Chocolate Cake Measurements for the Pastry Novice

If you’re new to baking, then understanding chocolate cake measurements is vital. Too much or too little of an ingredient can kill the taste of whatever you bake. Without learning how each unit factors in the baking process, you’re wasting your time.

Thus, we’ll be showing you a brief guide to measurement conversions. We’ll also provide you a quick recipe that you can use to familiarize yourself with portion sizes!

Chocolate Cake Measurements: Cups, Liters, Tablespoons and Grams.

Most people read recipes and see the word “cup” often.

Unfortunately, few people understand what a cup refers to. After all, what size cup are we talking about? It’s a vague term that needs clarification.

In cooking, one cup refers to 90-240 grams or milliliters. The reason why we put this range is because recipes don’t factor in measurements to the nearest gram. Thus, you get fractions when you see a cup measurement.

Why is there a massive range in cup size as well? Well, we don’t know. It’s just how it is in the cooking world. The massive range is actually a great cause of confusion. As a result, we usually don't recommend cup measurements without consulting a chart.

As for tablespoons, 1 cup equals 16 of those. If you want to portion your chocolate cake but lack a measuring cup, just put 16 tablespoons per cup. You can control the amount of tablespoons for any fractional increase or decrease in cup size.

At least with tablespoons, we have a form of stability.

A Sample Recipe to Give You an Idea…

Here is a chocolate cake recipe using cup measurements (compared to grams and milliliters).

Ingredients are as follows…

•         All-Purpose Flour (210 g) (1 ¾ cup).

•         Vegetable Oil (112 g) (1/2 cup).

•         Buttermilk (240 g) (1 cup).

•         Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (90 g) (3/4 cup).

•         Sugar (400g) (2 cups).

•         Fresh Hot Coffee, Brewed (237g) (1 cup).

•         Vanilla extract (2 teaspoons).

•         2 large eggs.

•         Salt (1 teaspoon).

•         Baking Powder (1 teaspoon).

•         Baking Soda (2 teaspoons).

As you can see, chocolate cake recipe in cups measurements vary when converted into grams. For example, 1 cup of sugar is 200 grams, but 1 cup of cocoa is 120 grams.

Thus, when making any type of pastry, always consult a conversion chart to know how much you need.

Let’s continue with the chocolate cake recipe below…

Instructions.

Add the sugar, cocoa, baking soda, flour, baking powder and salt to a bowl. Mix thoroughly until the batter is prepared.

Using a different bowl, add oil, eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk.

Use a low speed mixer for the 2nd bowl. Let the ingredients dry, then add coffee and stir. Add the batter to the ingredients, mix, and then add to a pan for 40 minutes. You want to cook the mixture at 350 Celsius.

After you’re done, cool the cake for 30 minutes on the pan. Afterwards, let everything cool on a separate rack.

And that’s all! Again, just to repeat, never cook in cup measurements without a conversion chart. You don’t want to end up messing the portion sizes!