Using lemon juice to sour milk in this recipe helps make this chocolate cake very moist and flavorful.
This cake is not a traditional Philadelphia Red Cake, Philadelphia red cakes, which are a precursor to red velvet and red devils food cake, are supposed to be almost the color of red velvet (not that nasty neon red but more of a rich chocolaty color), this is more of a brown to black color, witch is what I expected, the PH seemed off looking at the recipe, however I only made this once and am only offering suggestions on how to get the red tint [this tint relies on the reaction between baking soda and the acids in natural - not dutch processed- cocoa, how you can tell is to look at the ingredients list natural cocoa will just be labeled cocoa, cocoa powder, or 100% cocoa powder; whereas dutch processed will be called cocoa (processed with alkali) just thought you might want to know. My idea is to lower the acids and raise the bases, first lower the lemon juice to 1/2 tsp. this is the standard amount for souring milk, than increase the egg whites to using all three not just two - do not raise the yolks, yolks are acid, whites are alkali- than finally raise the baking soda to 2 tsp - the ratio required to neutralize cocoa powder is 1/2 tsp. per tbs. so this should work if it does not try increasing baking soda to 3 tsp. But if my changes scare you don't make them this is a very good chocolate cake just not red. Also in theory you could add 1 tbs red food coloring to get red. Note: this cake does not have to be made in a loaf pan it can be made in a 8" square or round cake pan.
Read MoreThis cake is not a traditional Philadelphia Red Cake, Philadelphia red cakes, which are a precursor to red velvet and red devils food cake, are supposed to be almost the color of red velvet (not that nasty neon red but more of a rich chocolaty color), this is more of a brown to black color, witch is what I expected, the PH seemed off looking at the recipe, however I only made this once and am only offering suggestions on how to get the red tint [this tint relies on the reaction between baking soda and the acids in natural - not dutch processed- cocoa, how you can tell is to look at the ingredients list natural cocoa will just be labeled cocoa, cocoa powder, or 100% cocoa powder; whereas dutch processed will be called cocoa (processed with alkali) just thought you might want to know. My idea is to lower the acids and raise the bases, first lower the lemon juice to 1/2 tsp. this is the standard amount for souring milk, than increase the egg whites to using all three not just two - do not raise the yolks, yolks are acid, whites are alkali- than finally raise the baking soda to 2 tsp - the ratio required to neutralize cocoa powder is 1/2 tsp. per tbs. so this should work if it does not try increasing baking soda to 3 tsp. But if my changes scare you don't make them this is a very good chocolate cake just not red. Also in theory you could add 1 tbs red food coloring to get red. Note: this cake does not have to be made in a loaf pan it can be made in a 8" square or round cake pan.
