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‘Paul’s moist chocolate cake’ My feed back
Recently Paul posted his chocolate cake recipe for us all to try. Many members have had various difficulties baking it up. The most predominant ‘failing’ is that the cake sinks in the middle. We’ve all at some point answered with feed back and suggestions as to why this may be happening, sooo with great trepidation I baked ‘The Cake’ this morning. My cake was scaled down to 8″ square, using my hubby’s conversion chart, which is posted on the site under ‘ingrediants’ (spelled this way to find in search). I baked in a dark heavy duty tin, greased and floured fairly generously then lined with parchment paper, exactly as shown on the cake tutorial. I have a fan assisted oven which I set at 135c. Once the mixture was in the tin I reduced the heat to 130c and baked for a complete two hours. After an hour, through the oven glass door, I could see that the cake had risen but, had also become wrinkly, like elephant skin,towards the middle. I realised this was the prelude to the ‘sink’! However, I just continued baking for a further hour, then opened the oven part way to check the cake for doneness, which it was, thoroughly. The cake had sunk slightly, and formed a hard crust only around the outer rim which resembled ginger snap biscuits. After the cake had cooled completely I turned it out, to find a beautiful deep, moist cake with no hint of the dip present on the other side. This evening at 10.30 we cut the cake ‘proof of the pudding’ style and have enjoyed a very pleasant dessert. Prior to turning the cake out,and quite soon after removing it from the oven, I prematurely posted under ‘Paul’s chocolate cake, timing’ (in search), that I had doubts whether this cake would hold up to carving and stacking. Having cut, inspected for structure and sampled it, I can conclude that it definitely will to both.
I hope this feed back will help members who may want to attempt baking the cake again. Finally, Jayess has posted many times to try and solve the concundrum of ‘the chocolate cake sinking in the middle’. She has raised a salient point about the amount of sugar used in the recipe which may, or may not be a contributory factor to some of the problems experienced, although on tasting, sweetness is not excessive, and baking science is some thing I understand not! Happy baking folks x
Sounds like you got on great with the cakes, I really should try the recipe again this weekend!
If my ganach has set before I’m applying fondant (I often don’t have time to let it dry out completely) then I would brush over with a little cooled boiled water, just like I would with marzipan, have the brush damp, not dripping wet, it only takes a little to dampen it 🙂
Do not give up on Paul’s chocolate cake. I have just got a new oven and was worried it would not work out, but it turned out beautiful. Took it to my Keep Fit class and they thought it was the best chocolate cake they had ever tasted. Now I am inundated with requests for it.
Hi Susan
I do use soft brown sugar all the time with this recipe only because I prefer the fudgy taste. And yes I did omit the oil by mistake one time and thought the cake wasn’t as moist. The oil I feel does make a difference, perhaps it’s just me. Did you omit the oil?
Hi MIWL,
No, I just wondered as I prefer the fudgy taste of brown sugar as well. Did you keep the amount the same or did you change it? I sometimes feel that the cake, which I really like, is just a little too moist and causes it to be easily misshapen. I might just try cutting it down a little and see how that goes. Thanks again.
I don’t change the amount Susan because I feel that also changes the recipe. I find chilling or freezing the cake prevents breaking and misshaping before ganaching. Other members as you know have reduced the sugar and found that works better for them, all recipes can be tinkered within reason. Have a go, your feed back would be great. x
hi ive been wanting to try your chocolate cake recipe for ages and finally got the change this weekend .I was abit worried when it came out the oven and cooled when I cut into it to start decorating it I paniced abit thinking it wasn’t baked enough .I didn’t have to worry my customer for the cake rang me and everybody loved it ive now got orders for two more so would just like to say thankyou
hi ive been wanting to try your chocolate cake recipe for ages and finally got the change this weekend .I was abit worried when it came out the oven and cooled when I cut into it to start decorating it I paniced abit thinking it wasn’t baked enough .I didn’t have to worry my customer for the cake rang me and everybody loved it ive now got orders for two more so would just like to say thankyou
hi ive been wanting to try your chocolate cake recipe for ages and finally got the change this weekend .I was abit worried when it came out the oven and cooled when I cut into it to start decorating it I paniced abit thinking it wasn’t baked enough .I didn’t have to worry my customer for the cake rang me and everybody loved it ive now got orders for two more so would just like to say thankyou
I made this cake for a hen do cake, all the girls loves it , it carved beautifully and held extremely well. only negatives if there are any would be the cake it quite heavy (not light and fluffy) so would only need a small slice. but on the flip side at least no one needs to worry about eating too much and pilling on the pounds! lol overall brill recipe xxx
Hi scatt1992
The cake is not meant to be fluffy, it’s a dense but moist cake suitable for carving, so it sounds like you had a perfectly baked cake. x
OK, cannot find Paul’s chocolate cake recipe, help.
You’ll find it right here overboard50 http://www.cakeflix.com/online-cake-decorating-courses/chocolate-cake-preparation
This is the second time that I have baked this cake. A couple of wee tweaks I cut the coffee down to 5 teaspoons as I was using Millicano and measured the rapeseed oil to 52.5ml as not all teaspoons are the same. I used 6 large eggs, which im always skeptical at doing as I like to measure the weight, but wasnt sure what weight, they measured in at 350grms.
I used the following ingredients:
Belcolade chocolate buttons
Green and Blacks cocoa.
Millicano Coffee
Lurpark unsalted butter
Free range large eggs
Organic buttermilk
Organic rapeseed oil
Bero SRF
Bero plain flour
Tate & Lyle golden castor sugar
I use a Neff oven so its circotherm heat at 140 degrees C instead of the 150 degrees C and cooked for 2 hrs 10 mins in a 10″ x 8″ x 3″ Invicta heavy duty tin with parchment paper and filled half way up. The cake has risen the full 3 inches evenly, the top of the cake has the ginger snap look to it and some bubbling in the centre but has not sunk.
I have taken a thin slice off the top, which I would normally do and underneath lies a gorgeous moist chocolate cake.
Some more positive feed back ladies, thank you for adding your comments, they will certainly help other members who want to try the recipe. I love it too!
Hello Nono
A lot of members have had similar experience but have succeeded in producing a good cake by reading through all the shared tips in the thread. Have a little peek at some of the comments I’m sure you will find them very helpful should you want to try another bake. Good luck!
Hi guys
I made this cake twice and the first time I made it it completely sunk in the middle and the outer edges were raised and formed a crust (seems like many people have had this issue)
The second time I made it however I made these changes according to suggestions on this thread and a bit of googling:
– I reduced the amount of sugar in the cake by roughly 20% (I halved this recipe so instead of using 360 grams of sugar i used 300 grams)
– I weighed out my eggs this time and realised i was using medium sized eggs not large ( so I added half an egg to the recipe)
– when I made the egg, buttermilk and oil mixture I also added the sugar and using the whisk attachment on my kitchenaid I let it mix together until the sugar had dissolved, I then poured the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and mixed it again until I was sure the sugar had completely dissolved.
– I used a steel flower nail in the bottom of my 8 inch pan while baking to ensure even baking
– I also reduced the amount of batter i poured into my pan – I poured it a little less than half way
-I reduced the oven temperature to 130 degrees (first time I made the cake I baked at 140) and baked and 8 inch cake for about 1.5 hours
The result was that the cake did not sink AT ALL and I got a very even cake – i had some batter left over which i poured into 2 very small heart pans (about 4 inch pans) and they didn’t sink either – my guess is the dissolved sugar did the trick as i didn’t have flower nails in these pans.
I hope this helps those who are having problems with sinking cakes – don’t give up! 🙂 if anyone tries these tips please do share how you went.
