Actually too much baking soda will give a cake a soapy taste, so it could affect the taste. But with all the chocolate, who can tell.

I made cupcakes and they are baking now. Wow, what a thin batter. I filled the cups half full not knowIng how much it will rise. And it is a good thing I did too because they are starting to rise above the cup and they are barely set. I might have some disasters in this one. I got exactly 23 cupcakes. I set the timer for 19 minutes , but it may need 22.

Stay tuned.

I did 22 minutes. The tops sprang back and a toothpick came out clean. And there was no caving that usually happens when I undertake them.

I put in 1.5 tsp of the baking soda and powder. I bought the wrong coca, so I mixed equal portions of a black duthc process cocoa I had with natural ghirardelli cocoa. I mixed everything together for 2 minutes except for the coffee and the sugar. and i used only granulated sugar. I weigh all my ingredients. Not knowing whether to use light brown or dark brown sugar would make a difference, so i opted to used only granulated. skye if you can tell us which type of brown sugar you use that would be very helpful. I stirred in the coffee and then the sugar at the end per another tip from another discussion on this board. When they did rise, they did so before it had a chance to fully set on some of the cupcakes which meant they kind of
spilled over on some of the cakes. I'm thinking that either another egg may
be better for cupcakes.

Next will be to let them cool and frost them. Then we get to eat them! More to come.

This was Skye's recipe. I did this one because Jae said it was less sweeter. Next wil be the eoicurous recipe.

Can't wait to hear. I actually just made this recipe today as well and filled it with sour cream coconut filling and a sour cream coconut whipped icing with crushed Mounds candy bars on top. Mmm.......hubby's fave

Linda, it was a very thin batter, the Hershey's was even more thin, if you can believe that!

Did I say that I used dark brown sugar in the recipe? I did. I can relate with the spillage scare, I thought that mine were going to spill too, (cakes) but then they shrank back.

To all the Hershey recipe fans - I have a question. I tried out the recipe the other day (before reading the great ideas about substituting coffee, etc) and the flavor of the cake was great! However, I wanted to do one layer of cake white and one chocolate, so I put the Hershey cake on the bottom and a white layer on top. The white cake squashed the daylights out of the chocolate cake! After resting overnight, my 2" high beautiful chocolate layer became 1". Has anyone else had this happen, and what do you think I might have done wrong? I love the recipe and I know tons of people have had success with it, so if any one could offer up their thoughts, that would be great!

Cindy,
I can see why this would happen. This cake has very little structure which is probably what helps it to be so moist. Probably the yellow cake is heavier than this cake and that Is why it compressed it.

Please see my post above for recipe....not sure how the flavor measures up to Hersheys. (I love it though). But that recipe has been spectacular for a cake that can withstand stacking and carving alike. I have tried so many and always went back to this one. This is now my forever goto chocolate cake!
Here is a tip though, if you want to stick with your recipe....no guarentees but maybe this will help...I learned this from another chocolate recipe and now do it to all of my cakes.
Let the cake cool on rack just until it can be safely removed from pan without damage. While still hot wrap in saran wrap and place in freezer over night. Take cake out the next morning and let thaw. Ice as usual. HTH
Suzi

Suzi,
Your recipe is on my list.

Skye, your recipe went over well with the family. We tried it without frosting. They all said it would be good with ice cream or a vanilla SMBC. It is very rich, moist, but to me has too little structure to carve. I tried cutting one in half and it compacted down.

If you want decadent, this and the Hershey one are the one. I compared the two recipes and they are so close, I'm not going to bother with the Hershey rice right now. Mainly because I like the changes you made.

Confectionsofahousewife - I have not tried the epicurious recipe yet. But I can see why you would mix it with a yellow cake, probably to give it more structure. There has to be a happy medium between this thin a batter and a thicker scratch batter to get a moist cake. I think, but haven't tested it that if you match the flour to the sugar, up the fat or even change it to butter that you might get a stronger cake able to be carved. But I won't know for sure till I try it myself. I just thought I would suggest that.

I like the thought of changing the fat to butter! :] I love butter! haha

Jae- is skyes batter thinner than the epicurious batter?? I didn't think that was possible. I have a terrible time with the epicurious recipe overflowing in my oven. Its super irritating! I also like the idea of changing the fat to butter. I would think it would at least make the batter thicker. I baked a 6 inch cake the other day that was a mix of the epicurious batter and some yellow cake batter (scratch) and I love how it baked up. It had the texture of a white or yellow cake. Was easy to torte and would have been easy to carve. But when I tasted it it just wasn't chocolate or fudgy enough. It wasn't dry or anything but it wasn't a good chocolate cake. So maybe my idea of mixing the two isn't so great after all! I think by the time I mixed enough yellow cake batter into the chocolate to change the texture, I would end up changing the flavor too much.

On a separate note, I iced an epicurious chocolate cake yesterday and it looks like a$$! I filled it with buttercream using a thickened dam and let it set 12 hours at room temp. I used sugarshack bc and am usually pretty good at icing a cake smooth. Is is the chocolate cake? It seems like it smooshed down and the filling is bulging a little even though I let it settle for a long time (see photo). I am hoping the polka dots the lady wants will cover it enough so its not noticable. Is it the cake or the humidity/temp?

It won't let me attach the photo for some reason. It just doesn't appear. Suffice to say the there is some bulging and the icing is just not smooth.

Do you mean that the color changed after mixing the batters or during baking? It was definitely lighter in color than just the epicurious recipe. In fact, it was almost a reddish brown color than almost black. Yeah I don't know about the icing thing. Its just so irritating! It looks like crap. Better now that some decorations are on there but you can see some bulges where the filling is. I can't wait to hear your results from the epicurious recipe!

I love Hershey's chocolate cake recipe on the back of their baking cocoa boxes. I'm at high altitude, so I add 2 Tbs of cake flour. For something less "chocolatey," try their Dark Chocolate baking cocoa.

Confections- I can't really say if it was better because the leavening was wrong in my recipe for Skye's cake. It did look like it might have overflowed right before it fell. But I've never had that problem with the epicurious cake so I don't know.

I also have a HARD time icing the epicurious cake and getting the icing to look good. crumbs everywhere, and pulling cake off, the icing wont stick to it and I end up cussing the cake and swearing I wont use it again but then it's just too yummy to quit it! haha

I will see this wednesday if Skye's/Hershey's ices any better... I sure hope so. Sheesh. lol

Linda I can't wait for your opinion on the epicurious cake and the coco loco

OK, you all will be like "shush already" but please try my (Colette Peters) recipe!!! I will say that it is very easy to ice (my opinion of course) and it does not crumb alot as it is moist and slightly dense but still has a nice crumb (again, my opinion) unless of course you are looking for a fluffy, light cake...this will not be it. If anyone does make this please post your results so we all know what you think.
Have a super day...I must get off of this computer and get something done.
Suzi

I just wanted to say that I completely agree with what Suzi said a couple of pages back about always wrapping and freezing her chocolate cakes overnight before torting and icing. I ALWAYS do that as well and it makes torting and icing a breeze. I use an icing tip and pastry bag on a chilled cake and then smooth the icing with a bench scraper dipped in HOT water. I rarely ever get chocolate crumbs in my frosting with this method. I also used to have the problem with fillings bulging before I started freezing my layers first. Now it's not a problem as long as I fill while the layers are still frozen and then let "rest" in the fridge for at least an hour before applying my icing (with my pastry bag of course )

I just baked the double chocolate cake from the epicurious web site, for a barbecue yesterday. It turned out awesome. It was so fudgy, everyone went absolutely nuts over it. I couldn't believe how they were carrying on, they loved it. Said it was better than chocolate cakes they had in a fancy restaurant. I assembled it differently than the recipe. I have a 10 x 3" pan that I baked it in with a removable bottom. I torted the cake into 4 layers. I reassembled the cake in the cake pan. Put a layer of choc cake in the bottom, then put a layer of bavarian cream, choc whipped cream, and a thin layer of ganache. I repeated the process. Then for the top, I poured the ganache. Let it sit overnight, and when I removed the cake, the cake looked beautiful, the sides were perfect, did dollops of choc whipped cream, and a choc truffle on each dollop. Everyone was sure impressed, I think it was the best chocolate cake I ever made.

I'm going to try and bake another batch tonight. I am making cupcakes. Do you think I will get the same results on the epicurious cake as you do in a cake? I could make a cake. It would then force me to decorate it for that portfolio I am supposed to be building.

I am going to make the coco loco cake as cupcakes also.

Cathycakes - your rendition of this cake sounds devine. I am saving that for a someday dessert.

I have put the epicurious cake, the coco loco cake, the cake from confetti cakes, and skye's recipe in my spreadsheet. I believe e most sturdiest ones for carving are the coco loco cake and the confetti cake. This is based on the ratio of liquid to flour. Interesting that these two recipes come from people who make carved cakes for a living. It doesn't take into account taste though.

Now hear me out on this theory and don't get upset by this, but trying the cupcakes again this morning, my hubby and I don't taste a strong chocolate taste. My theory is this. Take chocolate and melt it and you get a rich chocolate taste. Start putting water in it and the chocolate taste diminishes. Plus fat is a flavor carrier and there is very little fat in Skye's recipe. Cocoloco and confetti both have 8 ounces of butter plus oil in coco loco. And they have less liquid than the other two recipes. So they are going tp taste chocolatier and be sturdier.

Of course there is the curve ball in the epicurious recipe of the melted chocolate. That probably enhances the chocolate flavor. I'll find out tonight hopefully. Just as soon as one of you tell me it will work for cupcakes.

As for the overflow thing- is it a result of overfilling the cake pans or does it rise a lot?

Thanks guys.

Yeah Suzie,
I get the same thing. So am I looking for taste? That shouldn't change. And I believe that structure shouldn't change.

I find the cakes high in butter to fat are the ones that don't work for me.

But if you have used the coco loco in smaller cakes pans, then I am going to go ahead and try it. If I don't get a good result, then I'll try a cake.

Linda,
The smallest I have made with that recipe is a 6" (I bake with 3" & 4" high pans) and there were no problems. I want to say that when chocolate ones have failed for me (cupcakes) it is never the taste, they are just flat or run over???
I have heard but yet to try the following method - to get the top to set in a lovely dome bake cupcakes in the following manner...
heat the oven to 400 degrees for the first 5-7 minutes then to 350 for the last 8-10.
I think that this may actually work because in theory the reason you get a domed (and sometimes cracked ) cake top is that the temp is too high so hence high initial heat creates and sets dome, remaining lower temp to complete but not burn cuppies.
I can not wait for your results!

You know with a batter this runny I think I'm going to do this. Last night the batter was rising before it had a chance to set and some of the cupcakes ran over a bit in a lopsided way. If I can get them to set faster then possibly they won't spill over.

For me, the epicurious recipe almost always sinks in the middle, unless it's a 6" pan. It's very fragile, and yes I have a hard time crumb coating it too. It's my family's favorite chocolate cake though.

Last week for my daughter's birthday I used the hershey's Black Magic cake. I think it might be different from the original hershey's recipe you all are talking about. But it was very similar to the epicurious recipe, and my whole family loved it just as much.

Epicurious cupcakes are in the oven now. They look great. I only did 45 grams per cupcake. I am not getting overflow. In fact they are rising nicely and improbably could have gone my normal 50 grams. They didn't rise above the liner.

Inmade one change. I used 16.5 ounces of sugar instead of 21 ounces.

There is a lot of batter here! I got 43 cupcakes. I am baking at 375 for 20 minutes. I' ll report back when done.

I use that chocolate cake recipe exclusively. If I need it to be denser I add 2 more eggs. HTH

Okay. Epicurious cupcakesnare done, cooled and taste tested with no icing.

By far the best chocolate cake I have tasted since I started scratch baking. These are the bomb. I will be making these again and again and again.

In fact if I could find a yellow cake this texture and moistness I would be in cake heaven.

I used ghirardellinsemi- sweet chocolate and natural cocoa. Like I said earlier I used only 16.5 ounces of sugar. I did this to avoid getting a
sunken center. The extra 1/2 cup sugar was not missed st all. I believe this because of the sugar in the melted chocolate. Too much sugar in a batter will cause a cake to sink in the center and 16.5 ounces isvthe same weight of the flour and cocoa combined.

I also used SACO powdered buttermilk. I added that with flour and used an extra1 1/2 cups of coffee instead of the equivalent of water. I had it brewed so I figured why not.

More power to you for carving this though. I am not nor have not tried to carve anything, but I think carving this would be a challenge.

I wanted to make the coco loco recipe tonight, but burnt my finger on the oven rack taking the pans out of the oven. I don't relish the idea ofbhotbwater on the blister that has formed on thevtip of mt thumb, so dishes and further baking are waiting till tomorrow. But do I have it right thatbi whisk it by hand? That would be awesome!