Food

The perfect chocolate cake: Building on the work of six baking giants

Chef Beth O’Brien tried out six different recipes before creating her own ultimate chocolate cake

Beth O'Brien baked six chocolate cakes using recipes from well know cookery book authors, before coming up with her own recipe. Photograph: Beth O'Brien

Beth O'Brien
Sat Feb 11 2023 - 06:00

Chocolate cake is a treat: a no-holds-barred, self-indulgent treat. There is no limit to the amount of joy a good chocolate cake can bring, to children and adults alike. I strongly believe that if you’re going to indulge, it should be the most delicious chocolate cake possible, and to that end, I tested six chocolate cake recipes, before developing my own recipe. Whether you’re making this on Valentine’s Day for your favourite person, as a dinner party offering, or scaling the recipe down to make a chocolate cake for one, this cake is guaranteed to delight.

The cake

Most of the cakes tested can be classified as devil’s food cakes, meaning that they use Dutch processed, unsweetened cocoa powder and an acid of some sort (usually buttermilk), which reacts with baking soda to leaven the cake. This type of cake also usually includes hot water (or coffee), added at the last step to activate the leavening process. The result is a cake that is dark and rich, but also fluffy as it usually omits heavier ingredients such as butter and melted chocolate. Nigella Lawson’s Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake is the only exception, with an all-in-one method, where all ingredients are added to a food processor and blended until smooth.

The ingredients

Some cakes include chocolate in the cake mixture, but most rely on cocoa powder for flavour. It’s important to use good quality cocoa powder (Valrhona, for example), for a concentrated, dark chocolate flavour. In a pinch, Cadbury’s Bourneville cocoa is good, but it’s not as dark as some other higher-quality cocoa powders.

The devil’s food-type cakes either use neutral oil or melted butter for the fat proportion of the recipe, and for once I am in favour of omitting butter. Oil allows the flavour of the chocolate to come through, especially when it is accentuated by coffee and vanilla.

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Caster sugar is used in most of the recipes, but I prefer a combination of caster and light brown sugar: the brown sugar adds a molasses-y undertone that complements the chocolate perfectly. For raising agent, a combination of baking soda and acid (buttermilk for example) is most popular, but I like using a small amount of baking powder as well, to ensure a good rise and even bake. Salt is a key ingredient in chocolate cake, to balance out the sweetness. All recipes with the exception of Ravneet Gill’s also include vanilla extract, which enhances the chocolate flavour.

The devil’s food cakes all include liquid in the sponge, usually either in the form of instant coffee dissolved in boiling water, or freshly brewed coffee. Donal Skehan’s cake (adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe) uses water instead, but I think that the coffee is a crucial ingredient in adding another dimension to the flavour profile of the cake.

The icing

Each of the six recipes tested here use either some form of chocolate buttercream or ganache. The ganaches in Yotam Ottolenghi’s and Gill’s recipes are excellent, but I find them a bit too intense with a dark chocolate cake. Ottolenghi’s is a classic chocolate ganache, with the addition of corn syrup and butter, while Gill’s includes sea salt and malt syrup.

Stella Parks uses a Swiss chocolate buttercream, which is made by heating egg whites and sugar to approximately 71 degrees Celsius, before whisking to stiff peaks and adding soft butter and melted chocolate. It is glossy and luscious, but a bit fiddly to make, especially if you don’t have a food thermometer to hand.

Lawson’s and Skehan’s American-style buttercreams are much simpler to make and are deliciously light and tangy. Ina Garten’s also incorporates an egg yolk, which makes the buttercream really smooth and rich.

Recipe: Beth O’Brien’s ultimate chocolate cake

Sources: Ina Garten Beatty’s chocolate cake: https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/beattys-chocolate-cake; Nigella Lawson’s old-fashioned chocolate cake: https://www.nigella.com/recipes/old-fashioned-chocolate-cake; Stella Parks’ devil’s food cake from Bravetart: Iconic American Desserts; Ottolenghi’s world’s best chocolate cake: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018930-worlds-best-chocolate-cake; Ravneet Gill’s Lazy Person’s Cake from Sugar, I Love You; Donal Skehan’s one bowl chocolate cake: https://donalskehan.com/recipes/one-bowl-chocolate-cake.

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