One Ingredient Makes the Moistest Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cake has a moisture problem. Dry crumb, dense texture, disappointing slices. There is one unlikely suspect that keeps on showing up in the moistest cakes I know. Hi, I'm Gemma Stafford, a professional chef with over 20 years experience, and this might be the strangest ingredient I have ever baked with. Today we are making a cake, testing the science and figuring out why this unlikely ingredient might secretly make for better chocolate cake. So let's start out with the usual suspects for a chocolate cake. Exhibit A, flour. We always need flour to give our cake structure. This is all purpose flour and into it I'm going to add in a little bit of baking soda. The baking soda is going to be our raising agent and it is going to react with our secret ingredient later, which is going to give rise to your cake. So just give those a mix together until well combined. We always like to mix our dry ingredients up first. We're going to do something a little bit different to really enhance the chocolate flavor in our cake. Here I have cocoa powder and we are going to add in hot water. The water is an ingredient in our cake, but what we're doing right now is blooming the cocoa powder. Now you don't hear about this a lot in recipes using cocoa powder and it is so important because what we're doing is hydrating dried chocolate. Like think about it like that. We're going to hydrate dried chocolate. We're going to bring out the flavor. Hydrating it is going to enhance the flavor of the cocoa powder, making our cake extra chocolatey. So not only do we have the secret ingredient going for us, but then also hydrating the cocoa powder is really making this chocolate cake. I mean, next level. So just let this mix bloom for five minutes and then we can add in the rest of our ingredients. Now it's time for the unusual suspect to enter the room. Mayonnaise. But before I talk about the mayonnaise, let's talk about the usual suspects we see in cake and why replacing them with mayo will really benefit your cake. Butter. We love butter around here to our cakes. It adds richness, flavor and structure. Yummy, yummy, yummy. However, it doesn't retain the most moisture. And that's where mayo comes in. Mayonnaise is mostly oil. And if you've ever made a cake with oil before, it stays moisture for longer, keeping it fresher for longer. And it also yields you a really soft, tender crumb. I love to make cakes with oil. So this is just a big benefit for using mayo. So for those reasons, mayonnaise substituting the fat in your cake works really, really well. And it's cheaper than butter. OK, so moving on to our next usual suspect in a cake are the eggs. Eggs and cake provide structure, stability, richness, better mouthfeel, and they emulsify all the ingredients together. So enter stage left mayonnaise. Mayonnaise has egg yolks already in it. It adds structure to your cake. It adds richness. Also, guess what? Remember when we had an egg shortage and they cost a million dollars? People were buying mayonnaise to use in their baking because it was a fantastic all round substitute. It's inexpensive. It's easily accessible. It stays fresh in your pantry. I mean, this is a win, win, win right here. Another usual suspect in great cake recipes is an acid. So you're talking buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt. These are fantastic ingredients in cakes because what happens is the acid tenderizes the flour, making a really soft cake. Also, acid enhances the flavor of chocolate. So it's doing double duty to give you a fantastic cake. Also, using acid in cake helps to support the raising agent, which is baking soda, yielding you a lovely big, thick, fluffy cake. But guess what? I don't always have sour cream at home and dairy is expensive. Do you know what's not as expensive? Mayonnaise. I always have it in my fridge. It is way more of a cheaper option. And there's enough acid in mayonnaise because it's made with either vinegar or with lemon juice to tenderize your cake appropriately. Also, the little bit of acid in the mayonnaise helps to deepen the chocolate flavor. So with all that being said, without further ado, add in your mayonnaise. So like I mentioned, because the mayonnaise is replacing eggs, butter and acid, we only have to add in our sugar, some flavor, which is vanilla and salt to our cake batter and give those ingredients a whisk together. Because mayonnaise is lumpy, I like to whisk the wet all together by themselves before adding in the flour. So it's nice and smooth and we're not over mixing a cake batter. Okay, that's nice and smooth. Now just add in your flour mix and then just gently combine that until there's no more streaks of flour with any cake. Be very careful not to over mix once the flour goes in as it can toughen the structure. So while I'm mixing, let's really break down the mystery of why this works. Mayonnaise is an emulsion, which means it is two ingredients mixed together that shouldn't be together, water and oil. Now this benefits cakes greatly and here's why. It distributes fat evenly and traps moisture. It also reduces greasy little pockets and uneven mixing. This is one of the biggest reasons why mayonnaise cake is surprisingly luxurious. Once your batter is mixed, divide it evenly between two baking pans that are buttered and lined. You can already tell this is going to be an amazing cake by looking at this batter. So that's it. We've put in all the work we can to make this the most amazing cake. Now all we have to do is bake it off. Bake your cake layers at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 180 degrees Celsius for around 35 to 40 minutes until they're nice and firm in the middle. The evidence has been presented. We've seen all the facts. Now we just have to wait for the final verdict. So these cakes smell amazing. So I'm very optimistic about this. We can't tell the crumb just yet, but as you can see from the top, they have risen really nicely. I'm delighted with how these look. If I touch them in the middle, they're firm under my finger. Beautiful. This recipe has all the ingredients for an amazing cake. So really now it's just the proof is in the pudding. So before we serve our cake, we have to decorate it. I'm using my best ever buttercream frosting recipe. This is a really fantastic foolproof recipe. As you know, I've always said I'm not the best cake decorator, but I just like to dollop it on, move quickly, put on the other layer, put a big dollop of frosting on the top, and then bring it down the sides. I don't spend too much time. I don't think about it too hard. This is my style of decorating. And for some reason, it always seems to work. Here's the beauty of this, whether you're a good cake decorator or not, it's going to taste amazing. So don't forget that. I'm going to add a few little sprinkles for embellishment. And there it is in all its glory chocolate mayonnaise cake. So if you still need more convincing, here is the proof. This is a really highly rated recipe on the internet for a really great chocolate cake. This is my mayonnaise cake, the same volume, roughly the same ingredients, but my cake replaces the egg, the acid and the fat with mayonnaise. And the proof, it speaks for itself. Just by looking at these cakes alone, mine has risen significantly higher, which is a sign of a lighter crumb on the inside. So I'm really thrilled at how this cake looks. It's lovely and tall. It's rustically decorated. But the proof to support our case is really on the inside. That's what we're going for. Okay, we're all here for one reason, the verdict, and it is in. Just look at that. Tender crumb, moist cake, and very soft. Using mayonnaise contributed to all these wonderful factors. But here's the thing, why did the subject in question work? It added extra oil from moisture. It had eggs in it to create structure. And it had additional acid in it for balancing flavor, enhancing chocolate and making your cake tender. Okay, the verdict is in and mayonnaise has been exonerated with time off for good behavior because we love you so much. This is such a fantastic ingredient to bake with. This is the first time I've ever done that. And I have to say the results speak for themselves. I don't think I've ever had such a moist, soft, tender chocolate cake. So that's it, case closed. I hope you enjoyed watching this baking mystery video. And if you'd like to see more like it, let me know in the comments below. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you back here again next week. Transcribed by https://otter.ai