Can I Use Melted Chocolate Instead Of Cocoa Powder For The Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake?

Our answer

Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake (from FEAST) has chocolate sponge layers that are sandwiched and coated with a chocolate buttercream.The cake is intensely chocolatey but not overly rich. The recipe uses cocoa powder for the sponge and melted chocolate for the buttercream.

Unfortunately we can't recommend replacing the cocoa powder with melted chocolate as the two ingredients have a different composition and work in different ways. Cocoa powder is made from the solids that are left over once the cocoa butter has been extracted from the cocoa beans. It is dry and quite absorbent. Conversely, dark or bittersweet chocolate has a high quantity of cocoa butter and if you add it to the cake insetad of cocoa powder it is likely that the cake will end up with a denser texture and will not taste quite so intensely of chocolate. Valrhona is Dutch processed cocoa powder, which means that the cocoa powder has been treated with an alkalising agent. This reduces the bitterness of the cocoa and gives it a darker colour than natural cocoa. The UK doesn't generally differentiate between Dutch processed and natural cocoa powder for baking and we ourselves do not think it makes a difference to Nigella's recipes. However, some people think that Dutch processed cocoa powder has a richer, more rounded chocolate flavour. So you may like to look for Dutch processed cocoa powder as an alternative to your usual cocoa powder. If you look on the ingredients label on the packaging then it will state that an alkalising agent has been used. Avoid black cocoa as this is ultra processed cocoa powder and tends to be used more to give a dark colour than to add chocolate flavour.