Ina Garten's 1-Ingredient Upgrade for Better Chocolate Cake

I use this trick when making any chocolate cake.

Part of the reason I came to baking is because I love chocolate cake. In high school, I was interested in scoring the best recipe, so I spent a few months baking as many chocolate cake recipes as I could find in magazines, cookbooks, and newspapers. (I'm dating myself—the internet back then wasn't the same. Today, a Google search yields nearly 750 million chocolate cake recipes.)

To this day, my favorite chocolate cake recipe is Ina Garten's famous Beatty’s Chocolate Cake. It is easy to make, moist, and delicious. Most importantly, the cake is full of chocolate flavor, and that's because her recipe calls for coffee. Ina calls for coffee not once, but twice. Once in the cake batter and again in the chocolate frosting.

Coffee is a natural chocolate enhancer. Its bitterness coaxes out the chocolate flavor without making the cake taste like coffee. The key is to add the right amount at the right time—admittedly, too much coffee in any chocolate cake recipe will make it taste like mocha. Though Ina's cake is my go-to, whenever I bake another recipe that doesn't call for coffee, I make sure to add it. Here's how.

Just Like Hershey's Black Magic Cake

On the episode of The Barefoot Contessa where Ina baked the cake, she credited her friend's grandmother for the recipe, which was likely the original Hershey's recipe for Black Magic Cake. The ingredients and quantities are almost identical. Hershey's developed the recipe sometime before the 1970s and added it to a product label.

Some claim the recipe goes back to the 1930s. According to cookbook author Stella Parks in BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts, "During the Great Depression, recipes for [chocolate cake] traded egg yolks for whole eggs and hot milk for hot coffee..."

What Type of Coffee To Add to Your Chocolate Cake

You can add coffee in a few forms depending on the cake recipe you're using. Regardless of what kind you use, it should be fresh and something you would enjoy drinking. You can find tips for how to add coffee to the recipe and how much coffee to use in the last section of this story below.

1. Hot Brewed Coffee: Made in a drip coffee maker, a Bialetti Moka Express, or a French press.

2. Shot of Espresso: If you're lucky enough to own an espresso machine, this is a great time to use it. You could also buy a shot at your local coffee shop. If the recipe requires more than a shot (about 1.5 ounces), mix it with hot water, basically an Americano.

3. Instant Espresso Powder: I like the brands Medaglia D'Oro and Café Bustelo.

4. Instant Coffee Granules: My parents drink Nescafé Clásico instant coffee, so that's what I'm used to keeping in the pantry.

5. Decaf Coffee: If I'm sharing the chocolate cake with kids or caffeine-sensitive friends, I'll use decaf. I don't always have it, so I may stop at my local coffee shop for a cup.

How To Add Coffee to Any Chocolate Cake Recipe

When the recipe calls for hot water: Many chocolate cake recipes call for hot water in the batter and there's a reason for this. According to the pro bakers at King Arthur, water's neutral flavor and moisture enhance the taste of chocolate and give the cake a longer shelf life. To maximize the flavor of chocolate even more, swap out equal amounts of water with brewed coffee. For example, if the recipe calls for one cup of hot water, use one cup of hot brewed coffee.

When the recipe calls for milk or buttermilk: Some chocolate cake recipes use milk or buttermilk instead of water or coffee. Don't swap the dairy with brewed coffee because the recipe was likely developed with the milk's sugar, fat, and proteins in mind. Instead, dissolve one teaspoon of instant espresso powder or two teaspoons of instant coffee granules in the milk or buttermilk.

Stir in instant espresso powder or instant coffee granules: When the recipe doesn't call for a liquid like hot water, milk, or buttermilk, add one teaspoon of instant espresso powder or two teaspoons of instant coffee granules to the dry ingredients—typically the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, baking powder, etc.

Read the original article on Simply Recipes.