Things About Cocoa Powder I Wish I'd known Before I Made the Cake

Remember how I said the sourdough chocolate cake was a bit too dry?

I think I know why, and not just because I left it in the bread basket too long.

It's because the recipe calls for natural cocoa, and I used the cocoa powder I had on hand - which is a Dutch-process cocoa.

What's the difference?

Cocoa powder is made by grinding cocoa seeds and removing the cocoa butter from the dark, bitter cocoa solids. This is natural unsweetened cocoa powder.

Dutch cocoa is natural cocoa which has been additionally treated with an alkali to neutralize the natural acids present in cocoa powder. "Dutching" makes it darker in color, milder in taste, and, its big advantage, more soluble for cooking.

But because their acidity levels are completely different, you can't just substitute natural cocoa for Dutch cocoa (as I did). Natural, acidic, cocoa will react with baking soda, an alkali, causing a leavening action that makes cakes rise. Dutch cocoa, since it has been neutralized, won't react with any baking soda in recipes. As a result, when it is used instead in a recipe that calls for natural cocoa, the recipe "will fail to form as expected, and the resulting product may be flat or very dry."

And that's how my cake turned out!

Now, I have currently scribbled into the cookbook:

If you only have natural cocoa but the recipe calls for Dutch cocoa...

3 tablespoons of Dutch cocoa = 3 tablespoons natural cocoa powder plus pinch (1/8 teaspoon) baking soda

If you only have Dutch cocoa but the recipe calls for natural cocoa...

3 tablespoons natural cocoa = 3 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa plus 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar or 1/8 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar

If you don't know which kind of cocoa to use in a recipe ...

Look for the presence of other acidic ingredients - if there are no other sources of acidity, the recipe may need natural cocoa.

Does the cocoa need to dissolve easily? It may need Dutch cocoa powder. Natural cocoa needs to be dissolve in hot water or alcohol.

Ugliest Cake in the World

I have been baking up a storm lately - cakes, cookies, cupcakes, muffins, all in the past few days. Since I'm usually only in the kitchen to hand Foodgoat his beer or to look for cheese in the fridge, this sudden outburst of baking can only mean one thing - I must be seriously depressed.

What could I be depressed about? Not GoatSpawn (who's a joy) ... not my job (still have one) ...

Must be the Cavs! A delayed reaction to another Cleveland sports team blowing their chance at the championships. Boo!

So, contemplating at least another year in this God-forsaken sports town, I've taken to baking.

Like Cleveland sports playoff games, the results have not always been so pretty:


This horrifying thing is a sourdough chocolate cake with my first attempt at a homemade frosting, which I was disturbed to find out was just butter and sugar. I feel like I should put a paper bag over it.



The cake itself turned out quite tasty, if a bit dry, with the sourdough flavor not quite as pronounced as you might think. The frosting was sweeeet, literally sweeeet, and so strongly coffee flavored it woke me up.

Not bad, but I like cupcakes better - the frosting/cake ratio there favors the cake and less the frosting. Less is more where frosting is concerned.

And as tasty as it is, it seems not even chocolate cake can relieve CSD (Cleveland sports depression).

Sourdough Chocolate Cake & Coffee Frosting
(from King Arthur Flour)

• 1 cup "fed" sourdough starter
• 1 cup milk (whole milk)
  
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• 2 large eggs

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3/8 cup butter
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons espresso powder
• 1/2 tablespoon hot water

Cake

• 8 1/2 ounces "fed" sourdough starter
• 8 ounces milk (whole milk or 2% preferred) or evaporated milk
• 8 1/2 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 10 1/2 ounces granulated sugar
• 7 ounces vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 1/4 ounces natural cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
• 2 large eggs

Icing

• 24 ounces confectioners' sugar
• 6 ounces butter
• 4 ounces plain yogurt or buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoons espresso powder
• 1/2 ounce hot water

Drizzle

• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 ounce milk
• 3/4 ounce corn syrup

1) Combine the "fed" starter, milk, and flour in a large mixing bowl. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours.

2) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.

3) In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, vanilla, salt, baking soda, cocoa and espresso powder. The mixture will be grainy.

4) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5) Gently combine the chocolate mixture with the starter-flour-milk mixture, stirring till smooth.

6) Pour the batter into pan.

7) Bake the cake for 30 to 40 minutes, until it springs back when lightly pressed in the center, and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

8) Remove the cake from the oven, and set it on a rack to cool while you make the icing.

9) Sift the confectioners' sugar into a large mixing bowl, and set it aside.

10) In a small saucepan set over medium heat, melt the butter and add the buttermilk. Dissolve the espresso powder in the hot water, add to the pan, and bring the mixture just to a boil.

11) Immediately pour the simmering liquid over the confectioners' sugar in the bowl, and beat till smooth.

12) Pour the warm frosting over the cake. Try to be neat. If unsuccessful, eat anyway.

Foodgoat's Flour, GoatSpawn's Flour

King Arthur Flour recently gave away 2 pound bags of flour in their Bake 2 Share community building through baking promotion (I love that company more and more these days). I haven't posted my story yet - I've been baking up a storm trying to find something worthwhile to share. But I did want to share this photo of GoatSpawn with the 2 pound bag of flour next to Foodgoat's 25 pound bag of flour.

Happy Doughnut Day!

Today is National Doughnut Day!

I thought it was some holiday made up by the giant doughnut corporations, or the Big Doughnut Lobby, but there is actually a nice history behind it.

National Doughnut Day started in 1938 as a fund raiser for the Chicago Salvation Army to help the needy during the Great Depression. It honored the Salvation Army "Lassies" of World War I, who served doughnuts to soldiers behind the front lines in France. The Lassies were female volunteers who made home cooked foods, comfort and support to the homesick troops - the only women outside of military personnel allowed to visit the front lines.

It started in August, 1917, at the battle near Montiers, France. Salvation Army lassies made donuts using left over flour, a wine bottle as a rolling pin, a baking powder tin for a cutter and a tube for making holes (later, a seven-pound shell fitted with a one-pound shell was used to cut out the donut holes). Donuts were fried - seven at a time - in soldier's steel helmets on an 18-inch stove.

They made 100 donuts before their tent collapsed in the rainstorm, but it was an immediate success, and before long, 9,000 donuts were being made around the clock ... and the tent became the first 24-hour donut shop.

Soon, Salvation Army lassies were making donuts wherever the war was being fought.

Here is the original recipe, which is admittedly scaled a little large for the typical family:

Famous Salvation Army Doughboy Doughnut

7-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup lard
8 eggs
3 large cans evaporated milk
3 large cans water
18 cups flour
18 teaspoons baking powder
7-1/2 teaspoons salt
8 teaspoons nutmeg

Or, you could just go get your free donut at one of the many doughnut stores offering free donuts today.
Cream sugar and lard together, beat eggs, add evaporated milk and water. Add liquid to creamed mixture. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in large sieve and sift into other mixture. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough. Roll and cut. Five pounds of lard are required to fry the doughnuts. Yield: approximately 250 doughnuts.

Pom Wonderful

A case of Pom Wonderful recently landed on our doorstep.

The pomegranate juice is being promoted as an antioxidant superdrink, practically a vitamin in a bottle, but Foodgoat's first reaction upon trying the Pom Wonderful juice (provided by the company for review here):

"This would be great with alcohol."

Foodgoat, in fact, liked Pom Wonderful all around. It's similar in taste to grapefruit juice - tart, not too sweet, refreshing. In fact, he even liked it better than grapefruit juice.

I, on the other hand, don't care for grapefruit juice. So, I didn't care for Pom Wonderful.

I wanted to like it, because I think it's marketed towards me - female (the bottle even looks feminine, doesn't it?), subscription to Shape magazine, likes the word "wonderful" - but the taste just didn't do it for me.

But had they not sent us a case of POM Wonderful, would Foodgat, who did really like it, have tried it on his own? Would he have purchased that girly bottle with a big red heart in the middle of POM Wonderful on it?

No, he probably would not.

Perhaps he might have if they had called it ...

POM Awesome

POM Sport

or

Bomb-egranate (Maybe with a grenade-shaped bottle?)

There you go, POM Wonderful, some rebranding ideas for branching out into new markets.

Fortunately, Foodgoat likes it enough now that he would in fact buy it again. A tart, fruity drink, perfect for hot summer days, for cocktails, and even for men.