Chocolate Cake

Baking By platinumlady Updated 23 Apr 2012 , 11:28am by Tails

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platinumlady Posted 22 Apr 2012 , 6:12am
post #1 of 5

For those tht bake scratch ....
Do you use milk chocolate or dark chocolate?

My chocolate cake turns out brown not the dark look that I'm accustom to seeing. I use dutch coco powder and it calls for chocolate...I've just always used milk chocolate. Need some feed back please.

Do I just need to find another recipe...?

4 replies
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scp1127 Posted 22 Apr 2012 , 6:51am
post #2 of 5

For powders, I use Sharffen Berger and Guittard (DP). Both make a dark cake. I also make Hershey's as a basic cake.

On batters that call for melted chocolate, I use semisweet or 60%. I don't own any milk chocolate. Some actually use 100%. But none of those are bitter. The sugar is balanced. I'm actually not sure I have seen milk chocolate for baking.

If you are using milk chocolate for baking, if you like the taste, you will have to change all of your ratios to get the sugar added. That's a big pain in the neck.

When I make IMBC with added chocolate, I used to add some brown food coloring. But then I realized that it was just public perception. I now make it the way it comes out, light brown. It tastes great and looks really nice against the contrast of the dark cake. So I guess I'm saying that once I got over it, I realized the customers didn't care. They want taste and overall good looks, which I'm sure you already have.

I just looked up two recipes. My Revisited German Chocolate Cake is almost black and has a bold chocolate flavor. I use Guittard DPCP in it. It calls for over a cup in a two layer cake, which I torte to four. My Petite Chocolate Chambord Cake is loaded with natural cocoa (Sharffen Berger) powder and some 70%. Both of these cakes are almost black. I think it's the huge amount of chocolate in each.

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platinumlady Posted 22 Apr 2012 , 7:11am
post #3 of 5

Ok..that helps. I thought the semi sweet chocolate chips was milk chocolate...so that's where that part came from.

I've not gotten any complaints but a lot of ppl that come to me are used to box cakes. So I think It's just me over thinking.

Thanks

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scp1127 Posted 23 Apr 2012 , 7:54am
post #4 of 5

If it tastes good, keep it.

Yes, semisweet makes more sense. But since I've been on this site with people around the world, I don't question different ingredients.

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Tails Posted 23 Apr 2012 , 11:28am
post #5 of 5

I use this recipe and it comes out such a dark, rich colour its beautiful!

http://cakecentral.com/recipe/wacky-cake-2

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