Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A
‘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
I’ve made this amazing cake many times. I usually do it for a two tiered 8″and 6″ round and bake both at the same time at about 150c. I line the outside of my tins with wet newspaper covered in foil and I don’t open the oven until nearly cooked. I hardly get any sinking at all since I used the suggestion of putting the sugar in with the choc when melting it.
I would love to try modifying this recipe to a cherry ripe mud cake but not sure if I should replace the buttermilk with coconut milk and add cherry ripe chopped up into it. Any ideas???
Hello
I’m saving trouble with this recipe as even though I follow it correctly it still sinks in the middle plus if I cut the cake horizontally in half it’s hollow in the middle so I’ve only about 1″ of actual cake thats usable! Any ideas anyone? (The oven temp is definitely correct ) I’ve tried this 4 times so far and is the same each time 🙁
Hi azrael17
Try reducing the sugar a little, that’s what a few members have done and found it works better for them.
Take a look at the answer above from member haamna and others before. There are many tips given by members which may help.
Just a little reminder:
Temp 150c or 130c fan depending on how hot your oven runs. Pre heat oven for 20 minutes to ensure an even heat.
Eggs are large
It’s surprising how many members misread some of the instructions. They went on to produce perfect bakes once the error was corrected.
Hope you have a more successful bake next time.
How do i find the ingredients for this chocolate cake. Paul does not list the ingredients and i do not seem to be able to find it written on the site.
Hello valenerolle
Here are the ingredients http://www.cakeflix.com/online-cake-decorating-courses/chocolate-cake-preparation#ingredients
Click on the ingredients tab directly under the video.
After a few attempts in which all my cakes would sink in the middle I finally decided to try the following: 2 cups of sugar which I mix into the chocolate and butter mixture. I mix the chocolate mixture with the egg mixture in the stand mixture for about 20 seconds. Then I slowly incorporate the dry mixture and mix for approximately 20 seconds. Bake for 2 hours and both cakes came out perfect !!! Please try this they come out perfect no need to put any liner on cake pans recipe is so delicious and easy to carve.
Mine is always so crumbly and sinks x
Hi, I’ve not tried this cake for a while and previous attempts have always resulted in the usual sinking. However, I need to make a 12″ square but am making it as 4 x 6″ squares as my oven won’t take the big tin. I’ve made the mixture for 2 of the 6″ tins to sit side by side in the oven and followed the advice posted by adding less sugar and adding it to the chocolate mix before mixing it with the egg and then dry ingredients. (I did use large eggs!). I’ve cooked them at 150C as my oven is not a fan oven, and after 1 hr 30mins they had risen really well. I left them another 15 mins before opening the oven and lightly touched the top only to find that whilst it looked fine and there was a crust on top, it wobbled, which meant it was not cooked inside. Both subsequently sank quite a lot and they’re now unusable for what I need them for as the sides have also shrunk away from the sides due to the sinking. Do you think I need to try a lower temperature and/or wrap the sides? I use strong Invicta tins so can’t understand why I struggle with this recipe. Many thanks x
Hello suzyq
I’m sorry to hear of your bad cake day! I think this is a heat circulation or timing issue. When you had the tins side by side was there plenty of room in between them for heat to circulate? If the tins were too close together it’s possible the circulation was affected preventing the cakes from baking properly. I think I would increase the bake time to take into account for square tin mixture and the possibility that the heat circulation may have also been affected. I baked this recipe the other day for 1 hr 10 mins in an 8″ round anodised Lakeland pushpan at 130c fan without any problems. I always preheat the oven for 20 minutes at 135c fan to take into account the drop in temperature when the oven door is opened when placing the tins in, then reduce back down to 130 for the baking period.
I don’t wrap the sides of my tins, I do however double line the inside and have the lining paper approx 2″ above the rim of the tin. Some members find wrapping the outside does work for them. Perhaps have a read of some of the other comments by going back a few pages from this one.
Hi, thanks for your response. I did leave plenty of room between the two cakes and they did cook and rise evenly. It must be to do with temperature as they cooked quite well outside but not inside, and even though they’d been in the oven supposedly long enough, they still sank. I’m thinking of trying a lower temperature and leaving them in much longer, but it’s always then tricky to know when to test the cake and if it’s too early, you risk it collapsing. My oven seems to work quite differently to most reading all the comments but it’s always the chocolate cake that gives me such grief. I am going to try again today so will let you know how it goes.
Another success story here! I’ve baked an 8″ square using Paul’s recipe this morning, and I’m happy to report that it has risen up beautifully with no elephant skin, sinking or crusty edges.
I scaled his recipe using the ready reckoner provided (so multiplied the original recipe by 0.6 to get the correct amounts) but dropped the amount of sugar from the calculated 435g to 325.
The tin I used is my Silverwood multi-size square cake tin. I didn’t do anything special other than line is with baking paper.
I baked it in my fan oven at 150 and it took 1hr 30 mins to cook – more proof that not all ovens are the same!
Very pleased with the outcome!!
Hi alipru
As you’ve so rightly said, no two ovens are the same! If I was to bake this recipe at 150c in my fan oven I would have burnt offerings. I think reducing the sugar does help, so possibly that’s why the revised amount was more heat tolereant. I don’t know, so don’t take that as true, you know your oven. Thanks for feedback. x
Hi everyone
I’ve made Paul’s cake today and it turned out fab I used 2 8″ invita tins as I don’t have a 10″ the only thing I would change would be use a bigger bowl when I next make it as, I had a slight mishap when mixing all the ingredients. I followed all of Paul’s intructions which were easy to follow.
Hi everyone. I’m new to the site I’ve only just heard of Paul. He’s amazing. I was all set to try his cake. Only I saw he puts nine spoons of coffee in it and I can not stand the taste of it. Does it come through in the taste or is it not noticeable? Also in the past when I’ve made cake they seen to never toughen up enough for me. Any ideas what I could be doing wrong. I’m a complete beginner and would love any help. Thank you. Lisa.
Hi Lisajl
Welcome to the site! Paul is amazing, he’s a brilliant teacher, stick with him and you’ll learn so much.
The coffee which is used in the cake enhances the chocolate taste and is undetectable to taste.
I’m not really sure what you mean when you say your cakes don’t toughen up, if your cakes are lovely and moist that is what everyone wants. If you mean your cakes are too soft to carve it’s because you are using recipes which are not appropriate for the task. Paul cake is very good for carving. The recipe has been difficult for some members so it may help you to read all the comments in this thread. There are many good hints and tips to help you achieve a successful bake.
If you want to use other firmer cakes try a good madeira recipe or a firmer sponge. There are some member recipes for toffee cake here http://www.cakeflix.com/questions/toffee-cake
If you need more help or information post again.
Hi Lisajl
You didn’t do anything wrong, the recipe can be difficult for some people hence my suggestion to read through the comments in the given link. Many members have baked up the recipe with no problems at all and others have just tweeked it slightly. If you read the later comments you’ll see how other members have remedied some of the problems. One more thing, a lot of people were using medium eggs in error, the recipe asks for large.
You may need to experiment with the recipe a few times until you get a successful bake.
