31 Delish Chocolate Cake Recipes That Don't Disappoint (2024)

FAQs

How to make a cake more moist? ›

Brushing on a small amount of simple sugar syrup over your baked cake can help add a bit of moisture. Instead of simple sugar syrup, you can also use evaporated milk, coconut milk or even your favorite flavored liqueur. You should also consider frosting the cake right away.

The rule is simple and resolute: Don't mix it. When making a simple and classic dump cake, the last two steps are always the boxed cake mix and the butter.

Incorporate too little air and your cake won't rise enough. Too much air and your cake will collapse because it simply can't hold onto all that air. Overbeating can add too much additional air and/or large air bubbles which the cake can't support, causing it to collapse in the oven.

Depending on how your cake broke, your best option might be to “glue” it back together. Think of the frosting as mortar and spread it in and around the crack to get the cake to hold. Then frost all around it to cover the mistake, chill, and voila! Nobody will know (or care) when you slice it up and serve it.

Use cake flour.

If a recipe calls for all-purpose flour, opt for cake flour instead to create a more moist, tender crumb. Additions like sour cream, buttermilk, or applesauce can also infuse moisture and prevent a dry cake. Baking soda or baking powder also ensures a nice lift in baked goods.

Too Much or Too Soft of Butter

If the butter yields too easily to pressure and appears melted and oily, it will produce a silky batter that rises too soon and collapses. Your cake will have big air pockets and an uneven texture.

Cocoa powder absorbs a lot of moisture from your cake – even more than flour. While it's great for getting a rich, chocolatey flavour, too much can make your cake crumbly. Always stick to the amount in the recipe to make sure you don't use too much and dry out your cake.

How do you revive a chocolate cake? ›

Formulate a cake soak: You can make a cake soak using simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water), evaporated milk, buttermilk, or a liqueur. With a wooden skewer or toothpick, pole holes in the cake. Then use a pastry brush to blot the liquid over the surface of the cake layers to moisten the cake.

Soak your cake in milk or cream.

The idea of soaking your cake in milk seems daunting, but trust me — I've tried this a few times when my sponge cake came out dry. Soaking your cake in milk or cream is one of the best ways to moisten a dry cake.

Adding extra wet ingredients like yoghurt or sour cream can really help your cake retain moisture, especially if you're cooking with chocolate which is notorious for drying out a bake.

Simply soak your cake in milk for 30 minutes to an hour. The milk will help to rehydrate the cake, making it moist and delicious. Just be sure to brush off any excess milk before serving. And that's all there is to it!

Most cakes will call for a leavening agent like baking powder or baking soda. These create the bubbles you need for the cake to rise.