One-Bowl Molasses-Chocolate Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What does molasses do for baking? ›

Molasses serve several purposes in baked goods such as: Sweetening: contributing to sweetness, although with lower intensity than sucrose. Its sweetness decreases as color darkens. Flavor: providing a broad and complex range of flavors, from caramel to bitter notes.

Mayonnaise: The Hidden Gem in Cake Recipes

Made up of eggs and oil, mayonnaise acts as an emulsifier, adding creaminess and moisture to your cake. This unexpected addition can take your cake recipes to a whole new level. To incorporate mayonnaise into your cake batter, simply add a couple of tablespoons to the mix.

One of the main roles of milk in baking is to provide moisture. It can help to keep baked goods from becoming too dry and crumbly, and can also add tenderness to the texture. In addition to adding moisture, milk can also help to create a softer crumb in breads and cakes.

Light molasses is the liquid that remains after the first white sugar is extracted from cane juice. The flavor is lighter and has more fruity notes to it, in the same way the first pressing of olives makes a lighter, fruitier olive oil. Light (sometimes called "fancy") molasses is ideal for baked goods and candies.

When substituting molasses for sugar, use 1 1/3 cups molasses for 1 cup sugar, and reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe by 5 tablespoons. Molasses is also more acidic than sugar; add ½ teaspoon baking soda for each cup of molasses used. Replace no more than half the sugar called for in a recipe with molasses.

Firstly, you need to mix your baking powder/bicarbonate of soda through your flour before you add this to the mixture. These two ingredients are the most common raising agents in baking, so I've focused on them here (also make sure they are in date!).

One common ingredient swap that is known to help make cakes remarkably moist is using milk instead of water. Try switching out any water in your recipe for full-fat milk or buttermilk for a moist, decadent texture. Another ingredient that can enhance the moisture of your cake is mayonnaise.

Room Temperature Butter / Don't Over-Cream

Most cakes begin with creaming butter and sugar together. Butter is capable of holding air and the creaming process is when butter traps that air. While baking, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy cake. No properly creamed butter = no air = no fluffiness.

Adding extra wet ingredients like yoghurt or sour cream can really help your cake retain moisture, especially if you're cooking with chocolate which is notorious for drying out a bake.

Why is my chocolate cake dry? ›

If you have too much flour in a recipe and not enough fat, like butter or oil, your cake is going to be dry and hard. For best results, I would encourage you to use a scale when baking, but if you don't have a scale, then just make sure you're using measuring cups correctly.

Add an Extra Egg

The additional fat in the egg yolk helps create a more tender and moist cake that is full of flavor. The extra egg also helps the cake have a more stable texture, which is great if you want to bake it up as a layer cake instead of a sheet cake or cupcakes.

A blend of these two ingredients gives the cake the best possible flavor and texture. Butter provides flavor while oil adds moisture and keeps it from being too dry. A cake made with all oil would be moist but lacking in flavor, and an all-butter cake may have a more buttery taste, but would be more dry.

Substitute the water.

My go to is Buttermilk when I swap water in cake mixes. But I have used evaporated milk, which is canned milk if I can't get fresh buttermilk.

The flavor of molasses reminds many of gingerbread cookies, and that's because molasses gives gingerbread its characteristic color and flavor. If you tasted it off a spoon, though, you'd detect sweet burnt caramel notes, a hint of smoke and a prune-like aftertaste.

Doubling up on molasses softened the cookies significantly.

Molasses is also extremely dark in color, so this batch of cookies turned out to be a deep brown.

There's no replacement for the sweet, almost smoky flavors it adds to cookies and cakes, like chewy molasses cookies and dark molasses gingerbread cake, plus it plays oh-so-nicely with winter spices like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Molasses comes in different forms and each has its taste, use, and way of making it.