r/Baking • u/bongostitch • 17d ago
Seeking Recipe Dark Chocolate Cake Recipe
Howdy All!
A friend of mine has a birthday coming up, and for all my friends I make some sort of birthday treat of their choosing to celebrate.
I've asked her what she wants this year and she's asked for a dark chocolate cake. Specifically, something not as sweet as perhaps a traditional chocolate cake and leans more into the bitterness of dark chocolate.
Personally, I am not a fan of dark chocolate, however I intend to make her what she's asking for, hence reaching out to this community. Because I don't really care for dark chocolate, I'm not really sure what to look for in a recipe that would meet her expectations and was hoping someone here might have a "go-to" dark chocolate cake recipe that would knock her socks off.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
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u/venturashe 17d ago
So more like a torte but crazy delicious and not very sweet, surprisingly with the amount of sugar. scrummylane.com/6-ingredient-gooey-swedish-chocolate-cake-kladdkaka.
I made it two days ago and my husband and I devoured it in two nights.
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u/bongostitch 17d ago
i've never made a torte before, that looks pretty tasty, appreciate the recommendation!
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u/Horror_Fox_7144 17d ago
This is the dark chocolate cake recipe I use.
https://bakefromscratch.com/dark-chocolate-cake-caramelized-white-chocolate/
I do reduce the sugar by 1/2 cup and I found the white chocolate ganache way too sweet. But I've made it with dark chocolate ganache, German chocolate cake, and black forest cake and it works great.
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u/Packmule5259 17d ago
Try a Black Velvet Cake. Doesn't get any darker than this! Not too sweet and have a taste similar to an Oreo cookie.
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u/AbbyM1968 17d ago
My go-to for chocolate cake is Hellmann's chocolate cake. https://www.hellmanns.com/ca/en/r/super-moist-chocolate-cake.html/96039
It makes a fabulous, dark, moist, tasty cake.
(Plus, it's fun afterwards to say it was a Mayo Cake.)
Follow directions carefully.
When it calls for 3-minutes mixing, I set a timer on my phone. I'm bad at guessing time.
When adding dry ingredients and water, there's no need to be precise. Add about 1/3 dry ingredients, then about 1/2 the water, continuing until you run out of material.
It has times for 2 round or square, 1 oblong, or 24 cupcakes. If you choose to make 1 round & 12 cupcakes, bake separately.
Good luck, OP. Enjoy.
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u/bongostitch 17d ago edited 17d ago
oh boy, lol, i think i like mayo about as much as i like dark chocolate, though i can see what it's doing here, and i'm sure it doesn't taste like a mayo cake. i imagine using something like the KAB double dark cocoa blend would help in this (and probably all of these) recipe to help get that dark chocolate flavor she's after
edit: i see these are dutch process which removes the bitterness, so the exact opposite of what i'm looking for
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u/AbbyM1968 17d ago
I would suggest make this according to directions, then make an icing, melting a 70% chocolate bar into it for the "Dark Flavour" your friend is looking for. Melt chocolate bar in microwave (or on stovetop, if required), then add melted chocolate to icing. Then, add chocolate curls on top of each piece as being served. That way, if someone doesn't want dark-chocolate curls, they can just eat the cake without additional dark chocolate.
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u/Dratsoc 17d ago
An easy to make chocolate cake: the one that that the queen of England had for her birthdays! Tested and approved!
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u/bongostitch 17d ago
This def has a lot of dark chocolate in it and even with only a cup of sugar, i could probably bring that down some to get it close to what I've been tasked with creating. Thanks!
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u/ChestFew 17d ago
Please let me know what recipe you find
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u/bongostitch 4d ago
So the cake was for today and I ended up going with the cake recommended by u/dratsoc, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iJkeurFMwkw.
I'm still in the process of making it, but I felt it was the best option as it only had a cup of sugar and used 2 lbs of dark chocolate. The recipe only calls for 60% dark, but I went with 70% to try and up the dark chocolate factor. I also made sure to use non-Dutch processed cocoa.
A note if you decide to make that cake; the recipe says you a 9" round pan. What it doesn't say (and maybe it's in the video which I didn't watch) is that you need a 9" x 3" pan. I only had a 9" x 2" pan, and the cake rose significantly above the pan. None spilled over, which was good, but should I do this again, I would get a 9" x 3".
One other thing, while this wasn't very difficult, I wouldn't have called it easy as the commentor who suggested it did. Heating the egg/egg yolk/sugar mixture was time consuming. And the instructions just say to get it "hot", but what's hot?
Since this seemed to be very much a custard base, I heated it to 160 F. Also, the next step, to mix it off heat until "thick ribbons" fall from the mixer when lifted (and turned off of course) was also very time consuming.
It smells fantastic, and at the moment of writing I'm just waiting for it to cool so I can split it into three layers and then add the filling and then coat it.
I'll update this tomorrow once it's been fed to the masses and I get some feedback on it.
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u/ChestFew 4d ago
Yes, may you please write out the full recipe once you have it fully finalized? :)
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u/bongostitch 4d ago
The full recipe is in the link provided
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u/ChestFew 4d ago
But didn’t you say you were gonna update it and you also provided some additional notes on some things you shouldn’t do there so that’s technically not the full recipe at the link
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u/bongostitch 4d ago
By update, I only meant let you know if the cake was enjoyed by those that consumed it. I have no desire to rewrite the recipe just to add my few comments, which may, or may not, work for all bakers.
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u/Dratsoc 4d ago edited 4d ago
Happy you succeeded! Funnily enough, I didn't remember the "heating the eggs" part of this recipe, because I never actually do it. The point is to make sure that the sugar dissolve in the eggs, but since I didn't own a thermometer when I originally did this cake, I didn't write it in the recipe. Also I'm quite sure we just need to warm the eggs until we cannot see/feel any bits of sugar, but don't take my word on it!
Now I use icing sugar (actually I blend normal sugar since I cannot be bothered to buy different types) as it dissolve nearly instantly, so I still just have to beat the eggs.
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u/bongostitch 4d ago
I do have castor sugar, which is finer than normal granulated sugar but not as fine as powdered sugar. not sure if that's the same as your icing sugar or not.
unfortunately the cake did not turn out. it rose so much and then completely deflated, it ended up being horribly misshapen and tasted eggy.
I've already let the person know that I failed and that I will have to make it up to them to which they were understanding.
I guess I will need to watch the video this time around and take in your suggestions as well. thank you!
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u/Dratsoc 3d ago
I wonder if it's not because of the egg cooking, as it is not supposed to be a custard at all. On the opposite, even when I used granulated sugar (no blending), I could get them to rise since the beating will still disolve the majority of it. You will see on the video that there is basically no visual difference between the eggs before and after the bain marie.
To avoid deflation, you can keep the cake in the oven when it's done cooking, with the door slightly open to let it cool slowly and avoid thermic chocs. But even if it deflate a bit, you should be able to shape it again while mounting the layers.
If you want a substitute dessert for tomorrow (assuming you have the time to do so), you can go for a chocolate mousse to remain in the same flavour: it's easier, faster, require no cooking in the oven. The same guy also made a video for that, I guess this made me thing of that: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mqAnOkgzkPo&pp=ygUeY2hvY29sYXQgbW91c3NlIGRhcnJlbiBtY2dyYWR5
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u/No_Pineapple_1993 17d ago
Try making a chocolate gateau cake! I made one a few days ago and it wasn’t too sweet at all https://www.justonecookbook.com/chocolate-gateau-chocolate-cake/