Martha Stewart's Secret For Richer Chocolate Desserts Is In Your Pantry

Culinary icon Martha Stewart has enlightened us with many tips and recipes over the years, like how to add pops of color to recipes without the use of food dye and how to perfectly roast a chicken. Chocoholics can now rejoice, as the queen of kitchens has shared her secret for ultra-rich, divine chocolate desserts. Its simplicity may surprise you, and it's something that can be done with an ingredient that you may have in your cabinet currently. 

To make the ultimate chocolate cake, Stewart said to dust your baking pan with cocoa powder for some extra chocolatey goodness. She explained that using the highest quality cocoa powder you can get is critical. One of her favorites is Dutch-processed Valrhona. 

Before starting the preparation and baking process, butter two round, eight-inch-by-two-inch cake pans. Then, line the bottom with parchment paper and grease it too. Next, take about ⅛ cup cocoa powder and completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan with it. This can make all the difference.

Coating a cake pan with butter, shortening, or oil spray before pouring in batter helps with removing the baked cake at the end. But some bakers suggest lining the bottom of a pan with greased parchment paper as added assurance that it will come out intact. Others suggest a combination of the two. Adding a third element in the form of flour or cocoa powder helps add another barrier between the batter and the grease, the latter of which can melt into the cake as it cooks and result in sticking.

Martha Stewart opts for cocoa powder in her Ultimate Chocolate Cake recipe after adding a layer of parchment to the greased pan bottom. The cocoa powder both adds an extra chocolate boost to the cake's flavor plus prevents the finished cake from sticking. And don't fret if you don't have Valrhona on hand; so long as you use unsweetened cocoa powder, your chocolate cake will taste like heaven. "I used a high quality cocoa rather than Valrhona cocoa. It turned out just fined. Just purchase the best quality cocoa available at your market [sic]," one person commented on the recipe page.