What Cocoa Powder Should I Use For The Chocolate Guinness Cake?

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake (from FEAST) is a moist, slighty sticky sponge that includes cocoa powder. Cocoa powder is made from cocoa nibs once the cocoa butter has been extracted. Cocoa powders don't usually give a percentage of cocoa solids, so we wonder if there is some confusion with cocoa powder and chocolate, where for good-quality dark or bittersweet chocolates the percentage of cocoa solids is often stated.

The cocoa powder for the Chocolate Guinness Cake should be unsweetened cocoa powder. It may say 100% cocoa powder on the packaging and should say 100% cocoa powder in the ingredients. If sugar or dried milk powder have been added then this is hot chocolate powder rather than cocoa powder. Cocoa powder has two types - natural cocoa powder that has a slightly reddish colour and Dutch-processed cocoa powder that has been treated with alkali and is darker in colour. In the UK recipes do not tend to differentaite between the two types and for the Chocolate Guinness Cake you can use either natural or Dutch-processed cocoa powder.