Food - Drink
How Cocoa Powder Affects The Moisture Of Your Cakes
By LAUREN ROTHMAN
Chocolate cake is a beloved dessert, and when baking it at home, it’s important that the outcome is rich in moisture, not dry and dense. You can add extra ingredients to ensure a moist cake, but there's one ingredient that you may be taking for granted — the cocoa powder you use can make or break your cake.
Many bakers prefer Dutch-processed cocoa for desserts, since Dutch cocoa is treated with an alkaline solution to darken the color and mellow the flavor, but others prefer the full flavor spectrum of natural, unprocessed cocoa. You can use either of these cocoas in your cake, but what's really important is fat content.
According to America’s Test Kitchen and The Outlet, cocoa with a lower fat content contains more starch, and starch will suck out the moisture right out of your cake. Try to buy cocoa with a 20% fat content at minimum; simply look at the powder's nutritional info and make sure it has at least 1 gram of fat per 5-gram serving.