Chocolate ‘soup’ cake: secret ingredient to avoid baking a dry cake

It would be the last thing you would think of to add to a chocolate cake mix but this food element is the difference between a dry and moist dessert.

Chocolate cake is adored globally. It’s the one cake that you can always turn to when every other flavour feels too hard-to-execute … or not indulgent enough.

It would be difficult to find an Australian who didn’t steal an extra slice at grandma’s for afternoon tea or grow up with chocolate cakes at nearly every birthday party.

There is one thing that can affect our appreciation of this sweet treat though — a dry texture.

So how do I prevent a dry cake?

Nothing sours your face quicker than biting into a piece of chocolate cake that immediately crumbles apart and sticks to the roof of your mouth. Gah!

So, when we discovered a surprising ingredient that helps prevent this type of baking disaster, we couldn’t wait to give it a try …

To avoid baking a dry cake, add this ‘secret ingredient’.

Tomato soup: the secret to a moist chocolate cake

Tomato soup? Really? Yep, you heard it right. Such a simple pantry staple adds so much moisture and texture to your chocolate cake. Don’t worry, it doesn’t leave you with any tomato flavour or aftertaste.

This recipe also uses sour cream, which is often used as a way to add moisture to chocolate cakes, but can slightly diminish the sweet flavour.

By adding a can of tomato soup as well, your cake will maintain its sweetness completely.

This is because tomato soup is made from roasted tomatoes, which are sweeter than raw tomatoes as the roasting process develops sugars in a food.

Who knew there was so much science behind tomatoes?!

@taste.com.au What’s the secret ingredient in this choc cake? 🥫 Recipe in bio or Google “Taste Chocolate soup cake” #cakehack #cake #chocolate #foodtiktok #chocolatecake #cakerecipes ♬ All I Want Is You - Disco Lines

When do I add the soup into the mixture?

We’ve tried and tested many recipes and we’ve found that this chocolate ‘soup’ cake is the best one out there, because you mix the soup and sour cream in with all the dry ingredients.

They help to disperse any of those lumps of flour in the batter which affect the texture of the cake.

The dry ingredients soak up the moisture of the tomato soup to create a deliciously soft and delightfully rich cake.

So, stock up your pantry with cans of tomato soup, because once you try this recipe you’ll never want to risk a crumbly chocolate cake again.

FULL RECIPE:Tomato soup chocolate cake

Other ‘secret ingredient’ chocolate cake recipes:

Chocolate and raspberry baked ricotta cake

Beetroot chocolate fudge cake

Chocolate cherry liqueur cake

Heavenly mocha choc bliss cake

For more recipe ideas, go to taste.com.au or check out the Taste Test Kitchen now.

Originally published as Chocolate ‘soup’ cake: secret ingredient to avoid baking a dry cake