CharlesT - 24 June 2012 12:28 PM

I made a version of Mom’s Chocolate Cake.  I made a lot of changes, so this comment really shouldn’t apply to the original recipe but the cake flavor seemed a bit…watery.  Can a cake be too moist?

I think a cake can be too moist….that is when it does not hold up well to cutting.  Does it seem too watery because you know there is a lot of water?  I am thinking of making this cake and adding cocoa like the Devil Foods cake.

CRenee - 24 June 2012 02:11 PM

Does it seem too watery because you know there is a lot of water? 

Very possibly.    I added a bit of cocoa and espresso powder to the formula because the photo at Food and Wine made the cake look very pale.  Mine came out very dark.  (And I used brown sugar.)

CharlesT - 24 June 2012 02:14 PM

CRenee - 24 June 2012 02:11 PM

Does it seem too watery because you know there is a lot of water? 

Very possibly.    I added a bit of cocoa and espresso powder to the formula because the photo at Food and Wine made the cake look very pale.  Mine came out very dark.  (And I used brown sugar.)

I will take a photo next time I make it.  This moment I am making DCP because it is my other favorite…and I gift it in the morning.

CharlesT - 20 June 2012 11:43 PM

I’m also pondering potato flakes (not starch), which works well in bread.

One of my favorite cakes uses potato starch and toasted almond flour, but no wheat flour.  It’s the almond pound cake from Healey/Bugat’s Art of the Cake, which I make with a few substitutions (almond paste, lyle’s syrup).

Well, I just polished off the last of the Mom’s Chocolate Cake.  I think it improved over the span of a couple of days, or else it was just the joy of having a chocolate cake sitting there ready to be spooned up to restore my blood sugar.  Changes I might make are maybe slightly less water and slightly more oil, plus maybe some powdered milk.  The formula as is doesn’t seem quite rich enough, which is the same problem I have with the DCP without the ganache syrup.  I’d used oil, rather than butter, because I feel less guilty snacking on unsaturated fat.

It’s interesting that you can get such a good rise without any significant whipping of air into the batter.

CharlesT - 25 June 2012 09:00 PM

Well, I just polished off the last of the Mom’s Chocolate Cake.  I think it improved over the span of a couple of days, or else it was just the joy of having a chocolate cake sitting there ready to be spooned up to restore my blood sugar.  Changes I might make are maybe slightly less water and slightly more oil, plus maybe some powdered milk.  The formula as is doesn’t seem quite rich enough, which is the same problem I have with the DCP without the ganache syrup.  I’d used oil, rather than butter, because I feel less guilty snacking on unsaturated fat.

It’s interesting that you can get such a good rise without any significant whipping of air into the batter.

That’s interesting…but you really did not make Mom’s Chocolate Cake.  May Auntie’s chocolate cake.  It is interesting the rise on the cake.  Note:  since I have converted the recipe to grams, the cake is better than FW lists it.  I do not use more water but a little more flour perhaps.