Do I have to wait until completely cool to release the cake? It’s not releasing from the pan about an hour after I took it out the oven. Or that’s just the way it is and I should just serve it in the pan?
I remember babysitting for an older relativeon her birthday. The kids and I wanted to make her a birthday cake but found few of the normal ingredients on hand. We cobbled together a Bisquik yogurt “thing” that checked most of the boxes. Like beauty, cake is as cake does.
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I should have noted this issue in my first post. Back before the advent of non stick bakeware this cake was near impossible to release in one piece, even if properly greased and dusted which is why most people just left it in the pan. It’s kind of hit or miss even with non stick. Too late now but maybe Baker’s Joy might do the trick next time. If there is a next time.
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Sorry I couldn’t add the links earlier.
Here are some of the ones I saved (if you like to peruse comments too):
Haha, I actually wasted an hour reading through every comment on those.
I left the pan upside down and it released, mostly intact.
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Brave of you! I usually line the pan.
for how you like it 
Parchment paper liners! Wax paper or brown paper bag in a pinch. Grease before and after fitting into your pans. Layers slide out easy peasy.
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Texture looks like the pictures I’ve seen. Making some Thai Iced Tea to go with it. Will report back later.
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Dusting with cocoa powder makes for better color in chocolate cake, but IME, dusting with white sugar works best. Contrary to what people fear, it doesn’t turn sticky. Plus, it gives the cake yummy, crisp, caramel-tasting sides.
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At first, I wasn’t too keen on the texture. I’m biased in favor of butter cakes over oil, so that was no surprise. But then the more I kept nibbling and sipping my tea while working, the more I subconsciously liked it until I was left wanting another slice. As a plain snacking cake, I would want to fine tune my preference for oil and cocoa powder. With a topping, I agree it will work no problem. Certainly none of my testers could tell it wasn’t a “real” cake.
I baked in an 8" round pan at 325F convection for exactly 30 minutes in a Cuisinart Chef’s Convection toaster oven. Since baking soda is the only leavening agent, I moved really fast. This toaster oven works really well; in my regular gas oven I would have used a 9" round pan as instructed in the recipe (for fear of sinking.) I used the KAF recipe, but increased the cocoa to 30g. Even with the Aldi-brand cocoa and Costco-brand Canola Oil I had access to at the time, the cake was received very well. The Smitten Kitchen recipe didn’t seem right to me, and there were quite a few complaints in the comments.
Thanks for the adventure! It’s great to have a recipe like this in my repertoire. Next, I really want to try it with a square of unsweetened chocolate like @Miss_belle mentioned.
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Baking soda proportion is usually the culprit.
Chocolate and olive oil together are incongruous to me - lemon / orange olive oil cake works, but I want my chocolate as chocolate, so a neutral oil is a better choice.
(You said you had it with thai iced tea - I would have found the recipe as written very under-sweet with a sweet drink.)
Same here.
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I just have to tell you all I am weirdly fascinated by this discussion considering I hate both sweets and baking. But I absolutely love listening to highly-skilled practitioners of any activity nerding out on their topic. You are delightful to read!!
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At the risk of sounding overly pedantic: We only sweetened our thai iced tea when pairing with savory foods.
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I remember babysitting an older relative on his birthday. The kids and I wanted to make her a birthday cake, but we found some of the normal ingredients on hand. We made a Bisquik yogurt “thing” that checked most of the boxes. Like beauty, cake is like cake.
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Deja vu.
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Busted. I took the easy way out and bought one. We have a lovely cake bakery in town which we patronized. We’ve been eating it for about a week. It was small but very rich. Chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting. But today is the last of it and once we have a cake cooling off period, I will make one. And report!
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Oooh thank you!
I was having trouble getting cakes to release from my Bundt pan, and the manufacturer recommended that I turn cakes out after 10 minutes, before the sugars harden and re-stick to the pan.
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I made a cake!!! I used the website/chart/comparison and chose Ina’s version as it seemed to be the most popular. I almost had a big oops because I oddly forgot to add sugar, until I was already cleaning off the paddle. But, crisis averted. I baked them as cupcakes. I overfilled so they took 30 min, and spilled all over the top. Hard to remove from the tin, not much to look at. I will spare you the photo. But so tasty! It is rich and chocolatey and very moist and not too sweet. Which shocks, considering 2 cups of sugar were -eventually-added. I never intended to frost it, but I wonder if I even could, as the crumb is so delicate. Anyway, good stuff for monching. I don’t know that I’ll even venture to the other recipes for a bit, as this was so satisfying.
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