Your Chocolate Cake Will Taste Like Heaven With One Simple Swap

The star ingredient in a single or 2-layer chocolate cake is unsweetened cocoa powder. Comprising cocoa solids and just a small amount of fat, it has a dense flavor that creates the chocolate goodness your mouth knows and loves. But if you want a truly intense chocolate experience that screams, "I've got a sophisticated and discerning grown-up palate," swap out that unsweetened natural cocoa powder for black cocoa powder.

Black cocoa powder is made using a Dutch process that involves washing the cocoa beans with potassium before grinding them. This results in a cocoa powder that is less acidic but deeper and darker in color. Dutching cocoa does a couple of things that make for a unique eating experience. First, black cocoa doesn't react with baking soda, which means if you use it in your recipe, your cake or cupcakes are not going to reach the same heights unless you use it with baking powder. But when it comes to using black cocoa in a chocolate cake, it is all about the taste and color it brings. 

Dutched cocoa is going to give you a much more refined flavor that may not be for everyone. It is important to note that if you like your chocolate sweet, black cocoa will not meet your needs. However, if you would like your chocolate to have a more mellow taste, this one is for you. Black cocoa dissolves more readily with liquids compared to natural cocoa, meaning it will be better incorporated with your wet ingredients, and it produces a milder chocolate flavor with notes of bittersweet. 

It's perfect for a black forest cake or even a red velvet cake turned black velvet cake where the frosting or fruit fillings already have an intensely sweet taste. What is truly striking is how this unsweetened cocoa changes the appearance of your cake. When you make your chocolate cake with black cocoa powder, it creates a baked good that looks velvety black, similar to the color of your favorite Oreos. It is nothing short of luxurious to look at. But it also does a third thing that is pretty significant. 

Black cocoa powder produces a texture that is silky and smooth. This addition makes your cake crumb moist and more tender, as long as you add a little extra fat along with it. This could include butter, oil, or sour cream; otherwise, it might be dry. When made properly, the consistency of black cocoa is exceptionally tantalizing. Its rich, sumptuous, melt-in-your-mouth consistency, coupled with its subtle chocolatey taste, is just so satisfying.

Can you use black cocoa in place of natural unsweetened cocoa in your cake recipe? The answer isn't a simple yes or no. Generally speaking, if your recipe calls for baking soda, you need to stick with your normal go-to unsweetened cocoa. However, if it calls for just baking powder, you can easily make the swap. What if your cake recipe calls for both baking powder and baking soda? You can easily change up your cocoa choice, that is, unless the recipe calls for more than three-quarters of a cup. In these cases, it will have an effect on its bite, and it is advisable to stick to the directions. But, if your interest is piqued and you want to experiment with black cocoa, you could use a combination of it with unsweetened cocoa to find a balance between the two.