Chocolate Cake Lab
Layer, sheet and one-bowl chocolate cakes: cocoa, sugar, fat and liquid per 100 g of flour.
357 recipes from 135 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical cake, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
357
from 135 sites
Typical flour
250 g
about 2 cups
Oven
350°F
175°C · median of 316
Bake time
33 min
most 29 to 40 min
The median of all 357 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 250 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 250 gabout 2 cups |
| CocoaMost recipes use 29 to 75 g | 55 gabout 2/3 cup |
| Chocolate63% use none; the rest mostly 110 to 235 g | none |
| SugarMost recipes use 265 to 415 g | 355 gabout 1 3/4 cups |
| FatMost recipes use 115 to 225 g | 155 gabout 2/3 cup |
| EggMost recipes use 100 to 155 g | 115 gabout 2 1/2 large eggs |
| LiquidMost recipes use 260 to 460 g | 345 gabout 1 1/2 cups |
| LeaveningMost recipes use 9 to 17 g | 12 g |
| Salt30% use none; the rest mostly 2.5 to 6 g | 3 g |
Bake350°F (175°C) for about 33 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g, cocoa 85 g, a large egg 50 g.
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
median 23% · most 12 to 30%
Cocoa powder carries most chocolate cakes' flavor; it absorbs liquid and makes the crumb drier and more tender.
range 0 to 69% · 14% use none
median 0% · 63% use none
Melted chocolate in the batter adds cocoa butter for a denser, fudgier cake; many recipes use cocoa alone.
range 0 to 185% · those that use some, mostly 44 to 94%
median 142% · most 106 to 167%
Chocolate cakes run sweet, often well over the flour's weight, to balance the cocoa's bitterness.
range 60 to 292%
median 62% · most 46 to 89%
Oil is common here, since cocoa already brings flavor and oil keeps the cake moist.
range 16 to 200%
median 46% · most 40 to 63%
Eggs set the cake; fewer make it more tender and fudgy.
range 0 to 136% · 15% use none
median 138% · most 103 to 185%
Milk or buttermilk, often plus hot water or coffee, which blooms the cocoa and deepens the flavor.
range 40 to 229%
median 4.8% · most 3.5 to 6.6%
Baking soda reacts with natural cocoa and buttermilk; Dutch-process recipes lean on baking powder.
range 1.5 to 10%
median 1.1% · 30% use none
Salt deepens the chocolate.
range 0 to 2.9% · those that use some, mostly 0.9 to 2.3%
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
Recipes agree most on egg and sugar: egg 40 to 63%, sugar 106 to 167% for the middle half.
356 of the recipes come in 6 languages with enough of each to compare: English 246, Portuguese 41, Italian 26, German 19, French 14, Dutch 10.
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Recipes called “best” (23) or “easy” (12) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.
Recipes with “vegan” in the title: most use no egg (100% vs 11%); less sugar (114% vs 160%).
“vegan” (14)the rest (232)middle half of all
Egg · share using anyrecipes with vegan in the title 0% vs the rest 88%
Sugarrecipes with vegan in the title 114% vs the rest 160%
Recipes with “eggless” in the title: most use no egg (100% vs 11%); less salt (0.1% vs 1.6%).
“eggless” (12)the rest (234)middle half of all
Egg · share using anyrecipes with eggless in the title 0% vs the rest 88%
Saltrecipes with eggless in the title 0.1% vs the rest 1.6%
78 chocolate cake recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 279, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
The most-reviewed recipes use 32% more cocoa than the rest (27% against 20% of the flour weight), 34% more leavening (6.2% against 4.6%) and 77% more salt (1.6% against 0.9%).
50+ ratings (78)the rest (279)middle half of all
Cocoathe most-reviewed recipes 27% vs the rest 20%
Chocolatethe most-reviewed recipes 0% vs the rest 0%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 160% vs the rest 135%
Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 58% vs the rest 63%
Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 46% vs the rest 48%
Liquidthe most-reviewed recipes 154% vs the rest 135%
Leaveningthe most-reviewed recipes 6.2% vs the rest 4.6%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 1.6% vs the rest 0.9%
316 of 357 recipes state an oven temperature, and 83% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The other 41 do not say.
339 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 33 minutes and the middle half bake 29 to 40 minutes.
The single most common pairing is 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes, with 75 of the 310 recipes that state both.
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
In 7 languages: English 246, Portuguese 41, Italian 26, German 19, French 14, Dutch 10, Spanish 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 135 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
98% of the 4,042 ingredient lines got a weight. 28% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 816 were left out: 504 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (liquid 125, sugar 108, chocolate 88, fat 83, egg 56, leavening 26, salt 10, cocoa 8), 127 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 125 with a title that names a different dish, 25 made from a boxed mix, 14 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, 13 duplicates of other pages, and 8 too many lines without an amount.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.