If you have been searching for a chocolate cake recipe that is super moist but also super easy to prepare, look no farther.
Have you ever baked a chocolate cake and ended up with a dusty, dry disaster, not the melt in your mouth moistness you were hoping for?
If that’s happened to you, don’t worry. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed as a baker. Those dry chocolate cakes happen quite often, and there is good reason for that.
Why is chocolate cake often dry?
Chatelaine Magazine tells us one of the culprits is one of the ingredients necessary and that is cocoa powder.
“The culprits for dry cake are ingredients that absorb moisture, such as flour or other starches, cocoa or any milk solids. A second, and equally damaging culprit, is over-baking.”
That, plus the necessary flour, will absorb a lot of the moisture you want but you kind of need them, right?
The trick is making sure you’re taking care when measuring. Be sure you don’t have more flour or cocoa then called for, and then don’t over bake.
Which means you need to have a recipe that has the right ratio of ingredients for you to measure out in the first place.
As I said at the outset, look no further. If you follow this this recipe, you will have a super moist cake to share with friends and family. No eating it all yourself!
The steps to a perfectly moist cake.
This recipe is one I found thanks to The Sweet Art of Cake.
I’ll start off with a bit of a walk through but if you just want to get on with it, an itemized list of ingredients and directions follows.
The first recommendation is to use the best quality cocoa powder you can find. Remember, this is one of the ingredients that can make your cake dry and crumbly, but it will also have a huge impact on how your cake tastes in the end. For enhanced richness, start with good cocoa. You can even add some coffee to boost the taste of all that chocolatey goodness.
Sift together dry ingredients.
As is often the case, you want to take your dry ingredients and sift them together. Place a sifter or fine mesh sieve over a large bowl and sift, or gently tap together your cake flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
Combine well and form a crater.
One everything is sifted and well mixed, create a hole or crater in the center and add you eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. Mix well.
In a separate boil add 1/2 to 1 tsp instant coffee to boiling water, and then add that to your mixture.
Blend using a hand blender.
Mix with a hand blender until everything is completely combined. Make sure you scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, ensuring all dry ingredients are incorporated into the mix. When you are happy, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and mix it in well.
Bake in a rectangle pan.
Bake in a preheated oven 350°F (175°C) for about 40 minutes. You might need to adjust this based on your own oven and the size pan you used.
Once baked, let it cool down for 20 minutes, then remove from pan. Once cooled, divide the slab into 4 equal sections that will be layered on top of each other.
Prepare the frosting.
A good time to do this is while the cake is baking, as it will need some time to cool down.
In a small saucepan combine evaporated milk, white Sugar, cocoa powder, and all purpose flour (Quantities listed below) Keep mixing until everything is combined and the mixture has thickened, and then add butter and continue to mix until it melts. Let cool.
Build your cake!
Layer the 4 sections of cake, spreading the frosting in between each layer, on the top, and on the sides.
Recipe.
Cake Ingredients
- 1 cup or 140 g cake flour
- 1 cup or 200 g white sugar
- 1/3 cup or 35 g cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup or 120 ml milk
- 1/4 cup or 60 ml vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup or 120 ml cup boiling water
- 1/2 to 1 tsp instant coffee
- 1 tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice
Creamy Chocolate Frosting Ingredients:
- 250 ml evaporated milk
- 1/2 cup or 100 g white sugar
- 1/4 cup or 25 g cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp. all purpose flour
- 40 g salted or unsalted butter
Instructions for the Cake:
- In a bowl, combine and sift all the following dry ingredients: cake flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Add the eggs, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and mix well using a hand mixer.
- In a separate bowl, mix boiling hot water with 1/2 to 1 tsp instant coffee.
- Add the boiling hot coffee into the mixture and keep mixing till everything is well combined.
- Make sure to scrape down the bottom and the sides of the bowl.
- Add 1 tbsp. of vinegar and mix them well.
- Prepare the preferred pan with baking paper and pour the mixture. A 12 x 8 pan is used here.
- Bake in a preheated oven 350°F (175°C) for 40 minutes depending on oven and pan size.
- Insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. If there is wet batter still on the toothpick, it needs more time in the oven. If it comes out clean, then the cake is done.
- Once the cake is out of the oven, let it cool down for 20 minutes before removing it from the pan.
- Divide them into 4 equal parts and the stack them, adding frosting between each layer.
- Drizzle or cover the whole cake with creamy chocolate frosting to finish.
Instructions for Frosting:
- In a pan on low heat, mix the evaporated milk, sugar, cocoa powder, and flour.
- Keep mixing till well combined and thick.
- Add the butter and mix well.
- Set aside to cool down.
And now enjoy your cake with friends or family!
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
