Hello ! Well i will explain a little about me my name is Yanira and im from Lima Perú i studied pastry in my country i had some travels for vacations and visite my friends and family here in usa the last time than i went to usa i decided try to practice in my dads home and i started to practice my recipes and cakes but as i said in other post i didn’t know where buy some things, how buy that , which brands i wish sometimes than only the language will be different but to be honest when is about pastry or baking i found more things different.

I come back to usa some weeks ago and now is really for stay yeihh !, I’m happy because the pizza is the best but nervous because  the last two times than was two days ago i did than my boyfriend run from my cakes and when i said run is run for take a way of them

Now my gol is no matter how many ingredients i have to buy i really want make cakes and desserts with a good texture and flavors as usually i do 

NOW MY QUESTIONS 

I bought the cocoa powder Hersheys  natural unsweetened but i dont feel than have to much cocoa thats the cocoa podwer than usually the bakers use here? Is not to heavy ? is a good brand? 

And my big issue the flour oh my god a lot kinds in the supermakert and any of them say than i need or maybe I’m wrong  ok i bought this flour Martha White All - porpose flour ok I’m searching a flour than have already the baking soda inside mixing with the flour in my country we call that harina preparada wheres i can find that and which brand of flour is good ? 

Other big issue is the baking soda i bought the arm & hammer but before to put the mix of the cake in the oven i had some and i feel than the flavor of the cake had some like iron so i have as conclusion than have to be  the baking soda because i sew than this brand is used a lot for clean things maybe can be that too 

i bought the baking powder clabber girl is ok ? That brand? 

The last thing than i have to say is than i make this recipe of chocolate cake for 4 years and i never have any problem and is a easy recipe and so delicious 

please help 

The one ingredient I ALWAYS use is White Lily flour.  I will substitute or change around with other ingredients, but never the flour.  I have never had a cake disaster or an unhappy customer using this brand.  Good luck!  

Good morning 

thanks for answer me ! The bag of flour is mixing with baking powder  ?  

What you want to get is called self rising flour if you want the flour to have baking powder (and salt) mixed in.  Here is how to make your own:

1 cup (4 1/4 oz, 120 grams) all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsps (10 grams, 5 3/4 mls)  baking powder

1/4 tsp (1 1/4 ml, 1.42 grams) salt 

Correction - 7 1/2 mls baking powder, the edit doesn't work

Thanks so much ! Which brand of baking soda do you use ? 

I use Arm and Hammer baking soda.  But that is NOT the same as baking powder.  They are not interchangeable.  I happen to have Rumsford baking powder in my cupboard, but there are many different brands and I am not partial to any.  The self rising flour recipe above uses baking powder NOT baking soda.  

You can use almost  ANY brand of All purpose flour you find in a supermarket.  Not all brands are available in all markets.  I do not have Martha White OR White Lily brands where I live (CA).  A well known brand that is found almost everywhere in the US is Gold Medal flour .

As another poster said what you are looking for is called "self-rising"  flour OR you can make your own with the recipe posted.  

Hershey's UNsweetened cocoa powder is a good choice/brand as is Clabber Girl (baking powder) and Arm & Hammer (baking soda).

you can also look for 'non-aluminum baking powder' if you get too much metallic, iron flavor -- I can find that in my local grocery stores --  

I use arm & hammer or store brand baking soda -- no problem

best to you

Thanks so much everyone! I will make some recipes tomorrow with all the advices 

im exciting ! 

Different flour has different amounts of protein in it because it's made from different wheat. The more protein, the tougher your final product will be because protein creates gluten when It' mixed with liquids and mixed up. Cake flour like Swans Down and Softasilk have 6% protein in them and make the softest products. White Lily is a biscuit flour and it has about 8% protein. All purpose flour has about 11% protein, and bread flour is 13% protein. The higher the protein, the firmer the final product will be. That's interesting about how you use White Lily @cutiger ‍, that's kind of an in-between to the cake flour and an all-purpose so it would be a compromise between softness and structure.

Baking soda isn't the same as baking powder, and if you were using that instead of baking powder you probably got too much of it in the recipe and that's what gave you the weird flavor. Baking powder is baking soda with an acid included to make it react. If a recipe only calls for baking soda it probably had an acid somewhere else  in it that's making the baking soda react, but with baking powder you don't need that. And double-acting baking powder reacts when it's mixed with a liquid plus when it's heated. If you mix baking soda with the acid and a liquid it reacts right then, it doesn't wait around, so you could end up with a flatter cake.

Everyone's said the self-rising flour is the way to go, but if you can figure out how to adapt the recipe to use regular flour plus the baking powder it will give you more flexibility, since yo're stuck with whatever the self-rising has in it. It's like using salted butter, you have no control over the amount of salt in it. If you can figure out how your recipe works with regular flour and add the baking powder yourself you can adjust it in the future if you need to.