Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

HI

I’m looking for the above recipe, for the Lakeland medium half hemisphere tins. I have the vanilla cake recipe for the two tins but don’t know how much melted chocolate to add to make it into a chocolate cake Please can anyone help? I have run out of cocoa powder so need to use melted plain chocolate.

Thanks

Hi bellscakes

Substituting melted chocolate for cocoa powder isn’t straightforward. Cocoa powder is pure without added sugars and contains its own cocoa butter. You could do it with dark baking chocolate but not with bars of chocolate which contain sugars and other fats. However, I have seen a recipe similar to Mrs Jones’ vanilla cake which might be more useful to you than if I try and break down the substitute formula. The following recipe is typical vanilla cake ingredients but with melted chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa solids:

https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/cakes/ultimate-chocolate-cake

If you use low percentage cocoa solids eating bar, it is likely the chocolate will solidify once it hits the batter or, if it does mix in, the cake will most likely turn out greasy and heavy. You’ll get the best results from dark baking chocolate, 🙂

Hi madeitwithlove

Apologies for not getting back sooner. Thanks very much for sourcing this link for me. I spent ages looking for a chocolate madeira cake recipe before contacting you too. However I did find a site that advised substituting 1 square of say 70% chocolate for I tablespoon of cocoa. I have to say it didn’t resemble a chocolate cake at all as it was the colour of a toffee cake, moreover, it looked dry which was no doubt due to me being in a rush that I set the oven temperature a little higher that it should have been. To counter the dryness I made some caramel simple syrup to put on the cake layers which hopefully made cake more palatable. But the main thing is that my 2 year old little granddaughter loved it. It was an elephant cake and she loves elephants.

Hope you and hubby are managing well.

Take care, xxxx

xx

Hi bellescakes

I’m so pleased you managed to get a cake made for your little granddaughter. Little children don’t take much notice of the cake itself, I think they are more interested in the theme. It seems you got it dead right because she obviously loved her little elephant! You appear to have done a great job on the quality of the cake too! Amazing what a little syrup can do.

We’re keeping ok, thank you. At long last able to leave the house for socially distanced walks and play bowls outdoors just between the two of us. All the slots are timed so we don’t encounter other players. Lovely to be able to get out and see something different. We shouldn’t complain as we do have a nice big garden so we’re very much luckier than most people. Just grateful for small mercies. Keep well and look after yourself. XXX

Hi again madeitwithlove

Yes, well it was all worth the hard work in the end to see her little face when she saw the cake, wee soul. You’d think after years of cake making experience that cakes would always turn out perfectly! Fat chance, but then they do say that cake baking is a science.

It’s great to hear you’re both doing well and getting back to the bowling club too. What a difference it makes to be able to return to some form of normality once more. It’s just great to be outdoors breathing in the fresh air and listening to the sound of birdsong. Yes we also have a garden and I am truly grateful for that too as it’s such a pleasant place to be. Well have a lovely weekend. Take care xx