Chocolate cake is easily everyone’s favourite cake flavour – the few people that don’t like chocolate cake possibly either have not tasted it or are simply allergic to chocolate. That said, making chocolate cake might not be as easy as making other cakes. This is because, for chocolate cakes, texture is everything. A lot of people prefer their chocolate cakes soft and moist, and not hard and crusty. Bad news is that the hard and crusty chocolate cake type that nobody likes is easily the result of most baking process.
If you are new to baking chocolate cakes, especially in Nigeria where ingredients can be hard to find and substandard products fill the market, this article may be of benefit to you.
The first process of getting your soft and moist chocolate cake right is ensuring you have the right ingredients. This article contains the recipe and full list of ingredients you will need to make delicious soft and moist chocolate cake in Nigeria. These ingredients can easily be found where bakery supplies are sold in Nigeria.
| Ingredients for moist chocolate cake | Quantity |
| All-purpose flour | 1 3/4 cups |
| Granulated white sugar | 2 cups |
| Unsweetened cocoa powder | 3/4 cup |
| Baking soda | 1 1/2 tsp |
| Salt | 3/4 tsp |
| Eggs | 2 large size |
| Buttermilk (You can substitute buttermilk by putting 1 tbsp white vinegar in a cup then filling the rest up with milk – let it stand for about 5 minutes until thick) | 1 cup |
| Melted butter | 1/2 cup |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tbsp |
| Hot coffee (Or add 2 tsp instant coffee in 1 cup boiling water) | I cup |
Baking procedure and steps
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch baking pans (or line with parchment paper circles) and set aside.
2. In the large bowl of a standing mixer, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract and beat until smooth (about 3 minutes). Remove bowl from mixer and stir in hot coffee with a rubber spatula. The batter will be very runny.
3. Pour batter evenly between the two pans and bake on the middle rack of the oven for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs attached.
4. Allow to cool 15 minutes in pans, then run a butter knife around the edges of each cake. Place a wire cooling rack over top of each pan. Wearing oven mitts, use both hands to hold the racks in place while flipping the cakes over onto the racks.
Set the racks down and gently thump on the bottom of the pans until the cakes release. Cool completely before handling or frosting.
