Is Hersheys Cocoa Powder Keto
Keto Hersheys Chocolate Cake, Frosted
If you are wondering if Hersheys cocoa powder is keto-friendly, rest assured it is. The good news is that cocoa powder has zero sweeteners and can, therefore, be used in keto baking. This means you have the green light to use Hersheys cocoa powder while doing keto.
Let me start off by saying that my love for Hersheys Chocolate cake is two-fold. One the fact that its a super easy recipe to execute and two that it boasts a rich chocolate flavor.
I cant tell you for sure, but Im pretty certain that the recipe on the back of the cocoa box was probably the first chocolate cake I made from scratch a kazillion moons ago.
Dont get me wrong I know that there are some fancier brands of chocolate out there but heres the thing, Hersheys brand of chocolates has never disappointed me. Not even once.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
What Size Chocolate Cake Does This Recipe Make
This recipe is really versatile and can be used to make:
- One 9-inch 2-layer cake,
- One 13×9-inch sheet cake,
- One bundt cake, or
- 30 cupcakes
Seriously! I love when a cake recipe is so adaptable because it means I dont have to dig into my recipe file and find a different recipe if I need cupcakes instead of a layer cake.
Just make sure you grease and flour any cake pan you use or use cupcake liners if youre making cupcakes.
My Honest Review Of Hersheys Chocolate Cake
This cake had a standard, run-of-the-mill chocolate flavor that was pleasant but not great. It was a tad too sweet for my taste and lacked the pleasant bitterness that comes with cake made with quality dark chocolate. The flavor was enjoyable, but it was nothing to rave about.
The frosting itself was too sweet as well, and it needed salt to help balance out the generous amount of powdered sugar. It was smooth and easy to work with, but the flavor was dull. It also dried out as it sat, so youll need to work fast or cover it with plastic wrap.
The texture of the cake is where Hersheys really lost points. It was extremely moist to the point of being overwhelming. It was damp, marshy, and dense. Dont get me wrong, I love a moist cake, but eating this was a bit too similar to eating a wet sponge. After a few bites it became too much I felt like I was eating a slice of fudge instead of cake. For such an iconic recipe, I was surprised by how intense the texture was.
Dont get me wrong, this is a good cake its just not the best cake. Its just as good as store-bought cake, but not necessarily better. If you prefer a more exciting chocolate cake, look elsewhere.
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Hershey’s Chocolate Cake Is Absolutely The Best Chocolate Cake There Is Cocoa Gives It A Rich Chocolate Flavor And It’s Never Dry Cover With My Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing And You’ll Have Your Guests Coming Back For Seconds
4 cups all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons baking powder 2 teaspoons salt 2 tablespoons brown sugar ¼ cup granulated sugar 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, cold 2 cups heavy cream 2 tablespoons vanilla 1 egg for egg wash Turbinado sugar for sprinklingStrawberries 3 cups chopped fresh or frozen strawberries ¼ cup granulated sugar
My Version Of The Hersheys Perfectly Chocolate Cake Recipe Tweaks The Chocolate Frosting
This review of the Hersheys Perfectly Chocolate Cake recipe argues that its frosting is too sweet. I also found myself agreeing with this critique. I was surprised to find that the original recipe contained no salt at all!
In general, a little salt goes a long way in baked goods. The salt balances out the sugar, and can make other flavors in the recipe more flavorful. I ended up adding a whopping ½ teaspoon of kosher salt to the frosting. That may seem like a lot, but it really helped tone down the sweetness without any coffee .
I also found that the recipe didnt make enough for a 3 layer, 8-inch cake. But that made sense. Because although Hersheys gives you the option to make the recipe in different cake pans, the original recipe is for a 2 layer, 9-inch cake. As a result, Ive tweaked the frosting quantities below to be more suitable for a 3 layer cake. However, definitely check out the FAQ below if you want to make this recipe in other cake pans.
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The Ingredients Needed To Make Hershey Chocolate Cake:
It’s chocolately, rich, moist, and delicious. It’s nearly as easy to make as a box cake and it. Hershey’s “Perfectly” Chocolate Cake – moist with the silkiest milk chocolate frosting ever! Hershey’s Chocolate Cake. posted by Christy Denney
Best Cake Making Technique Tips
- For even cake layers, I like to actually weigh out the layers with a digital kitchen scale to make sure theyre even. The easiest way to do this is to set a prepared cake pan on a digital scale and tare it to 0. Pour batter into the pan until the scale registers the weight listed in the recipe . Repeat with the second and third cake pans.
- Use a large, fine-mesh sieve to sift ingredients for the frosting. Its the fastest and easiest way to sift ingredients! All you need to do is place the fine-mesh sieve over a bowl. Then, dump the ingredients that need to be sifted into the sieve. Use a whisk to stir the ingredients until they pass through the bottom of the sieve and into the bowl below.
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The Hersheys Perfectly Chocolate Cake Recipe
- three 8-inch round cake pans
- a digital kitchen scale
For the Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake
- 2cups granulated sugar
- 1 ¾cups all-purpose flour
- ¾cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted if necessary
- 1 ½teaspoonsbaking powder
- 1 ½teaspoonsbaking soda
- 1teaspoonkosher salt
- 1cup whole milk, at room temperature
- ½cup canola oil
- 2large eggs, at room temperature
- 2teaspoonspure vanilla extract
- 1cup boiling water
For the Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Frosting
- 4 ½cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½teaspoonkosher salt
- ½cup whole milk
- 1 ½teaspoonspure vanilla extract
- ¾cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
Faq: Hersheys Perfectly Chocolate Cake Recipe Techniques
Why do I need to add boiling water to the cake batter?
Great question! Ive been doing a lot of research to answer this question for some time now. I believe its a trick gleaned from old-fashioned chocolate cake recipes. According to my research, the hot water helps get rid of any stubborn lumps in the cocoa powder. Most old-fashioned chocolate cake recipes instruct you to make the batter by hand with a whisk. And if youre a seasoned baker, you know how hard it can be to whisk lumps out of batter.
Furthermore, the hot water blooms the cocoa powder, deepening the cocoa powders chocolate flavor. Its similar to how coffee and tea become more flavorful when steeped in hot water.
And finally, all that extra water makes the cake super moist.
Why do you recommend freezing the cakes overnight?
Why do I recommend freezing the cakes overnight? Well, I already mentioned how doing so gives me more control of my time. Typically, you need to wait for cakes to cool completely before frosting them. Otherwise, the frosting will melt! And it can take a while to bring cakes down to room temperature. So making the cakes a day ahead means I dont have to sit around for hours waiting. Instead, I can just frost and assemble the cakes any time I want on the next day!
Okay, but I dont have room in my freezer. Can I refrigerate the cakes instead?
Do I really need a crumb coat for the Hersheys Perfectly Chocolate Cake?
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What Makes This Cheesecake Cake So Good
The use of both melted chocolate and cocoa powder give this cake the most wonderful chocolate flavor in every bite. The cake is light enough to balance out the rich and creamy cheesecake, but chocolatey enough to satisfy all its own. The creamy chocolate buttercream and chocolate chips add the perfect finishing touch to really make this cheesecake special.
Hersheys Chocolate Cake Ingredients
Youll need:
- 1¾ cup all-purpose flour
- cup unsweetened Hersheys cocoa powder
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 cup salted sweet cream butter, softened
- cup unsweetened Hersheys cocoa powder
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
SUBSTITUTIONS AND ADDITIONS
BUTTERMILK: You can make your own buttermilk using whole or 2% milk and lemon juice or distilled vinegar. For every 1 cup of milk, stir in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar.
WATER: You can substitute the boiling water for hot coffee in this delicious cake.
CHOCOLATE CHIPS: You can add chocolate chips tossed in flour to the cake batter.
NUTS: You can add chopped nuts to this easy cake batter.
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How To Make The Hersheys Perfectly Chocolate Cakerecipe
Whenever I bake a layer cake, I break down the recipe to make its different components over multiple days. Why? It can be really time-consuming to make the cake all in one day! First, you need to bake the cakes and wait for them to cool completely. Then, you need to make the frosting, assemble the layers and frost a crumb coat, and wait for it all to set. After that, you need to finish decorating the whole thing! You can see how this recipe is turning into a full days worth of work.
To make sure Im not stuck in the kitchen all day, I broke down the work for the Hersheys Perfectly Chocolate Cake recipe over two days. Heres what I did:
Hersheys Perfect Chocolate Cake
- 2cupssugar390 grams
- 1-3/4cupsall-purpose flour220 grams
- 3/4cupnatural or dark Hersheys cocoa60 grams
- 1-1/2teaspoonsbaking powder
- 1/2cupvegetable oil or canola oil
- 2teaspoonsvanilla extract
- 1cupboiling water or hot brewed coffee
Perfectly Chocolate Frosting
- 1/2cupunsalted butter
- 2/3cupnatural Hersheys Cocoanot extra dark
- 3cupspowdered sugar
- 1/3cupwhole milk
- 1tablespoonsour cream, heaping optional
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Homemade Hersheys Chocolate Bar Cheesecake
This indulgent cheesecake recipe packs as much chocolate as possible into one cake! Its a copycat version of the Hersheys Chocolate Bar Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. Spoiler alert: its even more delicious! I had a request from a reader for this one, so naturally I couldnt disappoint.
There are 3 pillars of this chocolatey treat the tender cake, the rich cheesecake and the creamy frosting. In true Cheesecake Factory fashion, its all covered in chocolate chips! All my tasters totally fell in love with it. One even claimed that the chocolate cheesecake layer was the best cheesecake shes ever had. And if youve ever had my Easy Moist Chocolate Cake, the cake layers are modified from that, so you know its good.
The final chocolate cheesecake cake is a bit of work, but total beauty. And this fool-proof layered chocolate cheesecake cake also keeps very well, so make way for some amazing leftovers.
Day : Make The Chocolate Cake
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Faq: Hersheys Perfectly Chocolate Cake Recipe Troubleshooting
Help! My cake came out weird. Its top looks bubbly in the center. What did I do wrong?
Ah! Im so excited to answer this question because I learned the answer straight from bakers at Hersheys test kitchens themselves! And according to them, this texture comes from undermixing the cake.
Specifically, after adding the hot water to the recipe, you need to whisk the batter for the amount of time listed in the recipe. Seriouslyset a timer. It helps! Whisk at a steady pace thats neither too fast or too slow. At the end, the batter will be thin in texture but uniform in color. There should be no streaks or differing shades of brown. If it looks even a little bit streaky, the batter needs more whisking!
Help! I froze the cakes like you instructed but now water is beading through the cake and frosting. What did I do wrong?
To answer this question, we need to understand where that water is coming from. That water is condensation from the frozen cake thawing as it comes to room temperature. Its similar to how the outside of a glass full of ice water is wet on a hot day. Luckily, the cake is still perfectly safe to eat. The condensation just makes an ugly cake .
And in the recipe below, I instruct you to start the cake assembling process by first removing the cakes from the freezer. Doing so allows them to thaw slightly while you make the frosting, helping prevent this condensation issue. If you skipped this step, youre more likely to have this issue.
How To Make A Keto Hersheys Perfectly Chocolate Cake
Keto Hersheys Chocolate Cake
Ill admit that at first, I thought that my attempt in converting this classic recipe into a keto-friendly option was going to be impossible. Thankfully, that was not the case. A little prayer before attempting to convert a recipe is the secret to my success.
Just like the original recipe youre going to start by mixing the dry and wet ingredients in two separate bowls.
I did, however, replace the vegetable oil thats called for in the original with melted cooled butter. Because butter is always a good idea. Dont you agree?
You can also use melted refined coconut oil or ghee in place of the butter. If you opt to use coconut oil I suggest you use refined coconut oil so that the coconut flavor doesnt overpower the recipe.
Instead of the 1 cup of milk, I used 1/2 a cup of heavy whipping cream and 1/2 a cup of water. The milk is way too high in carbs. Thankfully this cream and water combo works as a great substitute.
I also used 3 large eggs instead of the two that the original recipe called for to ensure the cake would be moist and have the perfect crumb.
Of course, in order to make this a true Keto Hersheys Chocolate Cake, I also swapped out the sugar for a sugar substitute and the all-purpose flour for a finely milled almond and coconut flour combination.
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