Chocolate cake is a dessert that everyone loves. It’s not too sweet and provides the perfect amount of indulgence, without being overwhelming in calories or sugar content. The rich chocolate flavour in this cake is what makes it so popular. You can taste the sweetness of its decadent filling paired with each bite, but there’s also something comforting about ending your meal on a sweet note even if you aren’t exactly craving dessert.
One thing you have to realise is that not all chocolate cakes are created equal. Every baker has his or her own secret recipe to this decadent cake too. But what are the ingredients that make it truly mouth-watering? Here are the secrets of the best chocolate cakes in Singapore that you should know:
- Cocoa.
The rich flavour of chocolate cake comes from using the highest quality cocoa you can find. The darker and more intense, the better. Keep in mind that not all types or brands are created equal; use pure unsweetened cocoa for an accurate approximation on how much additional sugar needs to be added when making your recipes with this ingredient so it’s just right-especially if we want our cakes sweet but not too sugary.
Pro tip: lighter coloured cocoa variants indicate a less satisfying blend while darker shades mean higher concentrations of bitter alkaloids like caffeine, which enhances the richness of chocolate taste.
- Coffee.
When you take a bite into your favourite chocolate cake, do the flavours taste better than usual? It might be because of coffee.
Coffee brings out the chocolate aroma while balancing sweet and bitter tastes. When added to cake batter, it improves the cocoa taste in a recipe as well as ensuring that there is no funky aftertaste like those from chemical flavour enhancers.
- Accurately measured ingredients.
With the right amount of ingredients, you can make an excellent cake that has dark enough colour and is not tough. However, when too much sugar or flour are incorporated into your recipe, there will be adverse effects on how well it turns out for both taste-wise as well aesthetically. There is the risk of having a hard and dry texture, the cake becoming too sweet or too bland, and the formation of cracks on the top layer that may lead to unwanted crumbling.
While the best chocolate cakes in Singapore are known to be totally decadent, they can still be prone to such issues, which can only be resolved by measuring the ingredients properly.
One way to be as accurate with your measurements is by using a kitchen scale. If you don’t have one, try scooping the ingredients into little cups before levelling off chat tops and then filling them up again–it may not work for all types of sugars or flours but this method does help provide better accuracy than just eyeballing it.
- Cream the butter and sugar first.
You’ll know your chocolate cake is going to be light and fluffy when you cream the butter before adding other ingredients. This can take a little time, but it’s worth every second! Beating sugar with softened margarine until pale in colour and fluffy texture tells us there has been significant incorporation of air into the mixture which results in fluffier cakes.
