For many people, when you ask them what their favorite cake flavor is, the answer is likely to be chocolate. In fact, some people love chocolate so much that they would probably worship at an altar to ensure a steady supply! So how do you decide which chocolate cake recipe you will bake for that special occasion or those just because moments when you need a chocolate fix?
No Chocolate Cake Recipe Created Equal
It is not in the least bit hard to find a chocolate cake recipe, whether it is in a cookbook or even on the internet. The problem lies in the fact that there are literally thousands and thousands of recipes to choose from! How do you choose between ten different Death by Chocolate recipes or one hundred World¡¯s Best Chocolate Cake recipes? The answer is that you select the recipe based on the ingredients you have on hand as well as the ingredients that you could substitute in a recipe.
Some chocolate cakes may use water for part of the liquid in the recipe while others use buttermilk or even a soda to create a subtle, unique flavor and texture. One chocolate cake recipe may call for those bittersweet baking chocolate squares while another may allow you to substitute cocoa powder with vegetable oil. For people with gluten and wheat allergies, you can find a chocolate cake recipe, actually hundreds of them, which do not require flour as an ingredient.
Regardless of what kind of chocolate cake you like, you will find a chocolate cake recipe to suit your needs. There is chocolate fudge cake, devil¡¯s food cake, German chocolate cake, Swiss chocolate cake, chocolate pound cake and even chocolate angel food cake. You can even find a chocolate cake recipe that is ¡°tainted¡± by other ingredients like nuts, marshmallows, zucchini, beets, peanut butter and more. Where there is a will and a taste bud, there is a variation of the chocolate cake recipe.
Choosing your Cake Recipe
Sometimes, you have to choose your chocolate cake recipe by the number of people you are trying to feed. If a cake is needed for a birthday or just because, you can pull out your trusty Betty Crocker cookbook or even look on the back of your cocoa powder can for ideas. For a ladies luncheon or get-together, a chocolate bundt cake is attractive.
For a large crowd, the best chocolate cake recipe you can bake is the Texas chocolate sheet cake. It is quite easy to double or even triple the recipe. A sheet cake is baked in a large 11x17 baking pan instead of a tradition round cake pan or 9x13 pans. Of course, you are back to the dilemma of which recipe to choose! Just follow the advice earlier of choosing the cake recipe that you have the most ingredients for or could make substitutions without affecting the integrity of the cake.
