How to make the best chocolate cake of your life (even if it’s gluten-free)

By Alby Hailes

One of the biggest realisations I’ve had in the last six months of starting an artisan baking business is that there’s one flavour that rules them all: CHOCOLATE.

Whether that’s a layer of melted chocolate on a caramel slice, a fudgy chocolate brownie, or even just a dusting of cocoa on top of a tart, chocolate consistently entices and pleases. Nothing is more guaranteed to please than a slice of moist, rich, decadent, droolworthy, dangerously desirable chocolate cake.

Before starting BEAU Cakes, I trialled a lot of different chocolate cakes (including regular, vegan and gluten-free), taking inspiration from different schools of chocolate cake theory. I wanted to create a chocolate cake recipe that would tick the most boxes and have the broadest appeal when it came to flavour, texture, moistness and mouthfeel.

This taught me that while most people enjoy a slice of chocolate cake, everyone’s ultimate chocolate cake can look and taste very different. It’s been a hard job, but I think I’ve landed on a cake that makes most people cry chocolate tears of joy.

In my chocolate cake conquest, I’ve found a few crucial factors:

· A combination of oil and butter is king. Often chocolate cakes call for one or the other to make up the fat component of a chocolate cake batter, but from my testing, I think a mixture of the two brings the best results. Butter brings flavour that oil often lacks, but using butter alone can often result in a dry chocolate cake. Because oil stays liquid at room temperature, similarly it improves the moistness of a chocolate cake. For my regular and gluten-free cake recipes I use both oil (usually canola, or on occasion olive) and butter. For vegan cakes, oil is the go-to.

· Use the best quality cocoa powder you can get your hands on. Donovan’s Premium Dutch Cocoa Powder is a good supermarket choice.

· Acid is key. Adding acid to a chocolate cake helps to balance flavour, improves leavening by reacting with the raising agents, and also enhances the tenderness of the crumb. I like to use sour cream or buttermilk to achieve this. Adding a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar is also a great idea, as balsamic complements chocolate excellently. If making a vegan cake, I like to make a plant-based ‘buttermilk’ by adding apple cider vinegar to soy milk and letting it sit for 10 minutes to curdle slightly and acidify.

· Boiling water improves the chocolatey-ness. Using boiling water helps to fully activate the cocoa powder, for improved chocolate flavour.

· Coffee is a good idea, but not essential. I do think that adding a little coffee (e.g. 1 tsp instant coffee dissolved in boiling water) can enhance the flavour of a chocolate cake, but this is less essential than the other points above.

· Related: How to successfully bake a great vegan cake

· Related: How to make a great birthday cake

If you’re feeling any chocolate-tinged guilt thinking about all the cake you’re now wanting to eat, I would like to point out that cacao (the raw material used to make cocoa products) has lots of often-overlooked health benefits. Mind you, these are best attained if you consume it in its purest, rawest form (as opposed to mixed with sugar and such).

Cacao is high in antioxidants which are thought to improve your heart health, and it also contains things like tryptophan (important in the serotonin pathway) which encourages mental wellness. In other words, chocolate is totally ok as part of a balanced diet.

Here are two of my go-to classic chocolate cake recipes (one regular and one gluten-free). These recipes are for a 20cm round cake tin, but you can easily adjust the recipe to fit whatever size tin you have (baking times will vary):

· 15cm round cake tin = 0.5x quantity

· 23cm round cake tin (ie standard springform tin) = 1.25x quantity

· Large rectangular baking tin (33cm x 23cm) or 25cm round tin = 1.5x quantity

While these cakes are excellent eaten uniced, if you’re feeling luxurious or wanting to impress, I suggest icing with a simple chocolate ganache (made of equal parts cream and 70% dark chocolate). Chocolate heaven awaits.

Alby’s Best-Ever Chocolate Cake

100g butter, softened to room temperature

100g soft brown sugar

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

60ml canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g plain flour

50g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp sea salt

125g sour cream

1 tsp instant coffee granules

Heat the oven to 150°C fan-forced (or 170°C conventional). Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper.

In a large bowl using an electric hand or stand mixer (with the paddle attachment), beat the butter and both sugars for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, oil and vanilla and mix until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt. In a small bowl, whisk the sour cream until smooth.

Mix half of the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, followed by half of the sour cream. Repeat, adding the remaining flour mixture then sour cream, mixing until just incorporated and smooth.

In a cup, whisk together the instant coffee granules and 125ml boiling water until the coffee is dissolved. Pour the hot coffee into the batter and mix until smooth. Pour the cake batter into the lined cake tin and bake for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the tin and placing on a wire rack to cool fully.

Alby’s Best-Ever Chocolate Cake (gluten-free)

75g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

75g butter, chopped into small cubes

200g caster sugar

80ml canola oil

3 eggs

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

125g ground almonds

50g buckwheat flour

80g cocoa powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp sea salt

1 tsp instant coffee granules

Heat the oven to 160°C fan-forced (or 180°C conventional). Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper.

Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan one-third full with simmering water. Gently whisk together until melted completely, then remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs, balsamic vinegar and vanilla until well combined. Pour in the melted chocolate/butter and whisk until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the ground almonds, buckwheat flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until smooth.

In a cup, whisk together the instant coffee granules and 125ml boiling water until the coffee is dissolved. Pour the hot coffee into the batter and mix until smooth.

Pour into the lined cake tin and bake for about 40-50 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the tin and placing on a wire rack to cool fully. Makes one 20cm round chocolate cake.

Alby Hailes is a doctor and food writer. His new cookbook, Good Vibes, is out now.