Trusty cake recipe- can I just add cocoa powder to make it a chocolate cake or is it a bit more complicated than that??

[innocuousnamechange]

Last 2 attempts at new recipes have been absolute disasters, so the final try, the one which must be perfect is tonight. No pressure then My fail safe cake recipe is this Delia one, perfect every time. But my mum specifically wants a chocolate cake. Can I just add a few spoons of cocoa powder? Or will I need to takwe out some flour or somethign to compensate? Or should I just get a grip and tell my mother it's a victoria sponge or nothing

[TonariNoTotoro]

Depends on the quantities, but if you add (for example) 50g of cocoa powder, just reduce your flour by 50g and should all work out.

[MrsJohnDeere]

I do the same as TNT. For a cake with 100g flour I'd use 75g flour and 25g cocoa powder. For that Delia recipe (175g flour) I'd substitute 40-50g of the flour.

My top tip is to use the very best cocoa powder you can afford. I made 2 batches of cakes recently, one with Waitrose Essentials cocoa powder and one with Green and Blacks and the G&B ones tasted soooooo much better than the others.

[TonariNoTotoro]

def go with green and blacks, it's often the same price as brands you might think are cheaper (IYKWIM)

[Fuzzywood]

Yep just reduce the amount of flour and replace with cocoa powder. My mum's recipe which I use hence it being in ounces would be 8oz flour (same amount of sugar and marg, 4 eggs) for a victoria sponge, then 6 1/2 ounces of flour and 1and a half ounces of cocoa for chocolate. Works for me and I'm rubbish at most cooking!

[innocuousnamechange]

Thanks for the help everyone One perfect cake, third time lucky!