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Maulwurfskuchen - Mole cake (thelemmy.club)
submitted 8 months ago* by to c/baking@sh.itjust.works
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Maulwurfskuchen - Mole cake (You can guess where the name comes from :D )

A chocolate sponge cake, hollowed out and filled with bananas, chocolate chips, and whipped cream. The crumbs are then used to decorate the dome.

I will post the recipe if someone's interested.

(P.S. No moles were harmed in the making of this post!)

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[–] 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Thanks! I was actually looking at info on Dutch process vs natural again today and came to the same conclusion. I was just going to tell OP and saw you told me the same yesterday :)

@GardenGeek@europe.pub, the recipe is probably designed for Dutch process coca powder. Natural is acidic (low Ph), so it generally gets paired with baking soda (high Ph) to produce leavening. Dutch process ph neutral, so it gets paired with baking powder which leaven’s on its own.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    TIL

    When I think about it remember wondering sometimes (when opening a new package of cocoa) why the new one had a different color than the old one. I guess I've been mixing dutch and natural all the time ^^'

    Concerning the baking soda vs. baking powder I think there might also be other factors at play as, at least were I live, baking soda alone is nearly never used. So it might be sort of a cultural thing...

    Isn't baking powder basically just baking soda with some acid in order to produce CO2 as it gets wet?

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    my imperfect understanding is as follows:

    Leavening is produced by the chemical reaction of an acid mixing with a base. This reaction is strongest when the acid and base are balanced (or close to it); the more out of balance they are, the weaker the reaction.

    Baking powder is a balanced acid and base, so it provides the best leavening when the rest of the recipe is ph neutral. If the rest of the recipe is acidic (or basic) it will weaken the reaction. It will still work, though; it just won’t rise as much as it would have if the recipe were in balance.

    So… baking powder is a “safe bet”. It will still leaven if you use it with natural coca powder (acidic), but you would probably get more rise if you (A) used Dutch process instead, or (B) add the right amount of baking soda to neutralize the extra acidity.

    GIANT CAVEAT: I like food science. I cook a lot… but I don’t bake a lot. So I’m mostly just reciting stuff I’ve learned. I probably don’t have this all precisely right. And I’m not sure significant the effect of extra acidity is; For all I know the effect on leavening is small enough that it doesn’t really matter.

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