Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi all,
I have just made a chocolate cake for a friend.
After letting it cool I’ve noticed the cake ins very dry, now this recipe I got online and says it’s meant to be a moist chocolate cake. I followed recipe to the button but still dry.
Is there anything I can do to help moisten it up Before I put the chocolate buttercream in and decorate?
All help appreciated:-)))
Kellie

Hello Kellie

Some chocolate cake recipes can seem dry at first but taste better after a couple days. It depends on the ingredients and mixing method. If it was a straight forward chocolate sponge then it may have been due to baking on slightly too hot temperature. All is not lost though! The cake can be moistened with some flavoured simple syrup. To make simple syrup boil equal quantities of sugar and water for a minute or two, cool and brush on each layer of the cake on both sides. The sponge will soak up the syrup and refresh the cake. To flavour the syrup you can add a vanilla pod or zest of fruit eg lime, lemon or orange during the boiling. If using vanilla pod scrape out the bean and add to the syrup. The zest can be sieved out once the syrup has cooled. For an 8* cake I make 150g sugar, 150 water, for bigger cakes make more, just keep the quanities equal.. If you have some left over pour in into a sterilized bottle, it will keep for months in the fridge.
Bring it to one boil if using on another cake.

Brilliant thank you so much. The other thing is I have frozen the cake as wasn’t decorating just yet will I have to thaw cake out completely to use this method with the syrup? 🙂

You won’t be able to freeze it again because it has been already frozen. The guidelines to follow are the same as for any food which has previously been frozen and thawed. Just for future reference syrup and freezing doesn’t work very well as the sugar begins to crystallize sometimes making the filing crunchy. Hope your cakes turns out good.

Hi, I was recently asked to make a dry chocolate cake, on purpose. How can i make it dry yet not gross? This is for a friend and i dont want to mess up her request. what do i omit, add i just need a perfect cake!!! HELP i need a good recipe!

Hi sherriblachard2020

Well, this is a first for me! I guess you could reduce the number of eggs or other liquids in your recipe and bake on for a little longer to achieve a drier cake crumb. I would use a simple chocolate sponge recipe that doesn’t need a lot of expensive ingredients. I wouldn’t like to recommend a recipe. 🙂