My chocolate cakes are always shit - pls help

[Corta]

I have tried 4/5 chocolate cake recipes. And they always end up shit. I am a competent cook/don’t bake too often but most things turn out well. I measure out the ingredients. My oven is decent. The cakes always end up a bitter and bland. The Nigella recipe with the sour cream was not eatable.

What chocolate do you use if actual chocolate is required. I buy the good stuff - 70% green and blacks as specified.

Son would like a homemade chocolate cake for his birthday but it’s causing me so much anxiety.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

ive tried a couple of Nigellas and a few of bbc good food. All labelled “the best choc cake in the multiverse” and they’re anything but!

ive done some which use only cocoa powder, some with melted choc. Some that use oil/buttermilk/sour cream. You name it!

Thank you all so much! Have got my notebook out and am taking notes.

I think I will try one last time and just give up if it’s a fail.

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.

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

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.

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

Lorraine Pascal’s I just don’t give a damn chocolate cake recipe is my go to.
Alternatively, there was a thread a while back, where someone had their allotment stolen… she posted a recipe to chocolate cake in that which sounded tremendous.

Use good quality cocoa powder and oil in the recipe. Very moist cake here.

This one is a doddle , never fails. Moist, chocolatey and so easy.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/naughty-chocolate-fudge-cake

If none of the above work for you and you are driven mad, get a Betty Crocker Devils Food Cake mix. It's 100% foolproof. My kids can do it and it's absolutely gorgeous, so light, moist and tasty. It might just get you through this if it's stressing you out. It's nicer than all the chocolate cakes I've tried making and I'm a decent baker. All you do is add eggs, water and oil to the cake mix and whisk.

This cake recipe is brilliant, a very wet mix, but lovely and rich and moist.

This is the one I've always used and it's lovely.

You may be burning, over baking, and scorching it. Chocolate cake needs to be taken out as soon as it's ready. Too got an oven will ha e the same effect.

I always make Jamie Oliver's party cake. I use Bournville chocolate.

Green and Blacks is lovely stuff but it's eating chocolate, not cooking chocolate. Get something designed for cooking.

And agree with others that most successful chocolate cakes involve boiling water at some point. I can't remember the science but it activates the chocolate somehow,

Keep it simple and just do an all in one sponge with an extra ounce of cocoa powder. Sandwich with chocolate buttercream plus some on top then stick a load of malteasers, minstrels, chocolate sprinkles and glitter on. That's what I have done for the last couple of my kids birthdays.

Sssshhhhh - don't tell anyone! Wright's chocolate cake mix. Delicious and it comes out perfectly every time. Unlike @Circumferences I find ganache dead easy to make and use. Chocolate orange is a big favourite in our house.