FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Chocolate cake

DavidW

wrote:
> 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.

Thanks, but that makes a different kind of cake. A boiled chocolate cake has a
distinctive flavour and texture, which IMO makes it far superior to other
chocolate cakes. It's so moist it doesn't need icing, though it's better with
it and I'm going to ice it. I can't change the process too much.