My chocolate cakes are always shit - pls help

Like you I struggled for ages to find a good recipe and made every other cake to brilliant results. Eventually this recipe was the one that broke the duck. Super easy and now legendary chocolate cake in my family www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/naughty-chocolate-fudge-cake

For children or adults?

Nigellas old fashioned cake used to be fine but I have to make a GF cake now. I tend to make more of a pudding cake with ground almonds. Possibly not suitable for children but mine like it. I use 70% chocolate. If using real chocolate, I’d get proper eating chocolate. Bournville isn’t good in my experience.

This is the best one I've tried, lovely fudgey cake..I replace half the dark chocolate with milk chocolate and cook in two tins so I don't have to cut it

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/ultimate-chocolate-cake

We’ll have to agreed to differ on this one! Cooking the butter and sugar together is transformative. But I recognise the sort of dry gritty texture you can get with flour and cocoa powder.

I'm sure it is! Not trying to diss your cake! But the fact remains that cocoa powder alone makes either a cake that is moist but not very chocolatey, or a cake that is dry and chocolatey. You can't have a moist AND really luxurious chocolatey cake with only cocoa powder. You can make a moist sponge that has a moderate chocolate flavour to it though. Depends what you want.

Betty Crocker is your friend. Delicious cake and is always just right.

What recipe ate you using? Is it like a Victoria sponge with added cocoa powder? They can be dry so maybe cook for a slightly shorter time? Or is it one where you separate the eggs?

DS loves chocolate cake, his birthday cake is always Mary Berry's Malted Chocolate Cake. I think the best gluten free chocolate cake is Torta Caprese.

I always blitz some good quality dark chocolate and add to the cocoa, give a lovely depth of flavour.

I use Nigella's recipe for vegan chocolate cake but I leave out the coffee powder and don't bother with the icing either. It's very easy to make and tastes excellent if, like me, you hate sickly sweet chocolate fudge type cakes. I'm not a vegan but this is the recipe I always use and it goes down vey well with everyone.

Same here Op.

I have given up on normal cakes and make a dark chocolate torte. Good Food guide has a decent recipe.
It's 4 eggs, 200 grams of chocolate and a bit of flour,ground almonds and sugar. Comes out like a cakey brownie. Yum

Mary Berry's can't go wrong chocolate cake is my favourite:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/celebration_chocolate_18175

I use the recipe from the BBC Sponge Cake Calculator which always comes out really nice
www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/sponge_cake_calculator

I find 70% is too high. I use 50-60%. This is my favourite recipe. It's very rich, but very good. Dc ask for it for every birthday.

200g butter
200g chocolate
200g sugar
5 eggs
70g flour or almond flour

Preheat the oven to 180C

Melt the chocolate and the butter together.

Separate the eggs whites from the yolks.

Whisk the yolks with the sugar until pale and fluffy.

Add the chocolate and butter mix, and the almond flour.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Fold into the mixture.

Pour into a greased and lined 22 or 24cm cake tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. The blade should not come clean, the cake must remain moist in the middle.

Top with ganache.

Try not using 70% chocolate, I would think it’s that. I get better results with milk chocolate from supermarket own brands

My chocolate cake made with cocoa is beautifully moist. I heat up the butter and sugar then whisk in the eggs.

Best and easiest cake ever. I put melted dairy milk on top once it's cold. We all love it

Nick Nairn has a chocolate cake recipe which is fabulous, it’s not a sponge cake but is dark and rich. Or you could make brownies instead, piled high and studded with candles or iced like a sheet cake, Nigellas brownie recipe is fool proof.

Never use chocolate in the sponge just good quality cocoa powder

I do a normal sponge cake but substitute 20% of the flour for cocoa powder and then I add a few tablespoons of espresso (instant can be used) and a big tablespoon of mayo.

It’s always a hit.

Have you tried and oil based cake? I find them much more moist than butter.

I do the same. Cocoa powder for the cake, melted chocolate in the icing.

Cocoa powder dries cakes out and is not chocolatey enough on its own (unless you use so much your cake is really dry).

Actual melted dark chocolate makes cakes really chocolatey, but also makes them hard. Melted milk chocolate should be avoided as it makes cakes hard without even making them very chocolatey.

So what you need is basically an ordinary sponge mix but with three things added in:

• cocoa powder
• melted dark chocolate
• an ingredient(s) to moisten and soften. This can be lots of things, even yoghurt! A PP posted a recipe with condensed milk, and I guess that would fill this function.

I don't have an exact recipe any more, but if you are trying recipes I recommend ones that include all three things.

You can also add in small chocolate chunks to any recipe. They melt slightly into the mix so they aren't crunchy/hard, but they don't affect the overall consistency, so you get wee chocolate hits which is nice.

Bbcgoodfood.com - Ultimate chocolate cake.
I use Bourneville chocolate. Reduce sugar by 100g & use 3 tins rather than one deep one. Put tins on the scale so they have equal amounts of mixture. 45mins in the oven is usually perfect.