On Aug 24, 6:02*am, "DavidW" > wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm about to make a chocolate cake and I have a few questions:
>
> 1. Should a chocolate cake typically contain salt? Watching cooking shows it
> seems that just about everything should be seasoned, according to professional
> chefs, but there's no salt in the ingredients. It's a boiled chocolate cake
> (some ingredients, inc. water, baking soda boiled and cooled before eggs, flour
> added). The butter is listed simply as "butter". Commercial butter is normally
> salted to an unknown degree. If I use unsalted butter should salt be added; if
> so how much for a standard-sized cake?
>
> 2. If I bake and ice the cake on Monday and keep it in the fridge will it still
> be in good shape on Friday? (i.e., no noticeable degradation).
>
> 3. I have a vague recollection of asking this before, but there was no magic
> solution. The mixture is very wet before the flour is added and you always get
> bits of flour that will not mix in. My mother solved this by using an electric
> mixer or blender, but I don't think the cake was as good as when the flour was
> mixed in gently by hand (and you put up with a few small flour pockets). Is
> there another technique whereby I can mix in the flour evenly by without any
> detriment to the cake?

All baked goods need a bit of salt. Salt also brings out the flavor
of the chocolate. One method of mixing cake batter is the creaming
method. The butter and sugar are creamed together until fluffy. The
eggs are then blended in one at a time. Add 1/3 of the dry
ingredients and mix. Next, add 1/2 the liquid ingredients and mix.
Mix in 1/2 the remaining dry ingredients followed by the rest of the
liquid ingredients. Last, mix in the rest of the dry ingredients.
Alternating the wet and dry ingredients like that keeps the batter
from becoming too stiff or too liquidy and allows the batter to be
thoroughly mixed without being overmixed.