One-Bowl Chocolate Cake Recipe - Crunchy Creamy Sweet (2024)

FAQs

How do you add sweetness to a baked cake? ›

Typically people would cut a cake in half and apply a simple syrup (usually made with sugar and water) to keep the cake moist and occasionally add flavour if it lacks any. Icing - Royal, buttercream, ganache and more. These are your typical icing that you can add to the cake. They usually contain a lot of sugar.

Most cakes begin with creaming butter and sugar together. Butter is capable of holding air and the creaming process is when butter traps that air. While baking, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy cake. No properly creamed butter = no air = no fluffiness.

Add a leavening agent to the flour. Most cakes will call for a leavening agent like baking powder or baking soda. These create the bubbles you need for the cake to rise. If the flour you use is self-raising, it already has a leavening agent in it.

Lemon Zest to the Rescue: Grate some lemon zest and sprinkle it on your cake. The zesty, tangy goodness can help balance out the sweetness, turning your cake into a sweet-tart symphony. Whip Up Some Cream: Serve your cake with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream.

Flavoring agents (molasses, honey, malt, maple sugar)

Without sugar, cake has a raw-like flavor, devoid of nuances that come out as sugar decomposes in caramelization and as it contributes to browning in Maillard reactions. The result of sugar's presence is a “baked” flavor in cake.

Leavening Agents

Breads, cakes, cookies, and nearly all baked goods require a leavening agent. These are the key ingredients that make a cake rise. There are two types of leavening agents, chemical (baking soda and baking powder) and biological (yeast).

On their own, boxed cake mixes have a structure that's loose and airy. But if you add ¼ cup flour or half a box of instant pudding mix, the texture of the cake becomes denser and tighter, ideal for a pound-cake-like consistency that will hold the shape of a Bundt pan.

Boxed cake mixes tend to be lighter in consistency, but if you're craving that thicker, moister, denser cake, then all you have to do is add an extra egg to your mix. The additional fat in the egg yolk helps create a more tender and moist cake that is full of flavor.

Martina says, “Late in the mixing stage, eggs will incorporate better if you lightly beat them before adding to the batter. The finished cake may be slightly shorter than expected, but its flavor and tenderness shouldn't be affected.” For egg-leavened cakes, the eggs are crucial.

Can I use both butter and oil in cake? ›

Oh yes, you sure can. This recipe has a combination of butter and oil to give off that nice buttery taste while keeping it soft and moist at the same time. Cake using pure butter tends to be more dense and dry compared to adding oil into the batter.

If you put too much chocolate in a cake, it might become dry and crumbly. The excess chocolate can absorb the moisture from the cake batter, making it difficult for the cake to rise properly. Additionally, too much chocolate can make the cake quite dense and heavy.

Excess sugar in a recipe produces a cake with a crisp top crust and a tendency to be dry. An 'M' fault may be corrected by using less sugar, less baking powder or more liquid to balance the recipe.

Too Much Flour

A cake batter with too much flour will be dry, crumbly, and heavy. To avoid this, make sure you weigh your flour instead of scooping it. Although it's quick, scooping with a measuring cup can easily result in too much flour.

Sugar easily binds with water, which accomplishes two main things. 1) It locks in moisture, keeping your baked goods from drying out; and 2) It inhibits the development of gluten which keeps your cookies, cakes and sweet breads softer.

Cake is too sweet in the U.S. when it is commercially made. Doesn't matter by whom, it is universal even by expensive bakeries. The reason is that sweetness enhances flavors, such as chocolate or vanilla.

The liquid “soaks” into the cake, adding more moisture to prevent the cake from drying out and infusing additional flavor and/or sweetness.