A Coco Powder Taste In Cake

kah22

I recently baked a chocolate sponge (a trial run for a Black Forest Gateau that I've been asked to make for a 60th birthday celebration). RECIPE

While I stuck strictly to the sponge part of the recipe, when finished I found a pronounced coco flavour of the sponge. It's that long since I made a chocolate cake I actually forget the taste.

Several thoughts spring to mind. The coco powder I was using, Sainsbury's, had been in the house for quite a while. Maybe it was spoiled

My second thought was reducing the amount of coco powder from say 50g down to 30g but then in baking I've always been told: it's a bit like chemistry you've got to stick to the recipe. Of course it might just be my taste.

Have you any thoughts on the matter. Anyone baked a chocolate cake recently or better still a Black Forest Gateau? Is there a better or best coco powder for baking with ? I really would appreciate your thoughts.

Kevin

JIL

I would cheat and use a Betty crocker devil's food cake mix. It's what pizza chains use and it's very light and fluffy. On offer in Aldi ATM at £1.75. I have never been able to do a decent chocolate sponge. One of my many failings

Throw away the box afterwards to avoid detection.

Best Coco powder I have used is the bournville one in the red tub. I use it for brownies.

rach_k

When making a chocolate sponge using a plain sponge recipe, I would normally take out a tablespoon of flour and add a tablespoon of cocoa powder. I don't see why you couldn't do the same in reverse - if you feel there was too much cocoa powder for your tastes, just take some out next time and replace it with flour.

Have you asked somebody else to taste it to see what they think though?

kah22

JIL wrote: »

I would cheat and use a Betty crocker devil's food cake mix...Throw away the box afterwards to avoid detection.

Tempting 😈 but that would be cheating

Callie22

Do you mean that you found the sponge too chocolatey? The sponge for a black forest is supposed to taste of quite bitter chocolate as the idea is that you douse it in kirsch and add quite sweet cherries and rich cream, so you need that slightly bitter cake just to give you a bit of contrast and stop it all being too sweet (and incidentally if you swap the kirsch for creme de menthe and the cherries for after eights then that makes a very nice cake too ). If you found it too dark and bitter then you could, as rach_k said, just leave out some of the cocoa and swap it for flour but it's not generally supposed to be a 'mild' chocolate cake.

The 'best' cocoa powder is a bit subjective but generally you want a good quality dark one. Some people like Cadbury's Bournville, or there are various other brands available. You should make sure you're using cocoa powder though, and not drinking chocolate, as that tends to have less cocoa in it and has milk powder and sugar added.

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bouicca21

Try mixing the cocoa powder with a bit of hot water - makes it taste much more chocolatey.

kah22

Thanks for the replies. I get what you are saying about the contrast Collie22

As a non drinker I don't have an extensive range of drink in the house. The usual alahols for cooking/baking: brandy, rum, whiskey, port and cherry brandy. Not bad for tea-toatler 😋

I don't really want to go a buy a bottle booze that I could have in the cupboard for years so I think I'll use cherry brandy. Any thoughts

Callie22

I can't see a problem with cherry brandy. The flavour profile of cherry brandy is different from kirsch but as long as it's a cherry flavoured liqueur then it should be fine. In terms of quantity I'd personally err on the side of caution as my memories of cherry brandy are that it can be quite potent!

MMF007

Callie22 wrote: »

Do you mean that you found the sponge too chocolatey? The sponge for a black forest is supposed to taste of quite bitter chocolate as the idea is that you douse it in kirsch and add quite sweet cherries and rich cream, so you need that slightly bitter cake just to give you a bit of contrast and stop it all being too sweet (and incidentally if you swap the kirsch for creme de menthe and the cherries for after eights then that makes a very nice cake too ). If you found it too dark and bitter then you could, as rach_k said, just leave out some of the cocoa and swap it for flour but it's not generally supposed to be a 'mild' chocolate cake.

The 'best' cocoa powder is a bit subjective but generally you want a good quality dark one. Some people like Cadbury's Bournville, or there are various other brands available. You should make sure you're using cocoa powder though, and not drinking chocolate, as that tends to have less cocoa in it and has milk powder and sugar added.

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OMG, that sounds amazing, i shall try that for the next birthday cake! Thanks Callie!

Debran

It's years since I baked a chocolate cake but I drink cocoa regularly. I've tried all the different brands of cocoa but none are as good as Rountrees. It seems that only Morrisons stock Rountress though.

If I run out of Rountrees I prefer to go without cocoa rather than drink any other make.

Callie22

MMF007 wrote: »

OMG, that sounds amazing, i shall try that for the next birthday cake! Thanks Callie!

You're welcome Many, many years ago my parents ran a restaurant and the 'after eight gateau' was always very popular. I remember my mum making it with cream that had been tinted pale green, lots of chocolate vermicelli on the outside and halved after-eights carefully placed on the cream rosettes that she piped on the top. It's definitely worth trying