Chocolate Cakes and Recipes - Did You Know These Facts About Chocolate?

It goes without saying that chocolate is the most popular flavor of cake in the world.

Any cake with made with chocolate or cocoa can be classified as a chocolate cake. There are hundreds of chocolate mousse cake recipes, chocolate layer cake recipes, chocolate cakes made with coffee and capped with dark chocolate icing, chocolate tarts (small cakes), and so very much more.

Once the processing of chocolate had been mastered, the popularity of chocolate cakes quickly spread across Europe and North America, and more gradually, all over the world.  Today, few people can resist chocolate cake.

Some great chocolate cake recipes:

Chocolate Cakes in America

Any cake with made with chocolate or cocoa can be classified as a chocolate cake. The chocolate butter cake had been the most common in the United States. The most popular chocolate cake in the country now is the German Chocolate Cake. The German Chocolate Cake was derived from a man named Sam German in 1852 who used pecans and coconut as special topping on his rich, moist confection. The recipe for German Chocolate Cake was first printed in 1957 in a Dallas Newspaper and spread quickly across the country. The cake is a layered chocolate butter cake made of sweet baking chocolate and filled and topped with pecans and coconut. Chocolate frosting can also be used on the sides and decorated with maraschino cherries.

Another extremely popular chocolate cake variety in America is Devil’s Food Cake (also known as Red Velvet Cake, Waldorf Astoria Cake, Hundred Dollar Cake, among many other names). The Devil’s Food cake came from the southern United States and some of the ingredients used were beets giving it the dark red velvety color. When the recipe first appeared in the early 1900’s Devil’s Food Cake became extremely popular. It is a moist chocolate cake, traditionally served with white frosting and usually contains a greater proportion of chocolate than other chocolate cakes.

Early Chocolate Cakes

It is believed the earliest cakes were yellow or spiced and accompanied with a hot chocolate beverage. Chocolate was not one of the cake's ingredients.” The earliest chocolate cakes were simple yellow cakes, with chocolate icing. In fact, this use of chocolate in icing acted as a catalyst for eating chocolate and the eventual manufacture of chocolate bars. The first chocolate cakes were baked late in the 17th century. In the mid-1600’s some business minded bakers in England began adding cocoa to cake recipes making chocolate available to everyone in solid form for the first time. Within decades, solid chocolate becomes available throughout Europe in a variety of forms, including bars, lifting the status of chocolate from that of a stylish drink to that of a superb, sweet delicacy. ”In just a few short years chocolate became available in Europe in a variety of forms, including bars, changing it from just a drink to a compact sweet treat.

As the price of chocolate began to decrease in the second half of the 19th century, the practice of adding chocolate to cake batter became more prevalent and quickly spread all over Europe and by the end of the century, chocolate cake had become a popular dessert in many countries of the (predominantly western) world. Over the course of time many thousands of different chocolate cake recipes which has given us the variety of chocolate we enjoy today.There are all kinds of ingredients which can be used most are based on egg, cocoa powder, shortening, sugar, salt  and baking soda. Water or milk is also used and various icings and frostings are often added.

European Chocolate Cakes

From Europe one of the oldest chocolate cakes is the German Black Forest cake. It is called Schwarzwälder kirschtorte in German, which means Black Forest Cherry Torte (torte is the German word for cake). Some historians believe that this cake dates back as far as the late 16th century. It originated, of course, in the Black Forest Region of Germany, located in the state of Baden-Württemberg. There are many exciting recipes for this type of cake that include chocolate, cream, cherries, and a type of brandy called Kirsch made sour with Morello cherries which are famous in that region. There are many exciting recipes for this type of cake that include chocolate, cream, cherries, and a type of brandy called Kirsch made sour with Morello cherries which are famous in that region.

Among the best and most renowned chocolate cakes in the world are the Belgian cakes because of the high quality. A traditional Belgian chocolate cake is a “… chocolate pound cake covered with a layer of thin chocolate ganache.” The top of the cake is neatly decorated with chocolate discs and chopped nuts as the finishing touch. The top cake is famous for its denseness and extremely dark color that is reminiscent of pure Belgian chocolate. This cake is renowned for its coarse dark texture much like pure Belgian chocolate. This particular Belgian chocolate cake (one of my personal favorites) is pure chocolate bliss - with no fancy additions except for a handful of ground almonds. This particular Belgian chocolate cake is truly a little piece of heaven with nothing more than a handful of almonds.

The French chocolate was not made with flour but instead made with custard baked in a bain marie or over hot water. It is very much like the molten chocolate cake which uses little or no flour.  Ingredients such as eggs, butter and chocolate are the main ingredients to a molten chocolate flourless cake. The butter and chocolate are melted together, and the eggs may be either whisked whole with the sugar or the egg whites may be whipped separately to produce a lighter cake.

There is an amusing story attached to the traditional Hungarian Chocolate Mousse Cake. A famous Hungarian gypsy violinist, Rigo Jancsi, is said to have played for Prince Josef and Princess Klara in Paris in 1896.

Although the love affair soon came to an end, the cake that Rigo Jancsi created with a confectioner for Princess Klara is still a favorite Hungarian dessert, known as Sutemeny Rigo Jancsi. This cake is a sponge cake and uses rum, heavy cream and chocolate frosting.

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