Chocolate cake
 | |
| Type | Cake |
|---|---|
| Main ingredients | Chocolate or cocoa powder |
Chocolate cake or chocolate gâteau (from French: gâteau au chocolat) is a cake flavored with melted chocolate, cocoa powder, or both. It can also have other ingredients such as fudge, vanilla creme, and other sweeteners.[1]
History
The history of chocolate cake goes back to the 17th century, when cocoa powder from the Americas was added to traditional cake recipes.[2]
In 1828, Coenraad van Houten of the Netherlands developed a mechanical method for extracting the fat from cacao liquor, resulting in cacao butter and the partly defatted cacao, a compacted mass of solids that could be sold as "rock cacao" or ground into powder.[3] The processes transformed chocolate from an exclusive luxury to an inexpensive daily snack.[3]
A process for making silkier and smoother chocolate, called conching, was developed in Switzerland in 1879 by Rodolphe Lindt. This made it easier to bake with chocolate, as it amalgamates smoothly and completely with cake batters.[3] Until the 1890s, chocolate recipes were mostly for chocolate drinks,[3] and its presence in cakes was only in fillings and glazes.[4]
In 1886, American cooks began adding chocolate to the cake batter to make the first chocolate cakes in that country.[4] The Duff Company of Pittsburgh, a molasses manufacturer, introduced "Devil's food" chocolate cake mixes in the mid-1930s, but production was put on hold during World War II. After the war, the Pilsbury company was in 1948 the first to sell a chocolate cake mix,[5] and in 1951 the "Three Star Surprise" mix from Duncan Hines (so called because a white, yellow or chocolate cake could be made from the same mix)[6] swept the market.[5][7]
"Chocolate decadence" cakes were popular in the United States 1980s. In the 1990s, single-serving molten chocolate cakes with liquid chocolate centers and infused chocolates with exotic flavors such as tea, curry, red pepper, passion fruit, and champagne were popular. Chocolate lounges and artisanal chocolate makers were popular in the 2000s.[8] Rich, all-but-flourless chocolate cakes are "now standard in the modern pâtisserie", according to Maricel Presilla's The New Taste of Chocolate in 2001.[3]
Cake types
Popular variants on chocolate cake include:
- Chocolate layer cake – Cake made from stacked layers of cake held together by filling
- Black Forest gateau – Chocolate sponge cake with a cherry filling, often layered with whipped cream
- Blackout cake – Chocolate cake filled with chocolate pudding
- Chocolate soufflé cake – Cake made with whipped egg whites that makes it light and airy
- Devil's food cake – Moist, airy, rich chocolate layer cake
- Ding Dong – Commercial cake made by Hostess Brands shaped like a hockey puck with a cream filling
- Flourless chocolate cake – Chocolate custard cake made with whipped eggs and without flour
- Fudge cake – Generic term for a chocolate cake with a consistency, flavor, or richness reminiscent of fudge, sometimes from the use of dark brown sugar or a rich icing[9][10][11]
- Garash cake – Bulgarian chocolate and walnut cake
- German chocolate cake – Layered chocolate cake named after Samuel German, typically topped with coconut and walnut
- Joffre cake – Chocolate buttermilk cake layered with ganache and frosted with chocolate buttercream
- Molten chocolate cake – Cake with liquid chocolate core
- Red velvet cake – Reddish chocolate cake with cream cheese icing
- Sachertorte – Austrian chocolate cake invented by Franz Sacher with dense cake and a layer of apricot jam
- Chocolate Swiss roll – A sponge cake roll filled with jam, cream or icing, and its Christmas variant the Yule log
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