Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake

One of my favorite types of cake is a moist chocolaty cake. The problem I find with cakes made from scratch is that they are not as moist as cake mix cakes. But this recipe resulted in a super moist chocolate cake!I just followed Shirley O. Corriher's Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake recipe in "Bakewise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking." The book is kind of neat and provides a scientific explanation of baking certain types of cakes or cookies. It's a bit Alton Brown-esque, and I think Shirley's made some appearances on "Good Eats."
Typically chocolate cakes have a slight red tinge to them. This cake, on the other hand, is as dark as oreo cookies! The secret? You have to use dutch process cocoa powder. I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa for this recipe.

Here's the science behind the deep dark color of the cake:
Dutch process cocoa and baking soda make the chocolate so alkaline (more basic, less acidic) that the cake is almost black. Alkalized chocolate is less bitter and has a more uniform dark color.
The addition of the extra baking soda, also made the batter more alkaline, which helped darken the cake's color.

I decided to dub this cake the, "Oreo Cake."I would definitely make this cake again.

I think it would be cuter and more manageable as cupcakes. I think it would be the perfect color for whoopie pies which are supposedly the next trend following the cupcake craze.