand how long the chocolate cake can stay fresh and good enough to eat.
Generally, a chocolate cake can stay fresh for up to 3 or 4 days outside on the countertop. If you store it in the fridge, its freshness expectancy can stir up to a good one week before you question its edibility.
Keeping your chocolate cakes in an airtight container or plastic wrap is crucial to ensure their freshness.
Can you Freeze Chocolate Cake?
If you want to store a cake for a more extended period of time, we suggest you freeze it. Yes, you heard us right. Freezing a chocolate cake is perfectly fine, and chocolate cake’s nutritional values will also stay intact.
However, the freezing of the cake also has a limit, and one should only freeze the cake for up to six months.
It is ideal if you consume this cake within a month or two and only consume it once it reaches the six-month mark.
How long do you Keep Marble Cake Fresh?
Many start their baking journey by initially making banana bread or marble cake.
If you are in the marble cake category and want to know how long can you keep a marble cake fresh, then let us help you.
The marble cake is stored like a chocolate cake when one wants to keep it fresh. All you have to do is store your marble cake in an airtight container or plastic wrap. The marble cake will stay fresh on the countertop for up to three or four days. If you want to keep it longer, keeping it in the fridge would make your marble cake last up to one week.
However, for better nutritional value, you should eat both the marble and chocolate cake within three to four days.
What to Do So That the Cake Does Not Turn Out Dry?
No one likes to eat a dry cake. Hence, when baking a chocolate cake, one should take all the accounts into a measure to ensure that the cake turns out moist and soft. What are the things to consider? Here is a list
Things to Ensure Before Baking a Cake
Before baking a cake, here is everything you should ensure that will help your cake turn out soft and not dry up.
– Check oven temperature
– Follow the recipe
– Measure your flour correctly
– Mix ingredients properly, but do not over-mix them
– Do not overbake. Use the optimum mentioned temperature
– Use suitable pans. Larger pans, compared to the size of the batter, can make the cake turn out dry.
Things to Ensure After Baking a Cake
Once your cake is out of the oven, and you feel like it is a bit dry for your liking, worry not. Here is everything you can do to make your cake soft again:
– Brush on a simple syrup over the cake
– Soak milk between the cake layers or on a single baked cake.
– When all fails, and your cake is still dry, it is time to get creative. Turn your cake into a truffle with a lot of fruit and creams. Turning the cake into a trifle will add instant moisture, trust us.
Conclusion
Baking is an art that one can perfect with a lot of practice and enough patience. A chocolate cake is the pioneer of all baking goods, and we hope this article was sufficient enough to help you walk through all the fantastic recipes through which you can make an exceptional chocolate cake.
Moreover, we hope the tips and tricks we mentioned were helpful to you. Have a great time baking with you all!
