Chocolate cakes: recipe with photos, ingredients and baking tips

The best treat in the world is chocolate. No wonder it is produced from cocoa fruits, which in Latin are called Theobroma cacao, that is, "food of the gods." Most people on the planet are inveterate chocolateheads. We all love natural chocolate, chocolates and desserts. Even cosmetics for skin and hair care are made with the aroma of cocoa.

And of course, the chocolate cake is the most delicious and fragrant basis for the festive cake. There are a lot of recipes for their preparation. Almost every housewife, who is “on a short leg” with her oven, knows at least one option for making a chocolate base for dessert.

If this recipe is not in your arsenal, be sure to read the article. In it, we will tell you how to make chocolate cake cakes. Recipes and photos of the finished result will help to evaluate how correctly all the instructions were followed.

Cocoa Selection

What is the most important ingredient in making chocolate cake? If the dessert does not contain cocoa, then the whole taste will be concentrated in the cream, which must be made as delicious as possible. Korzh in such a situation is only accompaniment.

But when it comes to chocolate cake, then everything is exactly the opposite. Most of the taste sensations from the dessert are its share. Therefore, it should be perfect - soft, airy, very tender, with an amazing taste and aroma.

And if the texture depends to a greater extent on the skill of the chef to observe the exact recipe, then cocoa powder gives the taste and smell to the dough.

All cooks know that when cooking even with a simple recipe for chocolate cake, you must definitely put a good cocoa powder in the dough. The taste of baking depends on the quality of this ingredient, so you should not save on it.

In order to understand which powder is considered good, you need to understand what kind of product it is and how it is made. Cocoa is made from cocoa beans. They are fermented, dried in the sun, and then oil is squeezed out of them. The remaining cake is the raw material for the preparation of the powder. Unfortunately, in our time, confectionery products are increasingly replacing cocoa butter with cheaper counterparts. Accordingly, demand falls and production volumes become smaller. Because of this, natural powder is produced less and less. But it can still be found on store shelves. The correct cocoa powder should look like the photo.

Chocolate cakes (there are a lot of cake recipes based on such a test) when this ingredient is added, they get a distinct chocolate taste and aroma. Since the picture is difficult to understand all the distinguishing features of a good cocoa powder, we will try to list them:

1. Color. From light to dark brown. Brown and gray powder may indicate that the product is spoiled or contains additives.
2. Structure. The powder should be homogeneous, without impurities, grains and lumps. When rubbing with the fingertips, individual grains should not be felt, but a feeling of greasy should appear.
3. The aroma. The characteristic aroma of chocolate, without an admixture of milky tones and vanilla.
4. Taste. Like chocolate with sugar and bitterness.

It is advisable to make sure that the product complies with GOST 108-2014 before purchasing. You also need to pay attention to the price. Cocoa cannot cost 30 rubles per pack of 100 g. Of course, you always want to save. But not on this product, since cheap powder can be poured into the dough in large quantities and still not achieve the desired concentration of chocolate flavor.

Chocolate Sponge Cake: Culinary Secrets

There are many recipes for chocolate cake for the cake - both simple and rather complex, requiring some theoretical knowledge. Some of them require repeated repetition before at least something starts to work out. One of the best foundations for a cake is chocolate sponge cake. It differs from all others in its most magnificent and delicate structure. Desserts from it will be airy and very tasty.

When baking a biscuit, food baking powder or yeast is not used. The lush structure is due to the stage of preliminary egg beating. So all air bubbles should be contained in the test initially.

The biscuit consists of only a few ingredients, namely:

• eggs
• sugar;
• flour.

Sometimes it also puts starch and oil. According to the recipe for chocolate biscuit cake, cocoa powder must be added to it. The proportions may be arbitrary, but keep in mind that this is a dry product, and it takes part of the moisture, making the base more dense. Therefore, in recipes, this parameter is taken into account and a little less flour is laid than when cooking ordinary biscuit.

In order for the base to have a rich chocolate flavor, as a rule, for each two parts of flour, one part of cocoa powder is taken. There is another option for determining a good proportion - the mass of cocoa powder should be 10% of the mass of raw eggs. Sometimes, for the preparation of the chocolate base for the cake, they use dark chocolate in tiles or chocolate chips.

The structure of the biscuit largely depends on the freshness of the eggs. They must be at room temperature and as fresh as possible. This can be determined in two ways:

1. Put the egg in a glass of water. Fresh will sink to the bottom, usable will float in the middle, the rotten will float.
2. Beat the egg and evaluate its consistency. Suitable protein for whipping keeps its shape well and does not spread on the dish. If the protein has flowed, then the biscuit from such a product will not rise well.

The second way to determine the freshness of eggs is more accurate.

Test preparation

How to make chocolate biscuit cake cakes? For a prescription, you need to start by preparing a test. From how correctly it is made, it will depend on whether you get a biscuit or not. To get an airy and delicious base for the cake, you must:

1. Warm eggs to room temperature. Chilled whipped squirrels often have a bad shape, fall off, and the biscuit settles in the oven. In addition, sugar dissolves faster in a warm environment.
2. Beat eggs with sugar for a long time, about 25-30 minutes. During this time, the mass should increase several times, become dense and voluminous. Initially, you need to beat at low speed, then gradually increase it. A planetary mixer is ideal for whipping eggs for biscuit.
3. Biscuits are prepared according to different recipes. One at a time, you must first separate the proteins from the yolks and beat both masses separately, and combine before baking. Along with this, the “all in one bowl” method is used when whites and yolks are whipped together.
4. The flour in the egg mass must be interfered very carefully, with soft circular movements, in order to save as many bubbles as possible. If you knead too vigorously, the dough will fall and the biscuit will be flat. Kneading time - no more than 15-20 seconds.
5. Sieve flour and cocoa.
6. Do not hold the dough for too long in the open air or shake it. After it is laid out in a form, it must be sent to the oven.

Chocolate Biscuit Baking

Baking a biscuit is a rather complicated process. At this stage, it is easy to spoil the dough by overexposing or under-holding it in the oven. When making chocolate sponge cake, the dough must be sent to the oven immediately as soon as it is laid out in forms. Do it like this:

• Cook the mold. Usually these are standard baking dishes with a diameter of 20-22 cm. But you can use any. The bottom of the mold is lined with parchment (baking paper), the high sides must be greased with butter.
• Fill in the form. Usually they fill 2/3 of the side height so that the biscuit has where to go. If you do not leave him free space, he will partially escape from the form.
• Flatten the dough. This is a delicate operation, since the dough should not be too much affected. But it is still necessary to level it, otherwise the biscuit will turn out uneven or with cracks.
• Put the mold in a well preheated oven. Temperature condition 180-200 ⁰.
• Do not open the oven and do not move the forms for at least the first 10 minutes from the start of baking.

Excerpt

So how do you make delicious chocolate cake shortcakes? According to the recipe, the dough should stay in the oven for at least 20 minutes, but sometimes it takes all 40. It all depends on the specific recipe and the size of the form. Biscuits on flat baking sheets reach the preparedness very quickly. A large and tall cake can stand for about an hour. So you have to determine the degree of readiness in appearance.

The main problem with chocolate cakes is that they are already brown. So you can’t navigate by color. It’s necessary to pierce the dough in the old fashioned way with a wooden toothpick: if it is clean, then the baking is ready, if there is a wet trace, then you need to wait further. Modern confectioners use a special thermometer: they measure the temperature in the middle of the biscuit and focus on its readings.

You can see how the baked chocolate cakes should look in the section in the photo.

A recipe with a detailed description of the whole process can be read below.

After the base is ready, it must be properly cooled before assembling the dessert. If you suddenly get a biscuit from the oven, it may fall, so the cakes cool like this:

1. Turn off the oven and let the baking stand for another 4-5 minutes. Do not open the door!
2. Open the door (make a small gap) so that the temperature drops gradually. Wait another 4-5 minutes.
3. Get the mold and let the biscuit cool directly in it. 25-30 minutes are enough for this.
4. Remove the biscuit from the mold. Parchment does not need to be removed yet, as the cake should still “mature”.
5. The base reaches its ideal state in 8-10 hours. That is, it is advisable to bake a biscuit on the eve of the dessert's assembly day. During aging, the cake becomes more durable, will not crumble, while it remains soft and airy. Parchment paper will not allow its edges to dry, so you need to remove it only before impregnation and assembly.

Impregnation

To some gourmets, chocolate cakes seem too dry. In order to make them more moist and juicy, they are watered with special impregnation. It penetrates into all pores and gives the base softness, and sometimes an additional taste.

How to soak chocolate cake cakes? There are a lot of recipes for impregnation, but orange and cognac are best combined with chocolate, so you need to cook like this:

1. Take 250 g of sugar and 250 ml of water. To mix.
2. Boil, then cool to room temperature.
3. Add 50 g of brandy, orange essence or zest of fresh orange.

You can also use vanilla or almond essence, dessert wine, madeira or rum. You can also add any juices, natural coffee, liquor.

Pour the biscuit with the resulting impregnation so that it is completely saturated. It is important not to overdo it or wet the base too much. Moreover, the impregnation should not clog the chocolate flavor of the biscuit.

Bake biscuit

To prepare a biscuit, you can use the simplest recipe. Chocolate cake cakes for cake will still turn out to be unusually delicate and delicious.

List of ingredients:

• chicken eggs, fresh, warmed to room temperature - 5 pcs.;
• fine sugar - 1 cup (250 ml);
• premium flour - 1 cup (250 ml);
• good quality cocoa powder - two large spoons.

Additionally, you will need a round shape with a diameter of 25-28 cm or any other with approximately equal area and high sides, as well as parchment and butter for lubrication.

Here is the finished chocolate cake in the photo.

The recipe is very simple:

1. Take two bowls deep enough to beat. They must be clean and completely dry.
2. Wash the eggs, wipe them dry. Separate the squirrels from the yolks. If there are yellow blotches in the squirrels, they will not beat.
3. Add a pinch of salt to the proteins and beat with a whisk or a mixer.
4. Put half the sugar to the proteins. Beat well until a dense, dense foam with stable peaks is formed.
5. Take a second bowl, place the yolks and sugar in it. Beat until crystals disappear completely. The mass will become light and dense.
6. Take one glass of flour. Remove two tablespoons of the product from this amount and pour cocoa powder. If you need a biscuit with a more pronounced chocolate flavor, then cocoa can be added a little more, similarly replacing them with an equivalent amount of flour.
7. Mix the yolks and squirrels with soft circular motions.
8. Pour dry ingredients and gently combine all the products into a homogeneous mass. It is important not to stir too long so that the dough does not fall.
9. Put the mass in a mold, flatten and bake.

Further actions we have already described. This recipe for chocolate cake is considered quite simple, although it is quite easy to spoil it at almost any stage of preparation.

For those who do not want to mess with a moody and tender biscuit, there are other options. For example, you can make delicious chocolate cake cakes for recipes that involve the use of baking powder. Such a component gives a more stable result, and the basis for the dessert rises in any case. For this, it’s enough just not to forget to put a baking powder in the dough or not to “extinguish” baking soda with any acidic medium. However, errors are possible here. If the baking powder is small, the dough will not rise well, and the cake will be flat and dense. If you put a lot, then in the dessert you will feel a characteristic soda taste, and the dessert will taste like soap.

Wet Chocolate Cake Cakes

The recipe for this base for the cake is quite simple. At the same time, it turns out to be very tender and airy, but strong enough so that the cake does not fall apart during assembly. To prepare wet chocolate cake for a cake according to the recipe of Alina Akhmadieva, the following ingredients are needed:

• Good quality cocoa powder - 150 g.
• Premium flour - 300 g.
• Fine Sugar - 350 g
• Soda as a baking powder - 2 teaspoons.
• Salt - one teaspoon.
• Large fresh eggs - 3 pcs.
• Heated water - 135 ml.
• Kefir (with aging 2-3 days) - 240 ml.
• Flavourless vegetable oil - 100 ml.
• Vanillin or vanilla sugar - 2 g or one sachet.

What this culinary masterpiece looks like can be seen in the photo below.

Chocolate cake recipe step by step - further:

1. Dry components, except for baking powder and vanilla, mix in a deep bowl. Sift flour and cocoa.
2. Pour kefir into a separate bowl and add baking powder to it. Alkaline soda will react with acidic kefir and a thick lush foam will appear.
3. Into the kefir mix eggs, hot water and oil. When using the mixer, use the low speed mode. Add vanillin.
4. Keep stirring, add dry mass in small portions. Knead until smooth.
5. Prepare forms - grease their sides with butter, and put baking paper on the bottom.
6. Send in an oven preheated to 180 ° C.

Air cake

This is a recipe for chocolate cake using dark chocolate. To prepare it, you will need the following ingredients:

• dark dark chocolate - 50 g;
• large fresh eggs - 4 pcs.;
• hot water - 4 large spoons;
• fine sugar - 50 g;
• vanillin - 2 g;
• premium flour - 75 g;
• corn starch - 75 g;
• Baking powder or slaked soda - 2 small spoons.

Procedure:

1. Mix flour, starch and food baking powder.
2. Melt a chocolate bar in a water bath.
3. Separate the yolks from the proteins.
4. Beat squirrels in a thick foam.
5. Beat the yolks with vanilla and sugar.
6. Pour chocolate into the yolks. Mix.
7. Mix the third part of the whipped proteins with the chocolate mixture.
8. Add dry ingredients to the yolks in portions, put the remaining proteins. Stir in soft circular motions.
9. Warm the oven to 200 ⁰.
10. Put the dough in the prepared form, flatten, send to the oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

This chocolate cake recipe has exact proportions and must be observed. In order to accurately measure sugar, flour and starch, you need to use weights. It is impossible to replace corn starch with potato. These are different products with different properties. In baking, it is corn starch that is used.

Chess Cake

When you buy a finished cake on a slice, you can see the "chess" cake, when dark and light sections alternate. Many people like this funny effect, but they don’t even suspect that it is easy to repeat at home. To do this, bake two round cakes of the same diameter: regular, light, and dark - chocolate.Then, if it is a biscuit, he needs to be allowed to “mature” so that he keeps his shape better. Others are enough to cool. After that, you can start cutting and assembling.

Chess cake is very simple to make:

1. Each cake must be divided into three parts (as many as possible), as in the photo below.

2. Then you need to collect the cakes in the reverse order: insert the dark core into the middle light circle and connect with a large dark circle. Repeat the same with another cake.

3. Collect the cake, decorate.

As a result, the cut will produce clear “chess” cubes. For cutting, you can use special tin rings or a metal mold. If they are not, then you can cut with a knife on a cardboard template.

Chocolate Flavored Cakes

Time for a full baking is sometimes not enough. However, sometimes hands ask to make something delicious and chocolate-chocolate. We bring to your attention a recipe for a chocolate cake with ready-made cakes. To prepare it you will need:

• classic cookies - 300 g;
• butter - 150 g;
• good quality cocoa powder - 4 large spoons with a slide;
• soft cream cheese - 250 g;
• powdered sugar - two bags (100 g);
• dark chocolate in tiles - 200 g;
• chilled fatty cream (not less than 32% fat content) - 200 g.

How to cook:

1. Melt the butter in a water bath.
2. Grind cookies into homogeneous crumbs.
3. Mix crumbs, butter and cocoa powder.
4. Beat chilled cream with a spoonful of icing sugar.
5. Put cling film on the bottom of the mold. Put a mixture of butter and cookies. Flatten. Put in the refrigerator.
6. Beat soft cheese with powdered sugar.
7. Melt the chocolate in a water bath. Cool, but so that it remains liquid. Stir with cheese.
8. Add cream to the chocolate cream. Knead with soft circular motions to keep the cream airy.
9. Put cream on the cake cake and smooth. Send in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, but better all night.
10. Remove the cake from the refrigerator. Garnish with berries, marshmallows, fruits, sweets or chocolate chips.

Cream

How to make cream for chocolate cakes? The recipes for their preparation are not just a lot, but a lot. We bring to your attention a few of them.

Sour cream

You need to take fat sour cream - 400 g (fat content above 25%), cool it and beat with a glass of fine sugar and a pinch of vanillin. The result should be a dense, not too sweet cream with a slight milk sourness.

Cherry

Chocolate and cherry are a union blessed in heaven. This combination will please the eye, and all olfactory and taste buds. Cherry cream is prepared as follows:

• Grind 100 g of fresh or frozen seedless cherries in mashed potatoes;
• Beat 200 g of soft butter with 150 g of fine sugar until grains dissolve;
• add berry puree in small portions to the oil cream and continue to whisk, as a result, you should get a pink tender butter cream with the taste and aroma of cherries.

Condensed milk custard

This is a classic combination of flavors - a gentle milk cream with bright chocolate biscuit. Custard is prepared as follows:

• Dissolve two tablespoons of sugar in one glass of milk, and dissolve two tablespoons of flour. Put the mixture on fire and heat.
• Cook on very low heat, constantly disturbing, otherwise everything will burn up and the taste will deteriorate.
• Beat 100 g of soft butter with boiled condensed milk.
• Add butter with condensed milk to the chilled milk mixture.
• Beat until a dense and uniform cream is obtained.

Whipped cream

This is a classic of the genre. This cream is suitable for absolutely all cakes, including chocolate. For cooking, you need to take 500 ml of fresh chilled cream and beat them with 150 g of powdered sugar.

Cook deliciously and with pleasure!