One for the chocoholics
a deep dive into the ultimate classic choccy cake + more cocoa concoctions
As some of you may know, these past 6 months I’ve launched myself into the entrepreneurial space with an artisan baking business called BEAU Cakes (named after the most handsome greyhound you ever did see - pic below for reference). It’s been a massive learning curve for me, both from a small scale business world perspective and on the baking side of things. Whipping up a batch of muffins for your mates is one thing, but baking cakes and tarts for the masses has seen me swimming up to my neck in a sticky mixture of sugar, butter and eggs. One major positive that’s come from this recent venture, is that I’ve been writing and creating more baking recipes than ever - and it’s been such a joy to riff off new flavour combos and textures, and then see the surprise, intrigue and deliciousness it brings to customers. What I’ve come to realise, is that while everyone has their own unique palate and preferred tastes, there is one ingredient that rules in the broad appeal category: CHOCOLATE. Whether it be a layer of melted chocolate on a caramel slice, a fudgy chocolate brownie, or even just a dusting of cocoa on top of a tart, chocolate consistently entices and pleases… and none more so than a slice of moist, rich, decadent, droolworthy, dangerously desirable chocolate cake. So as I wait for my flowering broad beans to fruit, and for the spring elderflower trees to fully blossom (recipes for both I hope to share with you in the coming month), I figured indulging in a little chocolatey goodness for this week’s newsletter is timely and needed.
I’m feeling in a particularly generous mood today, so on the topic of chocolate, and with my brain very much in baking mode, I’ve decided to share my go-to classic chocolate cake recipes with you all. These form the base of my Parauri Cake, which is by far the most popular cake from my business’ online orders (again, affirming that most of us are chocolate lovers at heart!), and will quickly become staple chocolate cake recipes to whip out at a moment’s notice in your own kitchen!
The process behind the pudding
Before starting BEAU Cakes, I invested time in trialling a lot of different chocolate cakes (including regular, vegan and gluten-free), taking inspiration from different schools of chocolate cake theory, to try and create a chocolate cake recipe that would tick the most boxes and have the broadest appeal - in terms of flavour, texture, moistness and mouthfeel. Because I’ve also learned in this process that while most people enjoy a slice of chocolate cake, everyone’s ultimate chocolate cake can look and taste very different! And I’m happy to say that I think I’ve landed on a cake that makes most people cry chocolate tears of joy… you can thank me for doing the hard yards for you later :)
In my chocolate cake conquest, there’s a few factors which I’ve found are crucial to a great chocolate cake:
A combination of oil and butter is king. Often chocolate cakes call for one or the other to make up the fat component of a chocolate cake batter, but from my testing, I think a mixture of the two brings the best results. Butter brings flavour that oil often lacks, but using butter alone can often result in a dry chocolate cake. Because oil stays liquid at room temperature, similarly it improves the moistness of a chocolate cake. So for my regular and gluten-free cake recipes I use both oil (usually canola, or on occasion olive) and butter. For vegan cakes, oil is the go-to.
Use the best quality cocoa powder you can get your hands on. For those shopping in New Zealand supermarkets, Donovan’s Premium Dutch Cocoa Powder is a good choice.
Acid is key. Adding acid to a chocolate cake helps to balance flavour, improves leavening by reacting with the raising agents, and also enhances the tenderness of the crumb. I like to use sour cream or buttermilk to achieve this, or adding a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar is also a great idea, as balsamic complements chocolate excellently. If making a vegan cake, I like to make a plant-based ‘buttermilk’ by adding apple cider vinegar to soy milk and letting it sit for 10 minutes to curdle slightly and acidify.
Boiling water improves the chocolatey-ness. Using boiling water helps to fully activate the cocoa powder, for improved chocolate flavour.
Coffee is a good idea, but not essential. I do think that adding a little coffee (e.g. 1 tsp instant coffee dissolved in boiling water) can enhance the flavour of a chocolate cake, but this is less essential than the other points above.
So with all this in mind, I present to you two of my go-to classic chocolate cake recipes (one regular and one gluten-free). These recipes are for a 20cm round cake tin, but you can easily adjust the recipe to fit whatever size tin you have (baking times will vary):
15cm round cake tin = 0.5x quantity
23cm round cake tin (ie standard springform tin) = 1.25x quantity
Large rectangular baking tin (33cm x 23cm) or 25cm round tin = 1.5x quantity
If you’re also after some top notch vegan chocolate cake recipes, my absolute favourite is my Dark chocolate, basil & banana cake found on pg 184 of my cookbook Good Vibes (just leave out the basil for a more classic cake), or check out this article I recently wrote for RNZ on How to successfully bake a delicious vegan cake.
Alby’s Best-Ever Chocolate Cake (regular)
makes one 20cm round chocolate cake
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